The impact of the thinking aloud strategy on reading comprehension skills of 4th grade primary school students

The reading skill is one of the most important sources of receiving information. This means that, comprehending the text, which is being read, is the main purpose of reading. The ongoing debates and researches regarding improving the reading comprehension skills reveal that using reading comprehension strategies has a positive effect on this skill. One of these strategies is the strategy of thinking aloud. When literature in foreign countries is examined, it has been observed that thinking aloud is classified as reading comprehension strategy. However, when the studies regarding reading in our country are examined, it is seen that thinking aloud is used as a method with the purposes of determining how much the students use other reading comprehension strategies, and taking their opinions about various materials. The purpose of this study, which is designed in quasi-experimental model, is to examine the effect of the thinking aloud strategy on the reading comprehension skills of 4th grade primary school students. For this purpose, in the second semester of 2016-2017 Academic Year, the reading comprehension levels of 26 students in 4th grade at Şehit Üsteğmen Aydın Aydoğmuş Primary School located in the central district of Bartın province were determined by applying a pre-test. Among the two classes, whose reading comprehension levels were equal, one class was assigned as the experimental and the other as the control group in an objective manner. While the thinking aloud strategy was taught by researcher in the experimental group for 10 weeks, 2 hours per week, total 20 hours, it was ensured that the courses in the control group were conducted in accordance with the regular curriculum. At the end of the implementation that continued for 10 weeks, a post-test is implemented to both of the groups, and the achievement levels of the students were examined. In the research; Reading Comprehension Test 1, which included questions about the text "Edison Invents the Light Bulb" developed by Sulak (2014); and the Reading Comprehension Test 2, which included questions about the text "Everything Started With a Kite" developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools. Both of the reading comprehension tests consisted of total 10 questions; which are 5 multiple-choice, 5 open-ended questions. The answers given by the students to the questions were evaluated with a scaled scoring key. The data obtained in the study were transferred to the SPSS 18 software pack; and statistical procedures such as arithmetic average, frequency, percentage, standard deviation, Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon Marked Rank Test were performed on the data, in the direction of the questions in the research. As the result of the research, it was concluded that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores, in favor of the post-test scores, of the experimental group students who were taught the thinking aloud strategy. Regarding this finding, it can be said that teaching thinking aloud strategy is effective on the development of the reading comprehension skills. Key Words: Reading, Reading Comprehension, Reading Comprehension Strategy, Think-Aloud Strategy