Examining the motivations of Turkisch children living abroad to use Turkisch in terms of Self-Determination Theory

It is known that the Republic of Turkey is working to deliver Turkish national cultural elements to our citizens living abroad and to ensure the transfer of national values by teaching these subjects to Turkish children born abroad. It can be said that as a result of the efforts of the Ministry of National Education to reach Turkish children born abroad and ensure continuity, Turkish schools were opened in some countries, while transfers were made through additional courses in others. In this context, it can be said that the Turkish and Turkish Culture curriculum developed by the Ministry of National Education aims to increase the attitudes of Turkish children living abroad towards national values. The subject of this study, which is based on situations encountered in the education process, is to determine the sources of motivation for the use of Turkish by Turkish children living abroad. Motivational sources were examined in terms of Self-Determination Theory developed by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. For this purpose, the views of Turkish children living abroad to feel autonomous and competent in terms of using Turkish and their use of Turkish in their social relations were determined. For this purpose, this study, which was carried out with the qualitative research method, was designed with a case study. The holistic single case design was used in this study, which is based on the examination of the motivation of Turkish children living in Belgium for the use of Turkish in terms of Self-Determination Theory. In accordance with the study design, 42 Turkish children aged 12-18 living in Belgium formed the study group of the research. In accordance with the method of the study, one-on-one interviews with 42 participants were made and data were obtained with a semi-structured form. The data were analyzed by content analysis. Based on the data obtained, when all age groups are evaluated in general in terms of Self-Determination Theory, it is seen that the dimensions of autonomy, competence and relatedness in the theory and the answers received are related. When we look at the sources of motivation within these dimensions, it is seen that the extrinsic motivation is dominant in all age groups, depending on the extrinsic regulation (demand), ıntroverted regulation (necessity, conditional self-confidence), determined regulation and unified regulation, but extrinsic motivation is directly proportional to the increase in age It has been concluded that the ınternal motivation elements change by changing within the ınternalization and ıntegration process. At the same time, it was concluded that the amotivation status showed an undeniable presence in all age groups.