TEXT ADAPTATION IN FOREIGN-LANGUAGE TEACHING: ADAPTATION OF PEYAMİ SAFA’S MİŞON’S TREASURE TO LEVEL A2

Abstract

One of the most essential points that should be considered in foreign-language teaching starting from the beginner level is making supplementary reading books effective through reading skills for an effective understanding and texts that improve reading. Literary texts contain rich linguistic treasure, target culture, contextual elements constructed from word to paragraph, and cohesive elements that operate linguistic structures. Employing such texts in foreign-language teaching would allow us to benefit from all these rich elements. Reading practices in teaching language also facilitates the acquisition of other skills. Therefore, using reading texts in foreign-language teaching is desired however, since authentic texts are created for native speakers, before using them in foreign-language teaching, they should be analyzed according to scientific data and accordingly, they should be adapted considering the target level achievements. This study aims at the adaptation of Turkish literature works, which are very important especially in language teaching and in using a national culture that complements the language, considering the target level to use them in teaching Turkish as a foreign language. This paper presents the adaptation of the story titled Mişon’s Treasure from the Cingöz Recai story series by Peyami Safa according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and text linguistics criteria. The authentic text was analyzed according to the cohesive elements and examined considering target level achievements. It was suggested that cohesion criteria are guiding for text adaptation practices and also contributes to the development of other skills.