Pre-Service Turkish Language Teachers’ Anxiety and Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The present study aims to determine the anxiety and attitudes of pre-service Turkish language teachers towards artificial intelligence and to examine the relationship between the two. The sample group of the study, which was based on a correlational survey design, consisted of 232 pre-service Turkish language teachers studying at 14 different universities in different provinces of Türkiye. The study data were collected using the ‘Personal Information Form’, the ‘Artificial Intelligence Anxiety Scale’ and the ‘General Attitudes toward Artificial Intelligence Scale’. SPSS 23.0 package program was used for data analysis. Based on the findings, it was determined that the pre-service Turkish language teachers’ positive and negative attitudes towards artificial intelligence were at moderate levels while their anxiety was below moderate levels in the learning dimension, but above moderate levels in the dimensions of job replacement, sociotechnical blindness and artificial intelligence configuration. The relationship between anxiety and attitudes towards artificial intelligence was found to be negatively significant. It was determined that the variables of gender and time spent on the internet did not make a significant difference on the pre-service teachers’ anxiety and attitudes towards artificial intelligence. However, although there was no difference between the pre-service language teachers’ attitudes towards artificial intelligence in terms of grade level, differences were observed in the job replacement and sociotechnical blindness dimensions of anxiety.