Construction of a Scale for Evaluating Turkish Learning Students' Attitude towards Turkish Language (Tashkent Case Study)

Abstract

"Attitude" in foreign language teaching is a concept that defines the overall beliefs and behaviour of students towards the language they learn. Students' eagerness for learning the language increases in cases where the attitude is positive, whereas this process is hindered in cases where the attitude is negative. Our study aimed at constructing a scale for evaluation of foreign students' attitudes towards Turkish language education, since the literature strived for a scale that evaluated attitudes towards Turkish Education as a foreign language. This scale, comprising of 73 items was applied to 206 students in Uzbekistan that were learning Turkish, and corresponding validity and reliability studies were conducted. As a result of relevant analyses, it was determined that the scale consisted of 61 items belonging to 5 distinct factors, i.e; listening, speaking, writing, reading and comprehension and attitude&motivation. Calculation of Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficients having a valueover 0.70 suggested that the scales were reliable. Moreover, having the fit indices obtained by confirmatory factor analyses within the acceptable ranges proved that the constructional validities of scales were attained. Results of EFA-CFA and item analyses revealed that the scale was sufficiently applicable for students learning Turkish as a foreign language.