ANALYSING WRITING AND BOOK READING MOTIVATIONS OF 4TH GRADERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

In the current study, the purpose is to determine the elementary school fourth grade students’ writing and book reading motivation and the extent to which gender, state of reading newspaper/magazine, writing and book reading motivations predict the students’ academic achievements in the Turkish Language course. As the method of the study, relational survey design was used. The study was conducted with the participation of 262 elementary school fourth graders in the city of Kırıkkale in 2014-2015 school year. Personal Information Form, Book Reading Motivation Scale and Writing Motivation Scale were used as the data collection instruments of the study. The results of the analyses conducted revealed that more than half of the students read newspapers/magazines; the students’ book reading motivation level is high and their writing motivation level is low. In the explanation of the academic achievement in Turkish Language course, book reading motivation was found to be a significant variable and writing motivation not. When writing motivation and state of reading newspaper/magazine reading were kept constant, a positive and low level of correlation was found between book reading motivation and Turkish Language course academic achievement. When the variables of book reading motivation and writing motivation were kept constant, a positive and low level of correlation was found between state of reading newspaper/magazine and Turkish Language course academic achievement. The variables can be ordered as follows in terms of the power of predicting Turkish Language course academic achievement; book reading motivation, state of reading newspaper/magazine and writing motivation. Considering the correlation between book reading motivation and Turkish Language course academic achievement, activities can be developed to enhance students’ book reading motivation. Moreover, research can be designed to determine the reasons for students’ low writing motivation and activities can be developed to promote students’ writing motivation.