Abstract:

The purpose of reading is comprehension. Comprehension means receiving and learning the information in the text. In this process, a series of complex operations are performed in our minds. The meanings of the words and sentences read first are found, and the meaning of the text is reached by combining them. However, these processes are not enough to understand a text in depth. In addition to these, it is necessary to examine the information in the text, to establish a connection between them, to find the main idea and to make inferences. Making inferences means finding information that is not explicitly given in the text and filling in semantic gaps. For this, we go from the known to the unknown and try to discover the tacit information in the text. Studies to develop this skill begin in the pre-school years. In primary school, first oral and then written inference studies are carried out and various techniques are taught. However, studies in the field show that some students have difficulties in making inferences, do not understand the text well, and the inference process is not well taught. This article focuses on developing students' inference skills. For this purpose, first the concept of inference and its functions are explained, its types and classifications are given. Then, the stages of inference teaching and the activities to be done are emphasized. Attention is drawn to what the teacher should do to develop this skill. At the end of the article, some techniques are suggested to improve students' inference skills.

Keywords: