Abstract
Investigation of Secondary School Students’ Reading Comprehension Skills of Activities in Turkish Textbooks
The aim of this study is to examine whether the reading comprehension questions in
the evaluation section of the texts in the Turkish textbooks taught in secondary school
5-8th grades are compatible with the achievements in the Turkish Lesson Curriculm
and the characteristics of the target audience. The descriptive analysis technique and
a document analysis, which is one of the qualitative research methods, were used. In
the study, 1928 questions included in the activities in Turkish textbooks were analysed,
and 964 of these questions were taken into consideration as reading comprehension
questions. After cognitive stages of acquisitions of reading in the Turkish Teaching
Program and the cognitive level of such acquisitions were determined, the questions
prepared based on acquisitions were evaluated as pre-reading, during-reading, and postreading
activities at four grade levels. Finally, the reading comprehension questions in
the Turkish textbooks were analysed in terms of their suitability to class and age levels
and interpreted according to Chall's stages of development. As a result of the study, it
was observed that questions were asked mostly at the stages of comprehension and recall
at the 5th-8th grades of secondary schools. It was concluded that the questions were
prepared in accordance with the cognitive skill levels targeted by the acquisitions in
the Turkish Teaching Program. And, it was also observed that as class and age levels
increased, cognitive skill levels represented by questions decreased, and class and age
levels were not taken into consideration while preparing questions.
Keywords
Turkish language teaching, Textbook, Activity, Reading, Reading comprehension.
