Elementary school pupils are facing various difficulties in acquiring knowledge. Good command of reading is needed in order to read the material in the textbooks and other notes and thus learn new contents. Despite the diverse sources of information reading continues to represent the most common and most effective way of learning. However, a lot of pupils find reading and consequent comprehension difficult. Lack of reading comprehension, reading motivation and reading fluency prevent pupils from becoming functionally literate readers.
In addition to reading literacy, visual literacy has also gained in importance. The number of visual stimuli, information and different visual media we are constantly facing is increasing. It is important to learn how to properly read visual material and use it in learning. Comic book can be used as an example of this type of materials. It combines elements of verbal and visual storytelling and is very popular among young readers.
In this thesis we studied the effect of comic book reading training on reading fluency, reading comprehension and reading motivation of a selected group of six 5th grade elementary school pupils. Comic book was chosen intentionally, as we believe that it is insufficiently represented in Slovenian schools. Before the start of reading training we conducted a questionnaire Vprašalnik učnih stilov among all pupils from the class of the chosen six pupils, because we were interested in the representation of individual learning styles. Our goal was to include pupils with different preferred learning styles. The group for reading training included 6 pupils who were identified as pupils with learning disabilities. Their main problems were lack of reading motivation, reading fluency and reading comprehension. Additionally, the problems they were facing were a lack of reading stimulation and dyslexia. Reading training was carried out as group work and it included different activities, reading strategies and comic reading. Before and after the reading training, the following tests were performed: Vprašalnik bralne motivacije za mlajše učence, Test tihega branja, Test glasnega branja and 2 parts from Test motenj branja in pisanja (Besede I and Besede II). The results indicate an important increase in reading fluency, whereas changes in reading motivation and reading comprehension are smaller. We noticed that pupils enjoyed reading comics and that they would like to read them more frequently while learning in class.
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