Factors Affecting the Difficulty of a Narrative

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In order for students to acquire the skill of reading comprehension, which involves complex cognitive processes, the texts presented should be appropriate to their level. To this end, readability formulas are used in the literature to determine the suitability of texts for students’ levels. The aim of this article is to reveal the limitations of the readability formulas of narrative texts and to investigate the factors affecting the difficulty of narrative texts based on the structural elements of narrative. For this purpose, firstly, the manifestations of the structural elements of narrative (story, discourse, focus, narrative levels, character, characterization, time, space) that affect text difficulty are concretized through basic examples and a list of factors affecting the difficulty of a narrative text is drawn up. In the article, it is tried to theoretically determine that the structural elements of narrative texts have an effect on the perceived difficulty in the reading comprehension process. It is believed that this study, prepared as a theoretical discussion, offers a different perspective in determining text difficulty. It is predicted that teachers can use the factors in the list presented in this study while preparing the materials to be used in the classroom and book authors can use the factors in the list presented in this study while preparing texts suitable for student level.