Determination of readability levels of story books prepared by Gazi TÖMER in teaching Turkish to foreigners

In order to acquire language skills in teaching Turkish to foreigners, it is thought that working with texts suitable for their own levels will be effective in reading. The aim of this study is to determine the readability levels and readability scores of storybooks prepared by Gazi University Turkish Language Teaching Center (TÖMER) at A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 levels for teaching Turkish to foreigners. For this purpose, average word lengths, average sentence lengths, readability scores and readability levels of these storybooks were calculated. A qualitative approach was adopted in the structuring of this research. The story books prepared by Gazi University TÖMER constitute the data source of this study. The series includes the book Anılar at A1 level, the book Bekle Beni Türkiye at A2 level, the book Hoş Geldin at B1 level, the book Güzel Tesadüfler at B2 level and the book Adım Adım Türkiye at C1 level. In this way, it is seen that there is one book for each level in the series. The readability scores and readability levels of all the books in the series were calculated according to the formulas of Ateşman (1997), Çetinkaya and Uzun (2010), Bezirci and Yılmaz (2010). In the analyses made as a result of the application of the formulas, the book Anılar, which was prepared for A1 level in 3 different formulas, was found to be at very easy, independent reading and elementary levels. The book Bekle Beni Türkiye, which was prepared for A2 level, was found to be at the easy, educational reading and primary education levels. The book Hoş Geldin prepared for B1 level was found to be at easy, educational reading and primary education levels. The book Güzel Tesadüfler, which was prepared for level B2, was found to be at medium difficulty, educational reading and primary education levels. The book Adım Adım Türkiye, which was prepared at C1 level, was found to be at medium difficulty, educational reading and undergraduate levels. The average word lengths of the books from A1 level to C1 level were 2.45, 2.59, 2.72, 2.80, 2.91, respectively. The average sentence lengths of the books were found to be 3.75; 9,02; 6.32; 7.19; 7.54 from A1 level to C1 level, respectively. The readability scores of the books were found to be 90.62; 71,23; 73.06; 67.57; 62.25 from A1 to C1 according to Ateşman (1997) formula. According to the formula of Çetinkaya and Uzun (2010), 51,52; 42,77; 42,01; 39,08; 35,88 were found respectively. According to Bezirci and Yılmaz (2010) formula, it was calculated as 3,57; 8,92; 6,45; 8,92; 14,95 respectively.