The effect of book reading activities to attitude of the reading habit

Reading has gained functionality in human life with the invention of writing; with the social, cultural, political and technological developments reading has been seen a significant necessity, nowadays, it has become one of the indispensable elements of human and social life. Today, while the operational dimension of reading applies to almost everyone, it becomes a habit or lifestyle, and it is a distinctive feature. In this context, the most important contribution of the educational institutions to the educated is to gain a positive attitude towards the reading and the habit of reading. In this study, in order to contribute positively to students' attitudes towards reading, an application that includes daily reading lectures, award-winning book reading competitions and an activity called ''What are we reading this month?'' has been created. This syllabus was implemented between January and August 2017-2018 academic year. Pre - test and post - test was applied before and after the curriculum. The study was conducted according to a single group quasi-experimental design method. The universe of the study has consisted of all students studying at vocational high school. The sample that has been determined according to the random sample method has consisted of 50 students in the first grade level and 54 students in the second grade level and they are 104 students in total. In the study, its validity and reliability were predetermined and "Attitude Toward Reading Habits Scale" (Gömleksiz, 2004a) was used. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the book reading activities applied in the experimental process affected students' attitudes towards reading habits in a significant and positive way (pre-test mean scores of students: 107.00 posttest mean scores: 129,92).The following results were reached for the sub-problems of the research: It was determined that there was a significant and positive difference between pre-test and post-test for both first grade level students and second grade level students. When the attitudes of the first grade and second grade students towards the reading habits were compared before the application, no significant difference could be determined between them. When the first class and second grade students' attitudes towards reading habits were compared after the application, a significant difference could not be determined between them, either.