Investigation of Attitudes of University Students towards Turkish Language Course and Distance Education

Turkish language course in Turkish higher education is compulsory for all programs. Being taught for two semesters, this course has started to be given in many universities through distance education in recent years. This new situation brings about the problem as to whether there is a relationship between attitude towards distance education and attitude towards Turkish language lesson. It was aimed in this study to examine and compare the attitudes of university students who take Turkish Language courses through distance education towards this course and distance education system in terms of various variables. In this descriptive research, a survey model was used to obtain data. The study group consists of the 181 freshmen attending a state university located in the south of Turkey and taking Turkish language lessons in the 2018-2019 academic year. Data were collected with attitude scales whose validity and reliability was tested. Difference tests between means were performed in data analysis. It was concluded in the study that the attitude of undergraduate freshman students towards Turkish Language course and distance education is above average, but not very high. It can also be foreseen according to findings of this study that university students' attitudes towards Turkish language course will improve as their attitudes towards distance education increase.