The Effects of Nursery Rhymes on Improving Reading Fluency of Fourth-Grade Primary School Students

This study aimed to determine the effects of nursery rhymes, entertaining and prominent products of Turkish folk literature, on improving reading fluency of fourth-grade primary school students. The sample consisted of 44 fourth graders, attending a public primary school in Vakfikebir County of Trabzon province (Turkey) in the 2015-2016 academic year. The sample was grouped into two, namely an experiment and a control group and the students were randomly assigned to the groups. The texts selected for the purpose of the study, were firstly read by the students and they were voice-recorded as they read out before the study was carried out. Their reading rates were measured relying on the recordings by counting the number of words they read per minute, while their reading levels were determined with Error Analysis Inventory and the prosodic features were measured using the Prosodic Reading Scale. Then, the activities involving nursery rhymes were administered to the experimental group for 15 weeks, who were offered two activities per week, while the students in the control group continued their regular education. After the administrations, the measurements were repeated asking the students to read the same texts. The reading rate scores, the accurate reading scores and the data obtained from the Prosodic Reading Scale were analyzed with SPSS, a statistical software program by performing paired samples t-test and independent groups t-test. The results showed that the reading rates and the accurate reading skills of the students in the experimental group improved. The implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions are made at the end.