Analyzing the genre-oriented readability of the texts in the textbooks of teaching Turkish as a foreign language

In this study, it is aimed to determine the general distribution, author preference, text type distribution and genre-oriented readability of the texts in the textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Document analysis, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The sample of the study consists of 27 textbooks addressing various levels for teaching Turkish as a foreign language. Content analysis was used to analyse the data, and the texts were analysed with the formulas developed by Ateşman (1997), Çetinkaya and Uzun (2010) and Bezirci and Yılmaz (2010) to determine the genre-oriented readability of the texts. In the books examined within the scope of the research, 799 of the 977 texts were written by commissions, 143 by Turkish authors and 17 by foreign authors. In addition, 10 texts were taken from periodicals, 7 texts were taken from internet sites and 1 text was anonymous. It was concluded that the texts were mostly written by book commissions, author diversity was higher in books with uncertain levels, the number of informative texts was higher in books covering A1, B1, B2, C1, C2, A1-A2, B1-B2- B2-C1 and all levels, and the number of narrative texts was higher in A2, C1-C2 and books with uncertain levels. While inter-genre readability did not change at A1, A1-A2, B1-B2, C1-C2 levels, it was observed that informative texts were more difficult in books covering A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, B2-C1 and all levels, and narrative texts were more difficult in books of uncertain level. In terms of book size, informative texts in Yeni Hitit prepared according to Ateşman and Bezirci-Yılmaz formulas and Metropol Turkish for Foreigners prepared according to Bezirci-Yılmaz formula became more difficult according to the levels.