GRADED READERS: A NEW PATH FOR LEARNERS OF TURKISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Within last decades Turkish as a foreign language (TFL) started to be seen as the field in great demand regarding the recent sociological and political issues in the world. So far a lot of research has been done on designing Turkish coursebooks, improving teaching materials but almost no concern has been paid for extensive reading materials for such learners after completing levels of learning. At this point graded readers are thought to be a supplementary source to satisfy the requirements of learners seeking other opportunities to master on Turkish. Basing on these facts, the study aims to inquire about the views of learners regarding the need of graded reader. As a research instrument, a survey with qualitative and quantitative properties assessing 30 participants’ responses is designed by taking experts’ opinions. One third of the participants are also interviewed for clarifying their responses to the research items. The results basing on the findings show that the participants need further supplementary sources as an extensive reading material especially graded readers for comprehending the structure of Turkish and its cultural elements, besides another point derived from the data is that the growing interest in recognition of Turkish literature works