Investigation of the Relationship Between the Writing Autonomy and Writing Skill of Students Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The first and most important step of teaching Turkish to foreigners is to enable individuals to acquire four basic language skills. Writing, which is generally considered to be the last of these skills, is seen as the most difficult skill to be acquired by students. Writing autonomy is an ability that can increase individuals’ attitudes and motivation towards writing, improve students’ writing skill and contribute to the accomplishment of effective and permanent learning. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the relationship between the writing autonomy and writing skill of students learning Turkish as a foreign language. The study group of the current study is comprised of 129 B1 and B2 level students attending the Turkish Teaching Centres in Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Uşak University and Bursa Uludağ University in the 2020/2021 academic year. In the study, the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was employed.The data of the study were collected with the compositions written by the students, a “Personal Information Form”, a “Written Expression Rubric” and the “Writing Autonomy Scale”. At the end of the measBurement process, the data were analyzed by using Chi-Square Test, frequency and percentage values, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis H Test and Spearman’s Rho. As a result of the study, it was found that the writing skill of the students with high levels of writing autonomy was also high, and it was determined that there was a positive, low and significant correlation between the writing autonomy and the writing skillof students learning Turkish as a foreign language.