Özet:

The aim of this study is to determine the difficulties that students of English as a foreign language experience in the language learning process. The study also reveals the relationship between language learning difficulties students experience and their achievements, gender and academic levels. The study group of this descriptive study consists of 340 preparatory unit students. “Foreign Language Learning Difficulties Scale” developed by Özmat (2017) is used for quantitative data and a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers was used as a qualitative data source. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the difficulties that preparatory students have at the highest level in the language learning process are related to the learning resources, and the difficulties they experience at the minimum level are related to the learning environment (physical and psychological). It was determined that the students had moderate difficulty stemming from teaching learning process and from themselves. The qualitative results of the research also support the results obtained from the scale. It was observed that students did not experience much difficulty related to disciplinary or classroom management issues. In addition, students stated that they needed more student-centered practices in class. There was no significant relationship between students' difficulty level, achievement test and gender. It was determined that the difficulties experienced by the students studying at lower levels are higher than the students studying at the higher levels. According to the results of the research, suggestions were made for language learning process and foreign language teaching in preparatory schools.

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