Yabancı dil olarak İngilizce okuma anlamada sessiz okuma ve okurken dinleme tekniklerinin karşılaştırılması: 8.sınıf Türk öğrencileriyle bir çalışma

To be able to read in a foreign language is an indispensible skill of language learning. Most of the research conducted on reading dwells on understanding the nature of it and improving reading comprehension process. This particular research attempts to investigate the effectiveness of two different techniques on the reading comprehension of 8th grade EFL students in a state primary school. One of them is sustained silent reading (SSR) and the other is reading while listening (RWL). The participants in the study are 45 elementary level students at Yusuf Köstem Primary School in Bursa. They are assigned into three different groups; two experimental groups and a control group. The materials used in the study are twelve different reading texts for the implementation of the techniques, a pre-test which is also given as post test-1 and post-test-2, and a questionnaire. During a six week period, all the students in the experimental groups read the texts silently, or read and listen to them simultaneously and answer the follow up questions. They were given post test-1 after three weeks of silent reading / reading while listening, and post test-2 at the end of six weeks. The study was completed over nine weeks, including the reading procedure, implementing pre and post-tests, and the questionnaire in the first semester of 2010 - 2011 academic year. The scores of the groups are compared using one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) for independent samples, post hoc Scheffé tests for multiple comparison, t-test for independent samples, and paired samples t-tests using SPSS 16.0 version. The outcomes of the statistical analyses revealed that SSR and RWL sessions led to similar gain scores in the short-term, after three weeks on post-test-1; whereas RWL group students outperformed SSR and control group students on post-test-2, at the end of six-week period. Results of within group analyses showed that students in one of the experimental groups improved their scores after SSR and RWL sessions, while students in the other experimental group were able to do that only after RWL. In addition, SSR and RWL group students performed much better on both tests than the control group students who didn?t participate in the reading / listening sessions. The findings of the research provided evidence that the amount of exposure to reading played an important role on improving students? reading comprehension, listening to the audio recordings of texts was helpful to support reading, SSR and RWL sessions resulted in positive changes on the students? opinions and increased their awareness in reading in English. As a conclusion, it is suggested that an integrated practice of silent reading and reading while listening should be used in the lessons in order to enhance the reading comprehension development of EFL learners.Key words: Reading, Reading comprehension in EFL, Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), Reading- While- Listening (RWL).