The impact of Students’ Training in Questioning the Author Technique on EFL

Reading Comprehension

Sasan BalegizadehShahid Beheshti University,

Iran

Key words Negotiated interaction

a communicative exchange that sustains and repairs conversations (Long 1983,1996; Pica, 1994)

Reading comprehensionthe process of simultaneously

extracting

and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language (M. Swan, 1992)

Key words Text modification:

the act or process of changing text in order to improve it or make it more acceptable. (Oxford dictionary) 2 types: Simplification & elaboration

student-generated questions

is an important cognitive strategy for fostering comprehension (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) and promoting self-regulation

Key words Questioning the Author

Technique

an approach to multiple-strategy interaction in which the teacher and students form questions about the text and respond to them (Beck,McKeown, Hamilton, & Kucan, 1997)

The previous studies

To examine the effect of student-generated

questions on reading comprehension of EFL

students.

Purpose

1. Do EFL learners comprehend simplified texts better than unmodified text?

2. Do EFL learners comprehend unmodified text discussed through their own questions better than unmodified text with no discussion?

3. Do EFL learners comprehend unmodified text discussed through their own questions better than simplified texts?

4. Do EFL learners who discuss text through receiving training in QtA technique comprehend

them better than those who discuss them without this training?

Research questions

98 students Iranian adult EFL students

(55 females and 43 males) who were studying

English at a private language institute in Tehran

with an average age of 27

Participants

A reading comprehension test on two expository reading passages, 15 multiple-choice items of 5 various types:

Instrument

main idea questions 2 items

inference-making 2 items

pronoun reference 3 items

stated detail 5 items

unstated detail 3 items

Procedure3 experimental groups and one control group

CG=23 read the unmodified version of the texts & answer the related comprehension questions. EG1=26 read the same texts & answer the same

comprehension questions.

EG2=25 read the unmodified texts and discuss them through their own questions.

EG3=24 read simplified text of the same text and answer the same comprehension questions .

- All the experiment groups outperformed

their peer in the control group

- EG2 scores were higher than other three

groups

Result

Discussion-Students weren’t enough to tackle authentic reading materials because of their lower English proficiency.

- Students who discussed the reading passages with a partner outperformed higher scores on reading comprehension test.

- The training in QtA technique improved reading comprehension of the students.

Conclusion -Engage learners with authentic text through generating their own questions is more effective than exposing to simplified texts.

- Training students in asking the right questions (QtA) is more effective than giving them without any training.

Reflection & Questions• I have gained more knowledge in the QtA.• QtA lessons may be developed in all content areas

and can be tailored for young students as well as adolescent learners.

• I will definitely adapt Questioning the Author technique to my students in the next semester.

• This technique will be my future research topic.

Thanks!