An Analysis of the Current State of International Students’ Language Skills: The Example of Pamukkale University

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the current state of international students’ linguistic skills after having Turkish language preparatory courses. Furthermore, it is aimed to find out the efficiency of the language, learnt at the preparatory program, and the language problems that the students confront at their departments for the first year. In this study Ulutaş (2016)’s “Present Situation Analysis Questionnaire (PSAQ)” was used to investigate current state of international students’ linguistic skills in Turkish language. The data were collected from 64 participants who attended the preparatory program for Turkish language at Pamukkale University. As the result of the research 1) participants evaluate themselves as very good at listening, 2) participants evaluate
themselves as very bad at writing, 3) participants think that listening is the most important skill to be successful at their departments, 4) participants think that writing is the least important skill to be successful at their departments, 5) participants have difficulties in taking notes and summarizing while they are listening to a lecture; in building content integrated paragraphs; and in determining the topic of the texts while they are reading fast.