A research on the silent reading speeds and comprehension competency levels of grade 10 students

Reading is a skill which enriches life having a key role in the improvement of human culture and knowledge and which must be continuously developed. Therefore, developing the reading skills of students is considered an important objective at every stage of education. c In this study, the silent reading speed and reading comprehension competency level of 160 students from three different schools located in different socio economic environments of the central districts of Ankara are studied. Furthermore, socio-economic conditions, study conditions and certain indicators of reading habits of students are determined with a questionnaire. Based on the gathered data, the relationship between the reading speed and comprehension level of students; and whether gender, socio-economic condition, study conditions and reading habits result in any difference in reading skills are evaluated. The silent reading speed of students is measured as 155.9 words per minute (WPM) on newspaper reading; 140.4 WPM on scientific text; 146.8 WPM on literary text. The average is 147.7 WPM, which is very low with respect to the figure obtained among the high school students in developed countries. The comprehension level of students is measured as 77.5 % on newspaper reading, 63.9 % on scientific text, and 65.5 % on literary text, with the overall average of 69%. In the study, a positive relation is determined between the silent reading speed and comprehension level of students in all three types of text. In addition, some differences are noted in reading skills with respect to the type of text. No meaningful difference is found with respect to gender. The findings based on the analyses indicate that meaningful differences are observed on socio-economic and study conditions with respect to indicators. Similarly, there exist meaningful differences with respect to book reading frequency and subscription to regular newspapers or magazines, on study conditions. There isIV no such difference with respect to library use because many students don't go to library and students who go to library do so not for reading books but for studying lessons or preparing homework. In the last part of the study, the