Cultural interaction in teaching Turkish as a foreign language: A quasi-experimental study on speaking motivation, self-efficacy belief, anxiety and sociocultural adjustment

This research was conducted to test the effects of cultural interaction activities on speaking motivation, speaking self-efficacy beliefs, speaking anxiety and sociocultural adaptation variables of Teaching Turkish as a foreign language learners. The research was conducted with a pretest-posttest paired comparison group design under the quasi-experimental design, which is one of the quantitative designs. In the research with a 27-person experimental group and a 25-person comparison group, the Speaking Motivation Scale for Learners of Turkish as a Second Language, the Speaking Self-Efficacy Scale for Those that Learn Turkish as Foreign Language, the Speech Anxiety Scale for Foreign Turkish Learners and the Sociocultural Adaptation Scale were used for quantitative data, while the Cultural Interaction Activities Assessment Form developed by the researchers was used for qualitative data. The data obtained were analyzed with SPSS 29 program. The quantitative and qualitative findings resulting from the intervention, which was carried out in 9 days and 15 activities in a total of 1 month, are shown in graphs and tables. At the end of the research, it was found that cultural interaction activities had significant results with positive, medium and large effects on speaking self-efficacy and speaking anxiety variables, while they had insufficient effect on speaking motivation and insignificant effect on sociocultural adaptation. Suggestions were presented according to the results obtained.