The effect of text structure-focused reading activities on writing success, reading and writing self-efficacy in teaching Turkish to foreigners

In this study, it was aimed to examine the effect of reading activities designed within the framework of text linguistic perspective and text structure criteria on writing achievement, reading self-efficacy and writing self-efficacy in teaching Turkish to foreigners. Embedded design, one of the mixed research methods, was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of 60 students who learn Turkish as a foreign language at the B1 independent level at Istanbul University Turkish Language Teaching Center (DİLMER) in the 2023-2024 academic year. As the quantitative data collection tools of the study, Tulumcu (2014), "Reading Skill Self-Efficacy Scale for Turkish as a Foreign Language" was used to determine the students' reading self-efficacy, Büyükikiz (2012), "Writing Skill Self-Efficacy Scale for Foreigners Learning Turkish" was used to determine their writing self-efficacy, and Büyükikiz (2011), "Written Expression Rubric" was used to evaluate the compositions given to the students as text writing tasks and the composition papers of the learners. As the qualitative data collection tool of the study, a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers and finalized with expert opinion was used. Reading activities in the context of text structure criteria were used as the independent variable of the study. Before the training to be given in the data collection process of the study, "reading and writing self-efficacy scales" and writing task were applied to the experimental and control groups as pretests. After the completion of the pre-tests, all of the reading texts of Yeni İstanbul B1 Turkish Textbook for International Students were taught to the experimental group with text-oriented activities and to the control group with the activities of the book. After the 6-week training period was completed, the reading and writing self-efficacy scales and the writing task were administered again as post-tests. In order to determine the writing achievements of the paired experimental and control groups, Kendal Test was used for the correlation agreement analysis of the raters in the scoring analysis of the text writing tasks evaluated within the scope of the writing scoring achievement key, and Mixed ANOVA Test was used for the analysis of writing achievements. Shapiro Wilk Test was used for the normal distribution of the pre-test scores of the "writing self-efficacy" and reading self-efficacy tests and the normal distribution of the pre-test and post-test differences, Mann Whitney-U test was used for the analysis of non-normality, and T-Test was used for the parametric analysis of independent groups. Mixed ANOVA Test was used to determine the changes between the "writing and reading self-efficacy" scores of the experimental and control groups. In the study, writing achievement, writing and reading self-efficacy levels between the experimental and control groups increased in favor of the experimental group working with text structure-focused reading activities in all related measurements. Within the scope of the study, the reading activities designed with a focus on text structure cover the B1 level and are in the form of practical suggestions. It is hoped that these proposed text structure-focused reading activities will contribute to the field in the studies to be conducted in teaching Turkish as a foreign language, trainer trainings and material development.