Developing academic listening skills in teaching Turkish as a foreign language

The aim of this study is to develop academic listening skills of the international students who are studying at economics and administrative sciences departments. For this aim academic listening objectives were determined, listening activities were developed and these activities were applied. With the implementation, the development of the students were tracked, evaluated and thre results were revealed. The study was designed as a mixed method research. The objectives were determined with the literature review, need analysis and expert opinions, and the 8-week academic listening activities were developed through these objectives. The activities were applied on the first grade international students of the economics and administrative sciences departments. The development of the students were observed with the measurements made at the beginning and at the implementation process. According to the findings obtained from the study, students think that their listening level is at a good level and listening is the most important skill for their academic success. International students mostly have difficulties in taking notes while listening to a lecture or speech. Specific to the students of the economics and administrative sciences, students have difficulties in unknown / new words or terms, the speaking speed and the accent problem of the speaker / lecturer, using direct instruction method in the lesson, lack of academic term dictionary. In the process of the implementation, it has been found out that before they listen, students can determine the listening targets, can guess the possible target words and the difficulties, and form listening strategies according to the objectives; and after they listen, they can use their prior knowledge and reach their listening targets. During the implementation, students were more successful in pre-listening activities and less successful in while-listening activities. With the implementation it was seen that that students' listening achievements were developed by 52.4%; the academic word knowledge was increased by 128.7 %, and students made progress in academic listening by 33.1%. As a result of these findings, some suggestions have been made for the researchers and educators regarding the contribution of the field-based academic listening designing and activities to the academic lives of the international students.