The Role of Reading Skills on Reading Comprehension Ability of Turkish EFL Students

Abstract

Reading is a part of our daily lives. It is performed both for pleasure and information. Reading skills are important for the individuals since they foster comprehension in reading. If the students do not have knowledge of reading skills, they cannot be expected to be successful readers. Thus, they cannot achieve the level of comprehension required to pass exams in their own departments. For this reason, reading skills should be taught in universities for the students to be able to cope with comprehension problems. This case study aims to find out whether or not reading skills has a role on the reading comprehension ability of Turkish EFL students. This study is both a qualitative and a quantitative study which lasted for a duration of 14 weeks. Two groups were selected (experimental and control) among prep classes at Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University. Both groups were administered a pre-test and questionnaire at the beginning of the study to find out if they were aware of reading skills. In addition, 10 students were chosen randomly for interview. During the study, reading skills were infused into the curriculum through designing lesson plans in accordance with the language content and topics for level C students, as determined by the Common European Language Framework. The lessons required the students to use reading skills before, during, and post reading. At the end of the study, the same questionnaire was re-administered. The students were given the post-test and then interviewed. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The obtained data revealed that the students enhanced their comprehension ability provided that they were taught to use reading skills.

The Implementation of Reading Instruction in Efl Classroom

“…This cognitive process becomes the key of fluent and effective reading. (Eskey, 1983;Kalayci & Humiston, 2015;Rathert, 2012in Kaya, 2015.…”

Why Do Saudi EFL Readers Exhibit Poor Reading Abilities?

“…In order to construct the questionnaire, a number of reading skills taxonomies from a wide range of studies and language proficiency tests were reviewed (e.g., Al-Roomy, 2013;Hessamy, 2013;Pan & Wu, 2013;El-Safory, 2011;Shang, 2011;Kaya, 2010;Liu, 2010;Cheng, 2009;Davis, 1968;Munby, 1978;Grabe, 1991;Weir, 1997;Barati, 2005;IELTS, 2012IELTS, , 2014TOEFL, 2012). After examining these studies and tests, the questionnaire in this study was developed to include four types of reading: careful local reading, careful global reading, expeditious local reading and expeditious global reading (Hessamy, 2013;Barati, 2005;Urquhart & Weir, 1998;Weir, 1997).…”

An Analysis of the Competency Reading and Thinking Skills in Grade VIII English Textbook

“…Reading is a part of our daily lives. We do read both for information and pleasure (Kaya, 2015). Reading is among one of the four basic language skills that are pinnacles of any language and play a vital role in language learning (Sadiku, 2015).…”

“…Reading is usually perceived as a passive process, but this is not so. Rather it is a self-discovery process, in which readers interact with written materials, invest both cognitive and metacognitive efforts, decompose new knowledge, and make or infer meaning (Kaya, 2015). Reading skills involve the use of cognitive abilities for interaction with written material (Bojovic, 2010).…”

“…Reading skills involve the use of cognitive abilities for interaction with written material (Bojovic, 2010). These skills are important to be successful readers and to foster reading comprehension (Kaya, 2015). Language proficiency, conceptual understanding and reading strategies are the three pillars of reading comprehension (Gagné et al 1993).…”