Abstract
ADAPTATION OF SABAHATTIN ALI'S "KAGNI" STORY TO B1 LEVEL AND ITS EFFECT ON READING COMPREHENSION
One of the issues that should be emphasised in foreign language learning is reading texts. Reading texts may be prepared for classroom activities, but since these texts are prepared especially for the course content, they are sometimes insufficient in terms of culture transfer. In order to overcome this deficiency and to help students develop reading skills outside the classroom, additional reading materials are needed. This study aims to adapt Sabahattin Ali's story ‘Kağnı’ to B1 level to be used in teaching Turkish to foreigners and to determine the effect of this adaptation on students' reading comprehension level. The research was designed within the framework of mixed method. In the qualitative dimension of the study, the story was simplified by document analysis method based on textlinguistic criteria (coherence, cohesion, purposefulness, etc.). In the quantitative dimension, the original and simplified texts were administered to different groups of B1 level students and the comprehension test scores obtained were compared. Independent samples t-test was used to analyse the data and it was determined that the group reading the simplified text scored significantly higher. The findings revealed that text simplification contributed positively to students' reading comprehension skills. In addition, it was observed that the adaptations made according to textlinguistic criteria increased the comprehensibility of the text by preserving its structural and semantic integrity. In this respect, the study makes important contributions to the use of simplified literary texts appropriate to the level in teaching Turkish as a foreign language.
Keywords
Reading skills, Language teaching, Story simplification
