Abstract:

This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale that reveals the motivation levels of secondary school students to learn Arabic as a foreign language. The study sample included 710 students studying in Imam Hatip secondary schools in Istanbul. The 56-item draft scale, created as a result of the critical literature review and teacher interviews, was submitted to expert evaluation and took its final form with 39 items after the evaluation. The scale was prepared in a 5-point Likert type. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed for the validity analysis of the scale, and the scale was reduced to a total of 14 items, two of which were inverse. As a result of EFA, a two-factor structure emerged that explains 69.97% of the total variance. The factors were named “Intrinsic Motivation” and “External-Instrumental Motivation” following the literature. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm this emerging structure, and it was seen that the fitness values obtained as a result of the analysis showed good and acceptable fitness. The Cronbach Alpha value was calculated for the reliability analysis, and this value for the whole scale was .940. For the sub-dimensions of the scale, the Cronbach Alpha values were .941 for the first sub-dimension and .887 for the second sub-dimension. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the motivation scale for learning Arabic with two factors, consisting of 14 items, is valid and reliable.

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