Motivation for Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language: A Scale Development Study

The aim of this study is to develop a scale to measure the Turkish learning motivations of foreigner students in Turkey. The sample group of this study consists of 325 foreign students studying at Turkish Language Teaching Center of Atatürk and Harran universities plus Turkish Prep-School in Ni？anta？？ University. In the research, a set of items consisting of 75 questions was prepared as a data collecting pool. By the Researcher and a Turkish Language Expert, surface validity was examined and repetitive items which had low understandability were extracted, thus correcting any grammar mistakes and testing scope validity, a form that consists of 35 items was created. Eliminating 6 of the items upon expert evaluations, a draft scale consisting of 29 questions was applied to mentioned foreign students. The data obtained from the study were analyzed by item analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods. At the end of the study, the scale of motivation which consists of 22 items and targets foreigners who learn Turkish as a foreign language was found to be a reliable and valid scale