The effect of artificial intelligence applications on the reading comprehension skills and reading motivation of secondary school students

This study was conducted to determine the effect of artificial intelligence applications used in Turkish courses on reading comprehension skills and intrinsic reading motivation. A mixed-method design, combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches, was adopted. In the quantitative dimension, a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design was employed, while interviews were conducted in the qualitative dimension. The study group was selected through a purposive sampling method. The research was carried out during the 2024–2025 academic year with 30 seventh-grade students (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group) enrolled in a public school in Kırşehir. During the implementation process, the experimental group received AI-supported reading activities twice a week for ten weeks, whereas the control group engaged in reading activities from the 7th-grade Turkish textbook. Data were collected through a reading comprehension achievement test, a reading motivation scale, and a semi-structured interview form. In the analysis of quantitative data, independent samples t-tests were used to identify differences between groups, while paired samples t-tests were applied to examine changes within each group's pretest and posttest scores. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed that AI-supported applications had a significant positive effect on the overall reading motivation scores and the perseverance sub-dimension of the experimental group, although they did not create a statistically significant difference in achievement scores. No significant change was observed between the pretest and posttest scores of the control group. Furthermore, analysis of the qualitative data showed that students in the experimental group generally expressed positive opinions about the AI-based reading activities and applications.