Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the level of motivation to learn Turkish among foreign students with different thinking styles in terms of the functional and formal aspects of these thinking styles. The survey model was used in the study. The participants in the study were 51 foreign students (33 female, 18 male) who were studying at the TÖMER (Türkçe ÖÄŸretim Merkezi [Center of Turkish Language Teaching]) at Gaziantep University in the 2016-2017 academic year and who were selected by the convenience sampling technique. The Thinking Styles Inventory and Turkish-Oriented Motivation Scale were used to obtain the data. The data collected were analysed by descriptive and relational analysis techniques and presented with averages, standard deviations, analysis of variance (Chi Square) and the Mann Whitney U-test. According to the findings obtained, the motivation of the foreign students with different thinking styles to learn Turkish was at a moderate level. It was determined that the following motivating factors were predominant in the motivational sub-dimensions: among legislative and anarchic thinkers, the sub-dimension of research; among executive and monarchic thinkers, the sub-dimension of performance; among legislative and hierarchic thinkers, the sub-dimension of communication; among executive and hierarchic thinkers, the sub-dimension of cooperation; and among judicial and monarchic thinkers, the sub-dimension of individual success.

Key words: Thinking styles, teaching Turkish as a foreign language, motivation.