Effects Of Embedded-Questions On Senior High School Students' English Reading Comprehension Ability Of Narrative Texts

Reading plays a pivotal role in senior high school English instruction.But in the practical English reading instruction,many teachers tend to handle narrative texts in a stereotypical way,which prevents students from appreciating the uniqueness of texts.Meanwhile,complex narrative texts with complicated narrative structures,characterization,and character relationships often hinder students from having a deep understanding of the texts.Considering the above situation,this research applies embedded-questions to English reading instruction of narrative texts at senior high school and explores the effects of them on students' reading comprehension ability of narrative texts.Based on the theory of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,this type of reading instruction not only explores where the questions should be embedded in the texts but also examines the crucial elements that should be involved in the questions.Different thinking levels of embedded-questions are interspersed in a text,especially after specific paragraphs to which they relate.In this way,students are able to independently identify,track and analyze characters and theme with plot as the main line.Generally speaking,embedded-questions consist of lower-order questions and higher-order questions.The interweaving of lower-order and higher-order questions guides students to think actively,which can not only improve students lower-order thinking skills,but also cultivate higher-order thinking skills in reading,thereby comprehensively developing students' cognitive ability and thinking quality.Specifically,this research intends to address the following research questions:1.What effects do embedded-questions have on senior high school students' ability to understand details in reading English narrative texts?2.What effects do embedded-questions have on senior high school students' ability to make inference in reading English narrative texts?3.What effects do embedded-questions have on senior high school students' ability to summarize the main ideas in reading English narrative texts?This study adopted both quantitative research and qualitative research.With respect to the quantitative research,the participants of this study were the 91 students from two classes of Grade Two in a senior high school in Yangzhou,Jiangsu Province,with one class as the Experimental Class(EC)and the other as the Control Class(CC).Instruments for this research were two reading comprehension tests and summaries.Before the experiment,a pretest was carried out in the two classes and there was no significant difference in English reading performance of narrative texts between them.In the experiment,the traditional reading teaching method was adopted in the Control Class(CC),in which students firstly independently read the given text and finished the corresponding exercises.Then the teacher showed the answers and explained difficulties.By contrast,the embedded-questions were applied to the same reading material in the Experimental Class(EC).Students were instructed to read the texts with embedded-questions and to write down the answers required.When they finished the exercises at the end of the passage,the teacher showed the answers and explained embedded-questions and exercises in detail.After five weeks,the two classes had a post-test.The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 21.0.With respect to the qualitative research,a semi-structured interview was conducted.Six students from EC were chosen as subjects.The data were then collected,transcribed into English,analyzed and categorized to complement and verify the reasons why embedded-questions had any or no effects on senior high school students' reading of narrative texts in terms of understanding details,making inference and summarizing the main ideas.Major findings are listed as follows:Firstly,embedded questions could effectively improve students' overall English reading comprehension ability of narrative texts and the ability to understand details.Concerning Independent Samples T-test of overall scores and detail questions between EC and CC in post-test,the value of the Sig.was.003(p<.05)and.043(p<.05)respectively.As for Paired Samples T-test of overall scores and detailed facts questions of EC in pre-test and post-test,the value of the Sig.was both.000(p<.05).These results suggested that under the guidance of embedded-questions,students in EC performed better than those in CC in their overall reading comprehension ability and the ability to understand details.Secondly,embedded questions could effectively improve students'ability to make inference in reading English narrative texts.With regard to Independent Samples T-test of inference questions between EC and CC in post-test,the value of the Sig.was.047(p<.05),meaning a significant difference between EC and CC in students' ability to make inference.As for Paired Samples T-test of inference questions of EC in pre-test and post-test,the value of the Sig.was.000(p<.05).These results suggested that under the guidance of embedded-questions,students in EC were better at inferring than those in CC.Thirdly,embedded-questions had no significant effects on improving students' ability to summarize the main ideas.With regard to Independent Samples T-test of main idea questions and summary between EC and CC in post-test,the value of the Sig.was.430(p>.05)and.579(p>.05)respectively,which both meant no significant difference between EC and CC in students' ability to summarize the main ideas.As for Paired Samples T-test of main idea questions and summary of EC in pre-test and post-test,the value of the Sig.was.146(p>.05)and.066(p>.05)respectively,which suggested there was no significant change in the ability to summarize the main ideas in EC.This study provides some pedagogical implications.First of all,teachers should apply embedded-questions to reading instruction flexibly,for embedded-questions designed reasonably and usefully contribute considerably to students' deep understanding of texts,which will be conducive to students' long-term English learning.What's more,teachers should utilize embedded-questions moderately in that embedded-questions are only used to provide support,for our ultimate goal is to help our students develop their independent reading comprehension.Finally,students should think creatively and ask questions,and draw conclusions in the course of reading.