Using Questions to Develop Young Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study investigated whether training in pre-, while- and post-reading questioning enhances the English reading comprehension ability of high- and low-proficiency Prathomsuksa 6 students and whether it affects their responding abilities to literal and reinterpretation questions. This paper reports on part of a full-scale study, which had experimental and control groups, and focuses only on the experimental group. The results show that, after being trained with pre-, while- and post-reading questioning, reading comprehension and responding ability to literal and reinterpretation questions of both groups improved in general, with particular improvement in the lower group’s responses to literal questions. This suggests that training in such questioning is beneficial, especially for low-proficiency students responding to literal questions.