The Effect of Classroom Verbal Communication on the Well-being of Syrian Refugee Children in Türkiye

Abstract

Existing research suggests that everyday classroom verbal practices may be associated with students' experiences of belonging, emotional security, visibility, and participation. However, understanding remains limited regarding how such practices, when considered collectively and within context, may function as indicators of school well-being in refugee students' classroom experiences. Therefore, this study aims to identify classroom verbal communication practices associated with school well-being among Syrian refugee students in T & uuml;rkiye and to examine how these practices may be interpreted as communication-based indicators for monitoring school well-being. The study adopted a qualitative embedded single-case design. Data were collected through focus group discussions, semi-structured teacher interviews, and three weeks of classroom observations involving 25 Syrian students in grades 5 and 6 and six teachers. Verbal communication examples drawn from dictionaries in a previous project were used as elicitation materials addressing greetings and forms of address, humor, short narratives, Arabic-Turkish code-switching, and microtoponyms. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. The findings indicate that correct name use, greeting routines, inclusive humor, supportive teacher and peer language, strategic code-switching, and microtoponym sharing were associated with belonging, emotional security, social participation, classroom visibility, self-confidence, and academic participation. Conversely, misnaming, exclusionary humor, suppression of native-language use, and negative labeling of microtoponyms were associated with reduced emotional security, withdrawal, and silence. The findings suggest that everyday classroom verbal practices may serve as communication-based indicators for monitoring school well-being among vulnerable migrant students and offer implications for teacher training, the development of inclusive classroom climates, and education policy.