Non-Turkish speaking students' opinions about learning Turkish

This descriptive study aims to identify the opinions of non-Turkish speaking graduate and undergraduate students about Turkish as a Foreign Language (TFL) course and their language skills. The participants and targets of this study are non-native Turkish speaking graduate and undergraduate students who are studying Turkish as a foreign language. There were three main reasons which have propelled the carrying out of this particular research study. The first of these reasons the fact that the researcher holds a professional position as an instructor of the TFL course. The second reason is that there are no general curricula for TFL at the institution where this study is carried out. The third reason is that since TFL only emerged especially during the late 20th century the studies that have been undertaken in the past in relation to this area have been few as well as limited in their scope and depth. The study group of the study consisted of 52 Non-Native Students studying at a foundation university. The data for the study were collected via "The evaluation scale of Turkish Language in terms of Non-Native Students Opinions" developed by the researcher and the advisor. Descriptive analysis was made use to analyse the data gathered. The results showed that alphabet and writing skills were the areas where the TFL undergraduates encountered the most difficulty. Key words: TSL, non-Turkish speaking, learning Turkish, skills