Self assessment of the efficacy on five basic language skills in teaching Turkish as a foreign language (Both state and private university samples in the USA)

Education and training and measurement and evaluation are inseparable elements. The outcomes of education and training given on a specific topic can only be observed via measurement and evaluation. In today's world where the transition from a traditional perspective to more modern and democratic tendencies are accelerating, measurement and evaluation is no longer seen as the responsibility of merely educators. In this context, alternative measurement and evaluation methods have been developed. Self-assessment is one of the most important among these methods. This approach, which distributes the responsibility to the student as well as the educator for determining whether the objectives and achievements have been obtained as a result of education and training, is now widely used in modern educational institutions. Through self-assessment, students acquire the opportunity to have an insight on their learning processes. They learn to consider learning as an overall of their performance throughout the process, rather than a targeted to be reached. Despite its importance and functionality in the field, there is no study on self-assessment process of students and self-assessment questionnaire application within the scope of teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Therefore, this study is thought to contribute to the field. The purpose of this study is to apply the self-assessment questionnaire, developed by the University of Tennessee and applied to the foreign language students in the same university, to the students learning Turkish as a foreign language in both public and private universities in the USA in 2017-2018 academic year and compare the results with pass marks to determine the relationship between them. The participants were selected using the convenience sampling model and consisted of 71 students learning Turkish at B1-B2 levels. In this study, descriptive and quantitative model was used. In addition, the correlational research design, one of the designs of quantitative research methods, was followed. Quantitative data collected through questionnaires and course pass marks were analyzed using IMB SPSS 22 statistical package program. As a result, it was aimed to have information about self-awareness levels of students. The rate of correlation between self-assessment of students and teacher evaluation reveals the level of self-awareness that the students have. At the end of the study, a moderate and positive correlation was found between the mentioned variables. According to this result, students can not be said to have high self-awareness. However, the result of the study supports the previous studies conducted in the field of research. Keywords: Self-assessment, self-awareness, Turkish as a foreign language, Turkish education for foreigners.