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Is my interpretation of this sentence from the Tobira textbook accurate?
先生がおっしゃるように、言葉は毎日勉強しなければ上手にならないと思います。
I'm guessing that it means that I think that I won't improve unless I study every day like sensei says? Or could it mean that sensei thinks that I won't improve unless I study every day like he says? Or is it something totally different?
I'm not really sure.
Yes, I believe the author / speaker is the subject of 「思います」.
「先生」 is the subject of 「おっしゃる」, and as such, 「先生がおっしゃるように」 can be thought of independently as functioning like an adverb, without "setting the subject" of the sentence.
先生がおっしゃるように、
As [ my / our ] teacher says,
言葉は毎日勉強しなければ上手にならないと思います。
[ I ] think that, with languages, one will not get better if one does not study every day.
Thus, the complete sentence could be translated to something like your first guess:
As my teacher says, I think that, with languages, one will not get better if one does not study every day.
