Relationship between reading comprehension and reading fluency and between reading comprehension and external factors of Slovene sixth graders in English as a foreign language

Branje je visoko organizirana spretnost in zmožnost, ki vključuje številne dejavnike (Pečjak, 1999). »Težave, povezane z branjem, so glavni vzrok za šolski neuspeh, saj predstavljajo bralne veščine, ki so temeljna izobraževalna spretnost, osnovo za celotno šolsko učenje.« (Košak Babuder, 2011, str. 87) Pri branju pa je zelo pomembno, da besedilo, ki ga beremo, tudi razumemo. Že pri prvem jeziku se pojavljajo težave pri razumevanju besedila, pri branju v angleškem jeziku kot tujem jeziku pa je težav z razumevanjem še več, saj je bralno razumevanje proces, ki vključuje integracijo zmožnosti dekodiranja, besednjaka, predznanja o obravnavani temi in relevantnih strategij, ki osmislijo besedilo in omogočajo njegovo razumevanje (Kintsch in Kintsch, 2005, v Babuder, 2011). Namen magistrskega dela je na izbranem vzorcu ugotoviti, kako uspešni so slovenski šestošolci pri reševanju vprašanj, ki preverjajo njihovo razumevanje, kateri dejavniki vplivajo na njihovo (ne)uspešnost ter kakšna je povezanost med bralno tekočnostjo in bralnim razumevanjem. V teoretičnem delu so navedene podobnosti in razlike med bralnim razumevanjem v prvem jeziku (tj. slovenščini) in tujem jeziku (tj. angleščini). Prav tako so opisani nekateri dejavniki, ki naj bi po sedanjih raziskavah vplivali na razumevanje besedila, ter povezava bralnega razumevanja s tekočnostjo branja v angleščini kot tujem jeziku v trenutno dosegljivih raziskavah. V empiričnem delu smo raziskali povezavo med razumevanjem besedila v tujem jeziku (angleščini) in tekočnostjo branja na eni strani ter razumevanjem besedila in izbranimi dejavniki na drugi strani.Reading is a highly organised skill and competence that involves numerous factors. (Pečjak, 1919) "Difficulties related to reading are the main cause of poor performance at school, as they represent reading skill that is the basic pedagogical competence, the foundation for school learning. (Košak and Babuder, 2011: 87) It is very important that we understand what we read. For non-native speakers, understanding English texts pose an even greater challenge because it is a process that involves the ability to decode, vocabulary, prior knowledge of the subject and relevant strategies that give meaning to the text and enable its understanding (Kintsch and Kintsch, 2005 in Babuder, 2011). The aim of this master\u27s thesis is to determine how successful Slovenian 6th grade students are in solving tasks designed to test their reading comprehension skills, which factors influence their (lack of) success and how reading fluency is related to reading comprehension. In the theoretical part, the similarities and differences between reading comprehension in the first (i.e. Slovenian) and foreign language (i.e. English) are highlighted. It also describes some factors that, according to the available research studies, influence text comprehension, as well as the relationship between reading comprehension and reading fluency in English as a foreign language, as indicated in accessible research materials. The research part of the paper examines the relationship between text comprehension in a foreign language and reading fluency on the one hand and text comprehension and some selected factors on the other