An Investigation of the Reading Comprehension Problems of Fourth Grade Students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the causes of reading comprehension problems of fourth grade students who have reading comprehension problems. Eight parents of fourth grade students participated in the research. The research was carried out in the case study method, one of the qualitative research designs. The data for the research were collected through semi-structured interview. According to the course of the interview, it was tried to reach detailed data with the probe questions. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method and codes, categories and themes were obtained. The analyzes were examined under four themes: early childhood reading, literacy learning process, family reading status, and the child's access to books. According to the results of the research: Parents did not have their children do early literacy studies in the pre-school period. Interactive reading activities with children are insufficient. Their children did not show letter-sound and word awareness in the preschool period. Children's listening comprehension indicators are positive. There were no serious problems in the literacy learning process. No problem was observed in word recognition skills. The students' vocabulary is at a good level. It has been determined that the family's level of reading at home is very low for different reasons. It has been determined that the children do not have their own libraries at home. Students reach books by school library. In this context, the results obtained from the research were discussed within the framework of the relevant literature.

Keywords

• reading comprehension
• fluent reading
• family literacy
• early literacy

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