Article in e ğ itim ve Bilim · September 020 doi: 10. 15390/EB. 2020. 9015 citation reads 941 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Article Info
 
Received: 09.13.2019 
Accepted: 07.29.2020 
Online Published: 09.09.2020 
DOI: 10.15390/EB.2020.9015 
 
 
 
*
This article is derived from Mehmet Aşıkcan’s PhD dissertation entitled "An action research on developing fluent reading skil
ls 
of third grade students", conducted under the supervision of Ahmet Saban. 
1
 Necmettin Erbakan University, 
Ahmet Keleşoğlu 
Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education, Turkey, 
[e-mail]
 
2
 Necmettin Erbakan University, 
Ahmet Keleşoğlu 
Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education, Turkey, 
[e-mail]
 

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Education and Science 2021, Vol 46, No 205, 19-47 
M. Aşıkcan & A. Saban
20 
Introduction 
The ultimate purpose of reading is to understand and make sense of the text being read. Every 
child who starts primary school usually learns to read during his/her ordinary developmental period. 
However, even if some children learn to read, they have difficulty in reading fluently and experience 
problems in understanding what they read. Among the common reading mistakes seen in such students 
include 
inversions
(e.g., 
ve
instead of 
ev
, meaning 
and
instead of 
home
), 
additions
(e.g., 
evden
instead of 
ev
, 
meaning 
from home
instead of 
home
), 
removals
(e.g., 
ev
instead of 
evden
, meaning 
home
instead of 
from 
home
), and 
repetitions
(repeating words frequently while reading) (Akyol, 2006). For example, in a study 
by Gökçe
-
Sarıpınar and Erden (2010), it was obs
erved that compared to their peers, primary school 
students with reading difficulties were more likely to make reading errors like letter-syllable skipping, 
letter-syllable addition, inaccurate reading, changing letter positions (such as 
d
instead of 
b
), or replacing 
with different letters. Similarly, Fidan and Akyol’s (2011) study showed that a fourth
-grade primary 
school student with a mild learning disability experienced such difficulties in reading as following the 
text with a finger, reading slowly, giving long breaks between words, not recognizing words, or 
confusing letters. 
It is claimed that approximately 15% to 20% of primary school children have difficulty in 
reading and writing (Yılmaz, 2008). Most of those with reading difficulties generally exp
erience a 
problem in fluent reading because reading fluency is considered to be a prerequisite skill for reading 
comprehension (Başaran, 2013; Baştuğ 
& Akyol, 2012; Bigozzi, Tarchi, Vagnoli, Valente, & Pinto, 2017; 
Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001; Pikulski & Chard, 2005; Powell, 2008). Children with improved 
fluent reading skills can read accurately at a certain speed and tone. From this aspect, fluent reading 
has a more critical function compared to other components that affect the development of readi ng 
(Rasinski, 2010; Tankersley, 2003, 2005). Figure 1 illustrates the components that affect the development 
of reading.