The examination of middle school students' fluent reading skills in terms of various variables (Yozgat province sample)

In the changing world, the most correct way of reaching information is reading. Reading is a work of analysing, interpretation and criticizing. Fluent reading has got an important place in reading. Fluent reading is a reading with convenient pacing and convenient expression, by identifying the words easily. Fluent reading has got three basic dimensions as pacing, accuracy and prosody. In this study, it was aimed to examine fluent reading skills of middle school students in terms of various variables. 340 middle school students who attend 5, 6, 7 and 8th grades participated in the research in which descriptive and correlational surveying model was used. The data obtained within the scope of the study were collected during the fall semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. Three texts which are in various types were read orally to each student for one minute and readings were recorded into a voice recorder. Then this records were listened and students' total words they read in one minute without distinguishing correct and incorrect words which they read and misque numbers they did were determined. All words which were read in one minute without distinguishing correct or incorrect were determined as reading speed. Words read incorrectly were drawn out of the whole words read, then words number which was read correctly was divided to whole words and multiplicated with one hundred. This was recorded as accuracy rate. Prosody was assessed by using prosodic reading scale. Data which were obtained in the research were loaded into the computer and analysed with SPSS.21 package. As statistical methods, Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney-U tests; Spearman Brown Order Difference correlation coefficient, percentage and frequency were used. At the end of the investigation it was determined that there was a correlation between students' fluent reading levels and their socio-economic status, gender, grade level, academic achievement, their schools' ranking, frequency of reading books, using social media, reader self efficacy, attitude against reading. According to the results of the investigation, fluent reading skills of the students whose socio-economic levels are high are at a better level. Fluent reading levels of the female students are better than the boys'. Students' fluent reading skills show an increase when the level of grade goes up. Reading of the students whose Turkish lesson academic achievements are high, students whose schools which are successful in the exam of TEOG (Transition From Basic Education to Secondary Education), students who read more books in a year, students whose reader self-efficacy and attitudes against reading is high read more fluently than the other students. Results obtained in the research were compared with the related literature and given advices. Key Words: Reading, Reading Fluency, Middle School, Student