The development of students' use of reading comprehension strategies in English texts

In this study, it is aimed to develop the use of reading strategies by the students. This study was carried out in Higher Vocational School of Cag University in 2011-12 academic year. The participants of this study included 20 beginner level EFL students. It was designed and developed as an action research project (Kemmis and Mc Taggart, 1988). In this model, a self-reflective spiral consists of four phrases; planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Data was also collected to document the actions and ideas of the students involved in this research. A reading strategy survey was used as a pre-test to identify which strategies the students were aware of and a post-test to see if an eight week strategy development programme resulted in an increase in students? use of reading strategies. In the lights of the study, it was identified that eight-week reading strategy development programme resulted in an increase in students? use of reading strategies. It was also found out that in week five and six, the students showed more motivation and more focused on their reading through various reading strategies.