YABANCI DİLE MARUZİYETİN İNGİLİZCE PERFORMANS PUANLARINA ETKİSİNDE FARKLI DEĞİŞKENLERİN ARACILIK ROLÜ

Abstract

This study aims to examine the effects of exposure to a foreign language across various contexts on high school students’ achievement in the four English language skills measured in their English courses: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The mediating roles of foreign language anxiety, grit, and foreign language enjoyment in the relationship between foreign language exposure and students’ performance scores in these four core language skills were investigated through parallel multiple mediation models. After obtaining approval from the Hacettepe University Graduate School of Educational Sciences Ethics Committee and permission from the Ministry of National Education, data were collected using valid and reliable scales from 1,329 10th- and 11th-grade students attending Anatolian high schools in Ankara. Following data cleaning and matching procedures, the analyses were conducted with 1,231 students. The internal consistency of the measurement instruments was confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha (α) and McDonald’s omega (ω) coefficients. The analyses were carried out using the SPSS PROCESS Macro developed by Andrew F. Hayes, with a parallel multiple mediation model based on 5,000 bootstrap samples and a 95% confidence interval. JASP software was also used during the data analysis process. The study employed a correlational survey design. The findings showed that students’ English achievement was positively and significantly associated not only with classroom-based learning processes but also with out-of-class language exposure. The parallel mediation analyses revealed that foreign language anxiety, grit, and foreign language enjoyment displayed different mediation patterns depending on the language skill examined. These results suggest that the relationship between foreign language exposure and academic achievement operates through a complex mechanism involving affective and individual characteristics.