Turkish Learners’ Behaviours Towards Improving Vocabulary of  Turkish as a Foreign Language: The Research of Reliability and Validity

Turkish Learners’ Behaviours Towards Improving Vocabulary of Turkish as a Foreign Language: The Research of Reliability and Validity

Görkem ARSLAN & Zekerya BATUR

ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable attitude scale consisting of Likert type items to measure the behaviours of students learning Turkish as a foreign language towards vocabulary development. The prepared scale draft was applied to a group of 191 students, and then the validity and reliability studies of the scale were carried out. The data obtained; exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes were performed using SPSS 23 and AMOS package programs. For the construct validity of the scale, exploratory factor analysis was performed on the data collected from 191 students. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of the scale is 0.850, and the Barlett's Test of Sphericity value is [χ2 = 2401.241; df= 406; sig.<.000] was found. Factor analysis was carried out after determining the scale's suitability for factor analysis with these values. According to the results of the analysis, items with low factor values and causing overlap were removed from the scale and a Likert-type scale with 18 items was obtained. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to determine the relationship between the sum of the items in the scale and the factors. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be .87. The factor loadings obtained as a result of the factor analysis ranged between .53 and .84. The χ2/sd value of the scale is 1.7980; χ2 "p" value is 0.0000; The RMSEA value was found to be 0.065. CFI value of the scale was .928, NFI value was .853, GFI value was .883; RMR value was 0.052, SRMR value was 0.000 and AGFI value was .884. Based on the findings, it can be said that the scale is valid, reliable and can be used to measure the attitudes of students learning Turkish as a foreign language towards improving their vocabulary.

KEYWORDS: Turkish as a foreign language, vocabulary, behaviours, scale development, reliability, validity.

DOI : [PDF]