Analysis of the relationship between writing autonomy with writing skills of the students learning Turkish as a foreign language

The first and most important step of teaching Turkish to foreigners is to enable them to acquire four basic language skills. Writing which is considered to be the last of these skills is seen as the most difficult skill for students to learn. Since it is a skill that takes long time to master, a negative attitude towards writing is developed by students. In order for students to get rid of this negative attitude, their writing skills should be developed and their self-confidence in writing should be high. In this connection, self-confident individuals are expected to have a sufficient level of sense of autonomy. Writing autonomy, formed on the basis of autonomy, is a competence which can contribute to the increase of individuals' attitudes and motivations towards writing, the development of students' writing skills and the occurrence of efficient and permanent learning. In foreign language education, it is aimed to both support the development of writing skills and increase the number of successful individuals by educating individuals who have writing autonomy. The general purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between writing autonomy with writing skills of the students who learn Turkish as a foreign language. The study group of the research consists of B1 and B2 level students studying at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Uşak University and Bursa Uludağ University Turkish Teaching Centres in the 2020-2021 academic year. Within the context of the study, data were collected from 157 students due to Covid 19 experienced worldwide. However, after the incomplete and inaccurately completed scales were excluded from the study, the analysis was performed on 129 scales. In the study, the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The data of the study were collected through the compositions written by the students, a "Personal Information Form", a "Writing Rubric" and the "Writing Autonomy Scale". The collected data were analyzed by using the Chi-square test, frequencies and percentages, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H Test and Spearman's Rho. As a result of the study, it was observed that the writing skills of students with high levels of writing autonomy were also high, and a positive, low level and significant relationship was found between the writing autonomy and writing skills of the students learning Turkish as a foreign language. Keywords: autonomy, writing autonomy, writing skill, teaching Turkish as a foreign language