The effect of authentic writing practice on the attitude of students' writing skills in the process of teaching Turkish to foreigners

This research was performed in order to establish the relation between authentic writing practices for foreigners in the process of teaching Turkish and their attitude, anxiety and self-sufficiency. The research was designed via mixed models in which qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used so as to integrate theory and practice and enhance the teaching process. The implementation of the research was performed with 17 students training in C1 level YTB classes who were learning Turkish in TÖMER, Gaziantep University throughout the spring term of 2014-2015 educational year. The activities had been prepared and then authentic writing practices had been executed for 6 weeks with the study group students before the implementation began. The students made their presentations in class and got feedback for the work they had done. The data collection tools were; "Personal Info Form", "Self-sufficiency Scale on Writing Skill for Foreigners", "Anxiety during Writing in Turkish as a Foreign Language Scale" ve "Attitude during Writing in Turkish as a Foreign Language Scale" and writing practices when authentic writing practices were performed. The scales were applied twice before and after the implementation and student-researcher logs, researcher observations were written down after every implementation. The analysis of data was carried out in two stages as qualitative and quantitative manner. The examination of personal info data and the data obtained from the results of pre-test and post-test attained from quantitative data were analyzed through SPSS 20.0 packaged software. The qualitative data was analyzed via researcher's observations and student logs; student logs were analyzed via descriptive analysis which is a method of qualitative analysis; student interviews were analyzed through categorical content analysis; student tasks were analyzed and scored through scoring key grade. Following are the conclusions regarding writing practices carried out on the basis of authentic writing practices:  Attitude of students towards writing proved positive through authentic writing practices that sought to enhance their writing skills.  Self-sufficiency of students improved regarding writing through authentic writing practices that sought to encourage a positive attitude towards skill of writing.  Anxiety of students in terms of writing decreased through authentic writing practices that sought to develop a positive attitude towards the skill of writing.  Students' writing skills improved through authentic writing practices.