The Effect of Digital Stories on 4th Grade Students’ Fluent Reading Skills

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel

The study evaluates how digital stories affect fluent reading skills in 4th-grade primary students. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was implemented with 46 learners from villages in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır Province, split into 23 control and 23 experimental participants. Over eight weeks in the 2022–2023 academic year, students’ fluent reading skills were measured, then eight digital-story formatted Turkish reading passages were used. After treatment, reading fluency was reassessed and analyzed with independent-samples t-tests.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

INTRODUCTION

Definition and components of fluent reading

Reading accuracy, speed, and prosody

Effects and rationale for the study

Anatolian Journal ofEducation e-ISSN: 2547-9652 October 2024 ● Vol.9, No.2 [www.e-aje.net](www.e-aje.net)[ ](www.e-aje.net)pp. 79-90 The Effect of Digital Stories on 4th Grade Students’ Fluent Reading Skills1 Mesut Kandemir Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, Sarıbuğday İlkokulu, [mestkandemir@gmail.com](mestkandemir@gmail.com) Yalçın Bay Anadolu University, [yalcinbay@anadolu.edu.tr](yalcinbay@anadolu.edu.tr) This study aims to determine the effect of the digital stories on the fluent reading skills of primary school 4th-grade students. A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group was used in the study. The participants comprised 46 4th-grade students from the villages of the Silvan district of Diyarbakır Province. Twenty-three students formed the control group, and 23 formed the experimental group. The study was conducted in eight weeks in the 2022-2023 academic year. In this process, first, students' fluent reading skills were measured before the treatment. Then, eight reading passages were prepared in digital story format and used in Turkish lessons. When the treatment ended, the fluent reading skills of the students were measured again. Independent Sample t-test was used to determine significant differences between the experimental and control groups. The results indicated no significant difference between the initial fluent reading levels of the groups. In this context, it can be said that the use of digital stories in reading activities improves students' fluent reading skills. Keywords: digital story, fluent reading, reading, students, fluent reading skills, primary school INTRODUCTION Individuals can perceive and understand what is written through reading. Bay (2010) defines reading as the perception and understanding of the shapes, symbols and pictures determined by societies in order to make feelings, thoughts, experiences and impressions permanent in a universal sense and to transfer them to the other party. Through reading, individuals gain comprehension, analysis and criticism skills and expand their vocabulary. It also improves expressive language skills, such as speaking and writing, and facilitates communication and interaction (Akyol, 2011) . The words and sentences perceived in the reading process are continuously transferred to memory, and the whole meaning is reached using the reader's pre-knowledge. This meaning is transferred to long-term memory, and reading and comprehension are realized (Akyol, 2005) . In this context, considering that the primary objective of reading is comprehension, it is necessary to purify reading from the effects that make comprehension difficult during reading (Baştuğ & Keskin, 2012) . In order to overcome these difficulties, intensive reading (Stanovich, 1986) and frequent repetitions (Samuels, 1979) are recommended as fundamental principles. In conclusion, reading is expected to be fluent (Logan, 1997; Samuels, 1979) . 1 Bu çalışma yazar Mesut KANDEMİR’in “İlkokul Türkçe Dersinde Dijital Hikâye Kullanımının 4. Sınıf Öğrencilerinin Akıcı Okuma, Okuduğunu Anlama ve Yazma Becerilerine Etkisi” isimli Doktora Tezinden Üretilmiştir. Citation: Kandemir, M., & Bay, Y. (2024) . The effect of digital stories on 4th grade students’ fluent reading skills . Anatolian Journal of Education, 9(2), 79-90. [https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2024.927a](https://doi.org/10.29333/aje.2024.927a) 80 The Effect of Digital Stories on 4th Grade Students’ … Fluent reading is reading done in a conversational style by paying attention to punctuation marks, emphasis, and intonation, not repeating words, phrases and sentences without spelling, not stopping outside the stopping points, observing the parts of meaning (Akyol, 2011) . The preliminary readiness skills that form the basis of the three essential components of fluent reading are word recognition and discrimination. Comprehension cannot be realized without these skills; thus, a reader lacking these skills w

FAQs

What was the aim of the study?

The study aimed to determine the effect of digital stories on the fluent reading skills of primary school 4th-grade students.

How was the experiment designed?

A quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group was used, involving 46 students split into control (23) and experimental (23) groups.

How did the researchers measure fluent reading and analyze results?

Fluent reading was measured before and after the eight-week treatment using reading passages in digital story format. Independent-samples t-tests were applied to identify significant differences between the groups.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mabel