The Relationship between Readers' Comprehension Skills and Awareness of Cohesive Relationships

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationship between good and poor readers' reading comprehension skills and their ability to establish cohesive relationships in a text. Out of general screening models, relational screening model was used in the research. As for sampling, 136 students were selected randomly from three secondary schools. An achievement test was prepared to observe the students' levels of reading comprehension. Two separate explanatory texts were used to determine the students' success in using cohesive devices. According to the results of this study, a significant difference exists between the reading comprehension levels of good and poor readers and their ability to use cohesive elements. Good readers make use of cohesive devices more successfully than poor readers do. It was seen that the higher scores students get on the reading comprehension test, the higher scores they get on the cloze deletion test of cohesive elements.