Relationship between the attitudes towards internet usage in English and English reading skills among secondary school students

The application of Internet technology by various methods in learning English has become universal and inevitable in educational systems around the world. In this study, the aim was to evaluate the relationship between the attitudes towards Internet usage in English and reading skills in English among secondary school students. Sub-goals of the current study were to find out the relationship between the independent variables including gender, age, educational level of parents, monthly house income level, Internet access status at home, spending time on the Internet per day, and academic achievements in second language learning, and reading skills in English among secondary school students. Participants were 288 7th and 8th-grade students studying at Sincan IMKB Secondary School in Ankara. A questionnaire, including questions about sociodemographic characteristics, self-assessment of students in reading comprehension skills in English, and a 5-point Likert dimension of "The Attitude of the Students Using English on Internet Environment" was conducted to participants. SPSS 22.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) statistical package program was used to evaluate the data. Results, obtained at the end of this study were evaluated by Independent sample t-test analysis in two samples average and Chi-square test for categorical data analysis. At the end of the study, the results indicated that the most significant relationship between 4 dimensions of the questionnaire and three components of reading comprehension skills were "the Entertainment-Oriented Attitude Dimensions" which includes students' preference to read lyrics of the English songs on the Internet, to listen to English songs, to watch movie and series in English via the Internet. This outcome showed that learning a new language in joyful activities make learning more effective. According to the results of the study, the use of the Internet in English, particularly in terms of entertainment, contribute positively to English reading skills. For this reason, it is suggested that students should be encouraged to use the Internet in English by Internet security and appropriate time duration. Key Words: Use of English on the Internet, reading comprehension, English as a Foreign Language, students' attitudes