A study on the speaking anxiety of those learning Turkish as a second language

Speaking is a skill acquired after birth and constantly developing. It is the most effective means of communication between people. Speaking skills, which enable people to express themselves, can cause anxiety for many different reasons. This anxiety negatively affects the individual's life, both in daily and academic life, that is, in every field. Therefore, this concern needs to be taken into consideration more in educational environments. This study aims to investigate the level of anxiety experienced by foreign students who learn Turkish as a second language at TÖMER institutions of various universities when speaking Turkish. The purpose of the research is to examine the speaking anxiety of students learning Turkish as a second language in terms of various variables (gender, education level, exchange level, non-university education status, etc.). This study was conducted using the survey model, one of the quantitative research designs. For this purpose, the "Sources of Speech Anxiety Scale of Those Learning Turkish as a Second Language", developed by Young (1990) and adapted to Turkish Yılmaz (2018), was applied to the students and it was tried to obtain information about the study group in line with the data obtained. The study group consists of TÖMER students from Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Isparta Süleyman Demirel University and Mersin University. The scale was applied to 130 students at B2 and C1 levels who were studying Turkish at these universities. All data were analyzed by saving them to the SPSS (Statistical Package For Social Sciences) for Windows 22 program on the computer. When the findings obtained are evaluated, it is seen that 53.49% of those who learn Turkish as a second language are anxious while speaking. The agreement scores given to the statements of the sources of speaking anxiety scale of those who learn Turkish as a second language do not show a statistically significant difference according to the gender and exchange rate level of the individuals. The variables with the main significant differences in the study are receiving Turkish education outside of university, using Turkish in daily life and general anxiety. There are significant differences in these variables.