Reading Preferences of Middle School Students

Abstract

Four fundamental language skills interact with each other. Developing reading skills will also develop listening,
speaking, and writing skills. Reading comprehension, using what is understood on new subjects and learning new
words during reading can influence listening comprehension as well as oral and written self-expression. General
complaints of teachers and parents regarding middle school students are that the students do not read enough.
Increasing love for reading in middle school students can only be possible by determining the interests and needs of
those students and guiding the students towards those needs and interests. When the literature was reviewed, there
were no functional researches regarding the reading preferences of middle school students. In this regard, this study
was necessary to contribute to the literature.
The purpose of this study was to determine the reading preferences of middle school students. The pattern of this
research was created based on qualitative case study and under the scope of this study, 25 participants were selected
for each class level including 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Data was collected with the semi-structured
interview technique. Data was themed by two experts using content analysis. Similar answers were converted into
numerical data and presented in the form of tables. Examples from student statements were given to support the
tables. The results of the research indicated that a majority of students preferred reading on printed resources,
selected novels as genre, read texts with 300 or more pages, and preferred adventure as subject. Additionally,
students expressed that unknown words in reading texts should be low, they voluntarily spend 1-2 hours per day
reading, and preferred silent reading.