Ankara : The Department of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Bilkent University, 2010.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2010.Includes bibliographical references leaves 114-116.This study investigated students’ and the teacher’s attitudes towards the benefits
and challenges of using Internet sources to develop students’ English reading skills. The
data was collected through questionnaires distributed to 42 students, interviews
conducted with a teacher and 12 students in the Preparatory School at Cumhuriyet
University and a journal kept by the teacher.
Student questionnaires and interviews investigated students’ and the teacher’s
general attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of using Internet sources to develop
reading skills and their opinions about three different Internet-based reading tasks:
teacher-centred, teacher-facilitated and learner-determined. The teacher journal aimed to
provide in-depth information about the teacher’s perceptions on each Internet based
reading task and her observations of the students. The data gathered from all instruments were analyzed qualitatively and
quantitatively. Findings revealed that both students and the teacher have positive
attitudes towards using Internet sources to improve reading skills. In addition, the
teacher and the students believe that reading skills can be developed by means of
Internet sources. The data gathered from both qualitative and quantitative analysis
showed that students have positive attitudes towards doing all types of Internet-based
reading tasks. With regard to the teacher’s attitudes, although she has positive attitudes
towards using teacher-determined and learner-determined tasks in her classes, she has
negative attitudes towards using teacher facilitated task. Both the teacher and the
students think that the most challenging task among all the Internet-based reading tasks
is the teacher-facilitated one. However, although both the teacher and students found it
challenging, they think that it is beneficial to developing students’ reading skills.Koçak, ArzuM.S
