Alleviating reading difficulty in elementary students based on learning styles

Abstract

This study focuses on the effects of learning styles on correcting the reading errors and improving the reading comprehension skills of elementary school 4th and 5th grade students. The study was conducted over eight weeks with a total of 128 hours, 32 hours each with a total of four students from two elementary schools in the Western Black Sea region, who has reading difficulties without mental, auditory, or visual problems. Ministry of National Education’s Turkish textbooks for grades 1-5 were used in the study. The Marmara Learning Styles Scale showed the learning style preferences of three students as auditory and that of the remaining student as visual. For students with a auditory learning style, the researcher created audio recordings with appropriate stress and speed. Before the students read the text, audio recordings were played through headphones. After listening, the students were asked to read aloud. For students with visual learning style, illustrated texts; texts with underlined words; texts with words, syllables and sentences highlighted in colored letters were used. The students' reading errors were corrected by using the word box strategy. The findings showed that, at the final reading that took place at the end of the study, student A was at the frustration level (90%), while students B and C were at the instructional level and student D had progressed to the independent reading level. Consequently, it was concluded that reading and comprehension activities based on learning styles are effective in diagnosing reading difficulties in elementary school students.