International Journal of Progressive Education, Volume 18 Number 5, 2022

© 2022 INASED

Strategies Used by Turkish Teachers in Teaching Comprehension (Reading) in Turkish

Lesson Teaching Process*

Mustafa Köroğlu i
Hatay Mustafa Kemal University

Ahmet Balcı ii
Hatay Mustafa Kemal University

Abstract

The aim of this research is to determine the strategies used by the 8th grade Turkish teachers in the
teaching-learning process of the Turkish lesson for teaching comprehension (reading). The model of
the research is the case study model, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The participants
of the research are five Turkish teachers who gave eighth grade Turkish lessons in the 2019-2020
academic year and participated in the study voluntarily. "Observation form" and "Semi-structured
interview form" developed by the researcher were used as data collection tools in the research. In the
development of measurement tools, literature review was used, expert opinion was taken and the level
of agreement between coders was checked. Descriptive statistical techniques (frequency, percentage,
mean, etc.) were used in the analysis of the data. As a result, it has been determined that the most used
strategy by the teachers participating in the study for teaching comprehension in the Turkish lesson
learning-teaching process is the question-answer strategy.

Keywords: Reading, Comprehension, Comprehension Strategies, Observation, Comprehension

Teaching

DOI: 10.29329/ijpe.2022.467.2

-------------------------------
* This study was produced from the doctoral thesis supported by the Scientific Research Projects Coordination
Unit of Hatay Mustafa Kemal University within the scope of the project numbered 17.D.005.
i
Mustafa Köroğlu, Assist. Prof. Dr., Departmant of Turkish Language Education, Hatay Mustafa Kemal
University Faculty of Education, ORCID: 0000-0003-4701-8120
Correspondence: mkoroglu@[Link]
ii
Ahmet Balcı, Assoc. Prof. Dr., Departmant of Turkish Language Education, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University
Faculty of Education, ORCID:0000-0002-7424-592X

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INTRODUCTION

There have been many studies on teaching reading comprehension (Pressley & Allington,
2015; Durkin, 1978-1979; Dole et al., 1996). Some of these studies focused on the use and teaching of
reading strategies and found that these strategies play an important role in students' understanding
(Schiefele et al., 2012; Aghaie & Zhang, 2012; Brown, 2008; Brown et al., 1996).

In the studies, there is a general view that reading comprehension education should help
students develop “the ability to learn from the text” (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002:29)
However, the long-term goal is to help students learn to be strategic readers, independent graspers, and
critical thinkers with the ability to effectively access a variety of texts they will encounter at school,
life, and work (Pressley & Allington, 2015).

Because reading comprehension education involves developing instructional strategies and

reading skills, it is necessary to briefly define the two terms that are often used interchangeably in
research and practice. Dewitz, Jones, and Leahy (2009) found that the two terms are used
interchangeably and frequently in their studies on comprehension education. In some of the programs
they reviewed, comprehension strategies such as previewing and guessing were also labeled and
taught as comprehension skills. For the purpose of this study, a reading comprehension strategy is
defined as a cognitive or behavioral action implemented under certain contextual conditions to
improve some aspects of comprehension (Graesser, 2007). Duffy (2002:30) stated that the word
“strategy” refers to the technique by which readers learn to control as a means of better understanding
On the contrary, skills are “procedures performed in the same way every time without conscious
thought (Block & Duffy, 2008).

Afflerbach, Pearson, and Paris (2008) examined the issue and defined reading strategies as
follows: “Efforts to control and change the reader's efforts to decode the text, understand the words,
and construct the meanings of the text” In their view, a reading strategy is: a deliberate, conscious,
metacognitive action (p 368) When this action “becomes effortless and automatic” with practice, the
reading strategy then turns into a reading skill (Aghaie & Zhang, 2012). Afflerbach et al. (2008: 368)
stated that the concepts of skill and strategy differ in their automatic and non-automatic situations.
Concretely, a comprehension strategy is a “deliberate, conscious, metacognitive action that students
deliberately perform to help them produce meaning in reading.

To summarize the concept of skill and strategy: Strategy requires less deliberate attention and
the student uses it faster and more efficiently. When it becomes effortless and automatic, that is, the
student will automatically ask, “Does this make sense?” reading strategy has become a reading skill
(Koenig, 2018).

Almasi and Fullerton (2012) support the same idea, emphasizing that strategies are "to help
the reader deliberately achieve a goal". They also stated that instructional activities and exercises, such
as the use of graphic organizers or venn diagrams in the processing of text information, are not
strategies but mechanical tools waiting to be used to aid understanding by readers. They also explained
strategies as thinking processes and actions that the reader deliberately chooses to achieve a reading
goal, not as activities required by reading or completing the worksheet in class.

Researchers, who stated that qualified readers participate in certain practices to understand the
text, conducted some studies on qualified readers to determine and analyze what these practices are.
Pressley and Afflerbach (1995) analyzed and summarized more than 40 studies to identify practices
and strategies used by qualified readers. The participants in his studies ranged from sixth grade to
university professors. The study was diverse in terms of text types as well as the variety of
participants. The texts used in the studies were suitable for some participants and not for others.
Researchers have argued that this diversity will make a positive contribution in terms of increasing the
power of analysis in the research. They believed that this would logically expand the types of skills
and processes to be observed in their research. This helped them to produce more comprehensive and

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accurate research results. It is a prerequisite for the participants to be seen as qualified (competent)
readers that all participants participating in their research do not lack decoding related to the text read.
These participants were asked to describe their thinking processes and what they did before, during,
and after reading.

After the analysis was completed, Pressley and Afflerbach (1995) identified practices used by
qualified readers before, during, and after reading. They concluded that qualified readers are active
readers at every stage. According to these results, they classified the practices/strategies that help
qualified readers to understand as follows:

Before Reading

• Creating a target for reading the text;

• Text overview (review);

• Deciding to read only certain chapters;

• Deciding to stop reading when the content in reading is not relevant to current reading goals;

• Activating their prior knowledge;

• Summarizing what is obtained from the preview of the text, and

• Creating an initial hypothesis about what the text is about, based on general guesses
(Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995:32-33).

While reading, talented readers continue to demonstrate practices that help them understand.
Some of these apps are:

During Reading

• Generally correct reading of the text from beginning to end;

• Reading only certain sections that are believed to contain critical prior knowledge of the
genre, author style, or writing structures used in the review

• Review

• Read aloud

• Repetition/re-expression of a thought that occurs during reading

• Note taking

• ause reading to reflect on text

• Re-reading parts of the text

• Searching for some related words, concepts or ideas in the text and using them to create the
main idea or summary

• Searching for phrases in the text

• Making convincing estimates ( ressley and Afflerbach, 1995:34-37).

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After reading, talented readers decide what to do with what they read. These practices are a
critical stage for reading comprehension.

After Reading

• Re-reading as needed after the first reading

• Memorizing the text

• Listing the information in the text

• Creating a coherent summary of the text

• Asking self questions about text content

• Imagining information in the text based on assumptions

• Thinking and interpreting the information contained in the article

• Re-reading to check the accuracy of predictions made before reading

• Continually assessing and reconstructing the understanding of the text

• As the meaning is restructured, the answers given about the text change

• Mentally coding the information in this text for later use ( ressley & Afflerbach, 1995:58-
59).

In summary, the findings suggest that skilled readers are active readers who use
comprehension-clarifying practices to develop conscious and sustained meaning. Comprehension
improves when readers use their overviews or previews of the text to improve comprehension while
reading. Initial understandings (predictions) are confirmed or modified by the reader as a more
thorough reading takes place. When the reading is complete, the reader may be dissatisfied with what
he has understood and may use strategies such as summarizing or asking questions about the text.

Skilled readers use two types of practices to understand text: skills and strategies. However,
they are not always clearly defined or categorized as finite (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008). It is
seen that the skills and strategies may vary according to the proficiency of the reader and the reader
may use a certain application as a skill in one and a strategy in the other depending on several factors.

Many researchers working in the field of reading agree that teachers can help their students
understand the text while reading (Almasi, Garas-York, & Shanahan, 2006; Stahl, Jacobsen, Davis, &
Davis, 1989; Taylor et al., 2003). Despite this, many teachers do not implement practices that improve
reading comprehension in their classrooms.

After Durkin's (1978-79) study, more than one strategy was developed by researchers working
in the field of reading and many studies were conducted on the effects of these strategies on reading
comprehension (Temizkan, 2007; Epçaçan, 2008; Duke & Martin, 2015; Karatay, 2007; Luttenegger,
2012; McIntyre & Hulan, 2013; Emre, 2014; alincsar & Schutz, 2011; Topuzkanam ş, 2009; Uyar,
2015). However, very little attention has been given to observational studies on what happens in
classrooms related to the process of teaching comprehension (reading). The only study conducted in
this area in our country is Ateş (2011) on the teaching process of the 4th grade Turkish lesson In the
literature review conducted by the researcher, it has been determined that such a study has not been
conducted at the secondary school and higher grade level in Turkey. In this study, it was tried to
determine what the 8th grade Turkish teachers used in teaching comprehension (reading) in the
Turkish lesson learning-teaching process, and how often and how they applied these strategies.

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METHOD

The model of this research, which aims to examine the practices of secondary school 8th grade
Turkish teachers in teaching comprehension (reading) in the Turkish lesson teaching process, is the
case study model, which is one of the qualitative research methods Case studies are defined as “the
method in which one or more events, environments, programs, social groups, or other interconnected
systems are examined in depth ” (Büyüköztürk et al , 2013) Creswell (2018) defined the case study as
a multifaceted study in the qualitative tradition. Yin (2014), on the other hand, defined case study as
identifying and capturing the conditions of a daily situation. A case study is also known as a case
study.

Participants

The participants of the research consist of five Turkish teachers who taught eighth grades in
the 2019-2020 academic year and participated in the study voluntarily. The Turkish teachers
participating in the study work in public schools in Hatay. The table showing the information of the
teachers who voluntarily participated in the study is presented below.

Table 1. Information about the participants of the study

Participants Working Year Number of Students
Teacher A 12 32
Teacher B 8 16
Teacher C 6 25
Teacher D 5 28
Teacher E 5 21

The names of the Turkish teachers participating in the research were coded and given as
Teacher A, B, C, D and E. In addition, the names of teachers will be mentioned in this way in the
following parts of the study.

Data Collection

The case study is interpretive and occurred in nature. Yin (2014) emphasized that the case
study is important in obtaining rich and detailed data and collecting multiple data collection sources.
In case studies, documents, archival recordings, interviews, direct observations, participant
observations, films, videotapes and audio recordings can be collected as sources of evidence. In this
study, data were collected by the researcher through classroom observations and interviews.

As it can be understood from the conceptual framework of the research, comprehension

(reading) education is a complex subject. A thorough examination of all comprehension (reading)
teaching practices used by teachers is required to understand the tiniest elements of effective
comprehension (reading) teaching. As used extensively in this study, monitoring teacher practices
means both a broad and profound approach. By doing this, the researcher tried to summarize the
teacher's practices by observing the practices of the teachers during the comprehension (reading)
education in the classroom.

Data Collection Tools

In this study, it was aimed to determine the applications of the 8th grade Turkish teachers in
the secondary school for comprehension (reading) education and the time they allocate to these
applications with the semi-structured observation technique. The applications made by the teacher
during the observation were coded into the observation form by the researcher. In addition, the
researcher made a sound recording during the observation. Tierney and Lincoln (1994) suggested that
a subjective distance is necessary in such a study and that it should be treated without prejudice. While
observing the teachers during their education, the researcher tried to assume the role of an impartial

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observer without disturbing as much as possible in order to obtain a true picture of the teachers in their
natural classroom environment.

Turkish lessons in our country are carried out through the texts included in the themes in the
textbooks. Below is a table regarding the themes, texts, text types and observation period in which the
researcher observed the teachers.

Table 2. Theme, texts and duration observed in the learning-teaching process

Participants Thema Text Name Text Type Duration
(lesson)
Individual and Society Sidewalks Poetry 5 lesson
Teacher A Science and Technology E-Diseases in Our Daily Life Informative 5 lesson
Our National Culture Epic of Migration Narrative 5 lesson
Individual and Society Sidewalks Poetry 5 lesson
Teacher B Science and Technology E-Diseases in Our Daily Life Informative 5 lesson
Our National Culture Epic of Migration Narrative 5 lesson
Individual and Society Sidewalks Poetry 5 lesson
Teacher C Science and Technology E-Diseases in Our Daily Life Informative 5 lesson
Our National Culture Epic of Migration Narrative 5 lesson
Individual and Society Sidewalks Poetry 5 lesson
Teacher D Science and Technology E-Diseases in Our Daily Life Informative 5 lesson
Our National Culture Epic of Migration Narrative 5 lesson
Individual and Society Sidewalks Poetry 5 lesson
Teacher E Science and Technology E-Diseases in Our Daily Life Informative 5 lesson
Our National Culture Epic of Migration Narrative 5 lesson

As can be seen in Table 2, a total of 5 Turkish teachers were observed for 75 lesson hours
(3000 minutes) in the study. The process of processing poetry, informative and narrative text types of
all teachers participating in the research was observed by the researcher.

The last stage of qualitative data analysis is the stage of checking the accuracy of the findings.
Confirmation of the findings can be achieved by testing the results obtained (Merriam, 1998).
According to idan and Öztürk (2015), it is important that different coders encode the same data set
and that this coding has a high similarity rate. The closeness of this similarity ratio is important in
determining the reliability of qualitative research. In order to ensure the reliability of the form, the
method of "consistency between the evaluators" was used. For this purpose, the researcher studied the
qualities of the observation form with the second observer who is an expert in the field of Turkish
teaching. For the reliability study of the content analysis codes in the evaluation of the observation
form, the formula ∆= ∁ ÷ (∁ + ∂)×100 developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) to determine the
reliability level between the coders in qualitative studies was used. The reliability result of the
observation form (.93) was found by using the reliability formula developed by Miles and Huberman
(1994). Based on these results, it was accepted that the agreement between the coders was sufficient in
the observation form.

Data Analysis

As the type of research in the data analysis process, the researcher has followed several
consecutive steps from specific to general in qualitative data analysis. These steps are as follows:

Step-1: Observation data were arranged and prepared for analysis. This step is the stage of
recording the voice recordings of teacher observations on the computer, writing, categorizing and
classifying the notes kept in the field.

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Step 2: All data were read and analyzed by the researcher and an expert in his field. This step
allowed us to reveal the general structure of the research. It gave the researcher an idea about which
comprehension (reading) methods the participants used and what their applications were in this
subject.

Step 3: The researcher started to encode all the data he collected into the observation form. At
this stage, the audio recordings were also printed in written form and the data was organized by
marking the words representing a comprehension (reading) category.

Step 4: The researcher created themes for teaching comprehension (reading) and explained the
information to be encoded in these themes. Themes in this category; It has been examined under two
headings as comprehension-related and non-comprehension categories.

Step 5: In this last step, the researcher has revealed the value of his original work by
interpreting the coded form of the data obtained as a result of his observations. He interpreted what the
data he obtained meant, what strategies were used by 8th grade Turkish teachers in teaching
comprehension (reading), and how much time he spent on these strategies.

RESULTS

1. The strategies used by the 8th grade Turkish teachers in secondary school for teaching
comprehension (reading) in the Turkish lesson teaching process and the findings on how often
they use these strategies

Under this heading, the observed teachers (Teacher A, B, C, D and E);

• Sidewalks (poetry)

• E-Diseases in Our Daily Life (Informative)

• Epic of Migration (Narrative)

There are findings about the strategies used in the teaching process of the texts (pre-reading,
reading and post-reading strategies) and how often they use these strategies.

Table 3. Comprehension (reading) strategies used by teachers

Teachers
Comprehension (reading) strategies A B C D E N
(f) (f) (f) (f) (f)
Create a goal - - 3 2 1 6
Strategies used Review 1 - 1 - 1 3
before
Activating prior knowledge 5 4 4 4 3 20
comprehension
(reading) Examine images in text 2 1 1 2 1 7
Prediction practices 3 3 5 5 4 20
Total 11 8 14 13 10 56
Reading for the purpose of reading 2 1 3 - - 6
Underline - - 2 1 - 3
Take note 1 - 1 - - 2
Strategies used
during Ask questions 80 74 123 96 91 464
comprehension Monitoring comprehension 3 2 1 1 2 9
(reading) Re-reading 1 2 3 1 - 7
Make inferences 5 4 4 6 3 22
make a connection - 1 2 - - 3
Discuss while reading - 1 2 1 - 4
Total 92 85 141 106 96 520

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Summarizing - 3 6 3 - 12
Find the main idea 2 2 3 2 2 11
Answering questions about the text read 65 46 55 56 51 273
Strategies used
after Synthesize 1 2 3 2 1 9
comprehension Reviewing notes taken while reading 1 - 2 - - 3
(reading) Criticizing the text and making judgments 1 2 3 1 1 8
about the text
Total 70 55 72 64 55 316
GRAND TOTAL 173 148 227 183 161 892

When Table 3 is examined, it is seen that Teacher A 173, Teacher B 147, Teacher C 226,
Teacher D 182 and Teacher E used the comprehension (reading) strategy 161 times in the Turkish
lesson teaching process. If we look at the comprehension (reading) strategies used by the teachers in
general, it is seen that the most used strategy is the question-answer strategy (f=737) and the one who
uses this strategy the most in the lesson is Teacher C.

According to Table 3, Teachers A, B, C, D and E used strategies before reading (f=56), during
reading (f=520) and after reading (f=316) during the Turkish lesson teaching process. It is seen that
the participant who used the most strategies before reading (f=14), during reading (f=145) and after
reading (f=230) in the Turkish lesson teaching process is Teacher C.

After the question-answer strategy (f=737), the strategies most used by Teachers A, B, C, D
and E in the Turkish lesson teaching process; It was concluded that activating prior knowledge (f=20),
guessing (f=20), making inferences (f=22), finding the main idea (f=11), summarizing (f=12).

2. The Most Used by Secondary School 8th Grade Turkish Teachers (Teachers A, B, C,
D and E) for Teaching Comprehension (Reading) in Turkish Lesson Teaching Process; Findings
on how they applied the strategies of activating prior knowledge, estimating, inferring,
summarizing, asking/answering questions

a. Activating Prior Knowledge

All of the teachers (A, B, C, D, E) stated that they carried out this application (usually based
on the preparatory work questions on the text in the textbook) through the questions they asked in
order to bring the students' prior knowledge of the text to the reading environment during the mental
preparation process before starting the text processing process. seen. The teachers had the students
read the text preparation questions in the textbook during their practice and asked the students to
answer these questions.

As a result, in order to activate students' prior knowledge in the text processing process of
Teachers (A, B, C, D, E):

• Students adhere to the questions in the preparatory work in the textbook during their practice
of activating their prior knowledge,

• He gave feedback as “yes”, “very nice”, “these can happen” to the answers given by the
students,

• In addition, he gives enough time to his students for the questions asked and listens to the
answers given by the students without interrupting,

• He asked the questions he asked for the whole class,

• It is seen that he gives feedback on whether the questions he asks are correct or not

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b. Prediction Practices

As a result of the observations made by the researcher, it was determined that Teachers A, B,
C, D and E used the prediction strategy in two different ways. These:

• redicting content based on the title or images of the text

• rediction the meaning of unknown or keywords in the text

Predicting the content from the title or visuals of the text is the practice that the teachers do
before the text processing process. The applications of predicting the meanings of the unknown or
keywords in the text were observed as the applications they made during the text processing process.

When the findings are evaluated in general, it is seen that Teachers A, B, C, D and E:

• They use the predicting strategy for students to construct meaning from the text,

• They adhere to the activities in the textbook while using the prediction strategy,

• It was observed that the students listened to their predictions of unknown words or keywords
in the text based on the title or visuals of the text, gave sufficient time and gave feedback to the
students about the accuracy of their predictions.

c. Make Inferences

As a result of the observations made by the researcher, it was seen that Teachers A, B, C, D
and E performed their inference-making practices for the text according to the activities in the
textbooks. The teachers carried out inference practices through the questions they asked their students.

It has been observed that teachers A, B, C, D and E's inference practices are generally about
revealing the meanings of words and sentences in the text read, and that teachers aim to establish a
connection between their students' prior knowledge, dreams and assumptions in this way.

As a result of the observations, it was determined that the teachers applied the inference
strategy in three different ways. These:

• Making inferences about the details supporting the text

• Making inferences to find the main idea / main emotion

• It is in the form of making inferences about the figurative language used by the author

As a result, the teachers had their students make inference applications for the details
supporting the text in order to enable them to compare the information in the text with the information
not included in the text; It was observed that they asked their students to infer possible cause-effects.

d. Summarizing

It was observed that Teachers A and E did not include any kind of summarization practice in
their classes. The practice of summarizing was observed in Teachers B and C's classrooms when only
the text "Epic of Migration " was being processed, while in Teacher D's classrooms only the " E-
Diseases in Our Everyday Life " text was being processed.

As a result, it has been observed that the teachers do not give much place to the applications of
summarization strategies in the text processing processes. Before starting to use the summarization
strategy, the teachers started with the sentence "We have read the text, now let's summarize it briefly".

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This shows that the teachers acted with the view that the summary should be short and concise,
important places in the text should be specified and detailed information should not be included.

e. Asking/Answering Questions

Teachers A, B, C, D and E generally used the questioning strategy for new information
encountered during reading. The questions asked by the teachers before reading are intended to bring
students' prior knowledge and predictions into the reading environment and to enable them to
understand the text better The questions that teachers ask during reading are usually “what, why, who
and where” It has been observed that teachers ask such questions during reading in order to attract
students' attention and make them understand better.

Teachers use the question/question-answer strategy in every part of the Turkish lesson
teaching process; It was observed that they benefited from the question-answer strategy before
comprehension (reading), during comprehension (reading) and after comprehension (reading).

It was observed that the answers to the questions asked by the teachers during the mental
preparation process were mostly non-text questions (the answers are not included in the text), and the
answers to the questions about comprehension were generally questions that were answered in the text
(the answers were included in the text).

As a result, Teachers A, B, C, D and E taught the Turkish lesson by making use of the
activities on the text (preparatory work) and under the text in the course book during the learning-
teaching process. It was observed that they benefited from the question-answer strategy while
performing all these activities. E.g; The teachers carried out all activities related to the text being read,
activating prior knowledge, explaining the visual elements of the text, finding and explaining
unknown words, determining the main idea-main emotion, guessing, inferring and reading the text.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

In the study, the frequencies of comprehension (reading) strategies used by 8th grade Turkish
teachers and how they apply the strategies they use most were observed. Accordingly, in the Turkish
lesson teaching process, it was found that Teacher A (f=173), Teacher B (f=147), Teacher C (f=226),
Teacher D (f=182) and Teacher E (f=161) It was determined that he used the (reading) strategy.
Teachers used strategies before (f=56), during (f=520) and after reading (f=316). According to these
results, it is seen that the teachers participating in the research mostly use the strategy while reading. It
has been demonstrated by many studies that teachers' use of strategies in their practice of
understanding the text helps students learn comprehension strategies, develop their reading skills, and
understand what they read (Temizkan, 2007; Epçaçan, 2008; Duke & Martin, 2015; Karatay, 2007;
Luttenegger, 2012; McCown et al. Thomason, 2014; McIntyre & Hulan, 2013; Neuman & Gambrell,
2013; Emre, 2014; Palincsar & Schutz, 2011; earson, 2009; earson & Dole, 1987; Topuzkanam ş,
2009).

In this study, the results of how the teachers use the strategies of activating their students' prior
knowledge, estimating, inferring, summarizing, and question-answer are as follows: While using the
strategy of activating students' prior knowledge, the teachers had the students read the preparatory
work questions in the textbook and asked the students to answer these questions. their wishes have
been determined. In our study, the strategy of activating prior knowledge was observed as the most
frequently used application in the category of applications for the mental preparation process.

The teachers used the guessing strategy in 2 different ways (1- Estimating the content from the
title or visuals of the text, 2- Guessing the meanings of the unknown or keywords in the text).
According to the results of the research, it was emphasized that using the guessing strategy could help
students improve their comprehension skills (Stricklin, 2011). Brassel and Rasinski (2008) expressed
the effective use of estimation strategy as using not only the information obtained from the read text

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but also the information contained in the previously read texts. As a result, it has been observed that
the estimation strategy is an effective strategy that supports understanding, and in practice it rarely
includes only prediction, and it is often used together with other strategies (Mokhtari & Reichard,
2002; Duke & Pearson, 2008; Janssen, Braaksma, & Rijlaarsdam, 2010).

According to the findings obtained from the observations, it was determined that the teachers
used the inference strategy in 3 different ways (1- Making inferences about the details supporting the
text, 2- Making inferences about finding the main idea / main emotion, 3- Making inferences about the
metaphorical language used by the author). Oakhill and Cain (2007) define inference as filling in
details that are not explicitly stated in the text. In addition, studies conducted in this area have stated
that qualified readers constantly make inferences, while readers with poor comprehension skills have
difficulty in making inferences from the text (Oakhill, 1982, 1984; Cain & Oakhill, 1999; Oakhill &
Cain, 2000).

In the study, it was concluded that the teachers did not use the summarization strategy in the
text processing process and emphasized that the summary should indicate the important places in the
text, should not be detailed and should be short. The lack of summarization activities in the activity
part of the texts in the textbook can be shown to the fact that the teachers observed in this study do not
use the summarization strategy in the lesson teaching process. There have been many studies showing
that teaching summarizing can improve both writing and reading comprehension skills, and that
summarizing in writing enables students to interact with texts more intensely and helps them
understand better (Fang & Coatoam, 2013; Thiede & Anderson, 2003). The National Reading Panel
(NRP) (2000) analyzed 18 studies on summarization and concluded that this comprehension strategy
is particularly effective in reading comprehension as it relates to memory and identifies the main ideas
in reading.

It was observed that the teachers participating in the research used the question-answer
strategy to bring the students' prior knowledge and predictions into the reading environment, and they
generally tried to attract the attention of the students by asking questions such as "what, why, who and
where". The strategies most frequently used by teachers are as follows: Question-answer (f=737),
inference (f=22), activating prior knowledge and guessing (f=20), summarizing (f=12) and expressing
the main idea/main emotion. find (f=11). In our research, it was observed that the comprehension
(reading) strategy most used by teachers was the question-answer strategy. In the literature review, it
was concluded that the question-answer strategy is the most frequently used in-class application by
teachers (Durkin, 1978-1979; Ateş, 2011) It has been observed that teachers also use the question-
answer strategy while using other comprehension strategies, and most of the questions in the
classroom are asked by the teachers during the text processing process. Studies have shown that the
use of question-answer strategy in teaching comprehension shapes students' long-term learning
behaviors and reading the text in certain ways, and when most of the questions in the classroom are
asked by the teachers, students become cognitively passive and get used to finding answers from the
text (Duke & Pearson, 2008). It was concluded that the questions based on the text improved the
readers' understanding and helped them check what they understood from the text. In addition, it has
been suggested by many studies that questions should be asked in order to enable successful readers to
focus on the most important information of a text and to identify the places they find difficult to
understand (Janssen, 2002; Pressley, Johnson, Symons, McGoldrick, & Kurita, 1989; Wood,
Woloshyn, & Willoughby, 1995).

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