Abstract

Learning to read is an important step for a child’s academic and social success. Meaningful and fluent reading skills are linked to children’s progress in their thinking and criticizing abilities. The knowledge and skills required for effective reading are initially taught in primary schools. The main responsibility of primary school teachers’ is to teach pupils how to read. The purpose of this study is to analyze primary school pre-service teachers’ self- assessed competency level of teaching reading. For this purpose, teaching reading contents are analyzed in two dimensions: theoretical background and practice. Results show that pre-service primary school teachers are competent in the theoretical background dimension. In this dimension, the parental involvement activities were found in the lowest competency level. Their competency level was moderate for teaching reading practices dimension. For teaching reading dimension, the use of different teaching methods in one activity was found in the lowest competency level. Besides, the results showed that evaluation skills of pre-service teachers in reading activities need to be supported.

Key words: Reading, teaching reading, literacy skills.