This study examines, through a text-based analysis, the possibilities that Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes offer for diction and effective speaking education. Its primary aim is to determine which oral performance skills can be associated with these texts. The study was designed within a qualitative research framework, and document analysis was adopted as the method of data collection and analysis. The study adopts Pertev Naili Boratav’s Nasreddin Hoca as its primary corpus, from which seven individual anecdotes and one repartee pattern were selected through purposive sampling as the units of analysis. This choice is methodological rather than exclusionary: rather than claiming to represent the whole Nasreddin Hodja tradition, the article works within a bounded and traceable corpus while acknowledging the existence of other compilations and textual witnesses. The texts were evaluated according to criteria such as dialogue density, shifts in stress and intonation, concise closure, the potential to generate formulaic expressions, suitability for oral delivery, and classroom applicability. The findings cluster around three main areas: stress and intonation practice, dialogue and repartee skills, and public speaking and oral performance. Their brevity, wit, formulaic phrasing, and compact dialogue structures make these narratives well suited to speaking education, especially for work on closure and enactment. Nasreddin Hodja anecdotes may therefore be read not only as folkloric narratives but also as performance-oriented texts that can inform material selection in speaking instruction.
Diction, effective speaking, speaking education, Nasreddin Hodja, oral performance.