The effect of fluent reading strategies on the reading and the comprehension skills of secondary school students with reading difficulties

The aim of this research is to determine how effective fluent reading strategies are on sixth grade students with reading difficulties. For this purpose, resonant reading, repetitive reading, word repetition technique and guided reading techniques were used together. Throughout the research, different text types were preferred at the sixth grade level. The research was designed as action research, one of the qualitative research methods. The study group of the research consists of 4 (four) sixth grade secondary school students who have reading difficulties. It was determined that the participants should not have any mental, auditory or visual disabilities and that their reading and reading comprehension level should be at the anxiety level. Pre-evaluation, intermediate evaluation and final evaluation were carried out to determine the reading and comprehension levels of the participants. For this purpose, reading comprehension questions and Mistake Analysis Inventory were used to determine students' reading and comprehension levels. According to the results of the preliminary evaluation, it was determined that the reading fluency levels of 4 (four) students were below 90% and their reading comprehension levels were below 50%. According to these results, it was determined that the students' reading fluency and reading comprehension levels were at an anxiety level. The application was planned as weeks and 48 hours. An interim evaluation was made when the first half of the application was completed. According to the interim evaluation results, it was determined that although there was an improvement in the students' fluent reading and reading comprehension levels, they remained at the anxiety level. According to the final evaluation results after the completion of the application, it was determined that one students reached the instructional level and two students reached the free level. Based on the data obtained at the end of the application, a significant difference was detected in the reading and reading comprehension levels of the participants. According to the results of the research, it was determined that fluent reading strategies had a positive impact on reading and reading comprehension skills. Key Words: Reading fluency, reading difficulty, reading errors, reading comprehension