The Role of Autonomy-Supportive Teaching in Academic Achievement and Learning Anxiety: Evidence From Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language

This study aims to examine the effect of instructors’ behaviors supporting learner autonomy on students’ academic achievement and anxiety levels related to reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. The study was conducted during the 2023–24 academic year with two sample groups, consisting of 1,002 students learning Turkish and 115 instructors working at the School of Foreign Languages of a state university. Participants were selected using simple random sampling within the accessible population. Reliability and validity analyses of the scales were conducted, and the adequacy of the measurement models was confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and the Heterotrait–Monotrait Ratio (HTMT). According to the results of multiple group analysis and canonical correlation analysis, the necessity (β = 0.114, p  < 0.001) and display (β = 0.020, p  = 0.001) dimensions of learner autonomy support behaviors had a positive and significant effect on academic achievement. However, the effect of foreign language learning anxiety on academic achievement was not statistically significant (β = −0.031, p  > 0.05). The canonical correlation analysis revealed a 40% shared variance between the Learner Autonomy Support Scale (LASS) and Turkish Language Learner Anxiety Scale (TFLAS) data sets, with speaking anxiety contributing most strongly to the first canonical variable, while learning process support emerged as the most influential autonomy-support dimension. The findings indicate that instructors’ autonomy-supportive behaviors positively influence the academic achievement of learners of Turkish as a foreign language. Although anxiety negatively affects academic achievement, this effect is not statistically significant. Overall, the results are consistent with the literature, highlighting that supporting learner autonomy enhances motivation and may reduce anxiety in language learning. These findings emphasize the importance of learner-centered approaches and autonomy-supportive instructional strategies in teaching Turkish as a foreign language and offer practical guidance for instructors seeking to promote active student participation in the learning process.