Examining the willingness of foreign primary school students to communicate in Turkish language

This study was conducted to examine the willingness of foreign students studying in the fourth grade of primary school to communicate in Turkish in terms of various variables. A mixed-methods research approach was employed in this study. To collect quantitative data, the "Willingness to Communicate in Turkish Scale" and a Personal Information Form were used with foreign students in the fourth grade. For qualitative data collection, a semi-structured Student Interview Form, prepared by the researcher, was utilized with the same group of students. Descriptive analysis was employed for the qualitative data, while SPSS 22.0 (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) was used for analyzing the quantitative data. After testing the normality of the research data, T-Test and One-Way ANOVA were used for normally distributed data, and Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis H Test were applied for non-normally distributed data. The study group of the research consists of 203 foreign national fourth grade students studying in 10 public schools and 7 private schools affiliated to Antalya Provincial Directorate of National Education. According to the findings of the research, foreign students studying in primary school willingness to communicate: • Willingness to communicate in Turkish according to gender variable in male and female students there is no significant difference; • There was a significant difference according to the school type variable and students attending public schools The willingness to communicate in Turkish is higher among students attending private schools; • Statistically significant differences according to the duration of their stay in Turkey It has been determined that students who have been living in Turkey for more than 5 years Students who have lived in Turkey for more than 5 years Willingness to communicate in Turkish is higher than other students; • Willingness to Communicate in Turkish according to the variable of having Turkish-speaking people in the family statistically significant differences were found. Turkish in the family willingness of Turkish-speaking students to communicate in Turkish higher than the students; • When compared according to the alphabet they studied before coming to Turkey, students who used the Arabic alphabet showed significantly higher motivation, willingness to communicate in Turkish, self-confidence, and eagerness to improve compared to other students.