Are Comprehension

Questions Good
Reading Exercises?
Comprehension questions in one form or other are one of the
language teaching techniques most frequently used to train
learners in reading.
yes/no questions
true/false statements
multiple-choice items
pronominal questions
blank-filling or completion exercises
1. Comprehension questions are local rather than
general.

2. Comprehension questions direct learners’

attention to the reading text, although
occasionally some questions are answerable from
the learners’ own experience without having to
refer to the text.
3.As comprehension questions can do so
many jobs, it is not always clear which
job they are doing and thus it is
difficult to get useful feedback.

4. It is difficult to make good

comprehension questions.
Comprehension of
the Text
Question Forms
Pronominal questions
Yes/no questions
True/false sentences
Multiple-choice sentences
Sentence completion
Information transfer
Translation
Précis
1. Pronominal questions are questions
beginning with who, what, when, how,
why, etc.

Ex. What is a saccade? How long does a

fixation take?
2. Yes/no questions and alternative questions only
need short answers so the learners do not need to
have a high level of writing skill.
Ex.
Does a fixation take a longer time than a jump?
Do some words get more than one fixation?
Does every word get a fixation?
3. True/false sentences are similar to yes/no
questions. A good reader makes about ten
fixations per second.

Example:
Most jumps are from one word to another.
The learners may also be asked to rewrite the
false sentences making changes so that they are
now true.
4. Multiple-choice sentences are easy to mark. If four choices are
given, the learners have only a 25 percent chance of guessing
correctly. If the questions are not well made, often the learners’
chances are higher.
Ex.
1. A fixation
(a) takes about two-tenths of a second
(b) (b) is about one word long
(c) (c) is the opposite of a regression
(d) (d) is longer in Finnish than in English
5. Sentence completion. The learners complete sentences by filling the
empty spaces to show that they understand the reading passage. The
sentences come after the reading passage. There are four different types of
sentence completion.
(i) The sentences are exact copies of sentences in the passage.
(ii) The missing words can be found in the passage.
(iii) The sentences are not exactly the same as the sentences in the passage
although they talk about the same idea.
(iv) The missing words are not in the passage so the learners must use
their knowledge of vocabulary to fill the empty spaces. A skilled
reader makes about fixations per 100 words. A skilled reader makes
around fixations per minute. The learners are helped if there is a short
line for each letter of the missing word, if the first letter is given and
so on.
6. Information transfer. The learners complete an information transfer
diagram based on the information in the text (Palmer, 1982).
7. Translation. The learners must translate the passage into another
language. Although translation is often a special skill, it can also show
areas of difficulty that the learners have in reading. It also shows clearly
where the learners do not have any difficulty. It is a very searching test
of understanding, but it includes other skills besides reading.
8. Précis. After the learners read the passage they write a short
composition about one-quarter of the length of the passage containing
all the main ideas that are in the passage. This is called a précis. It can
be done as group work. The learners are divided into small groups.
Each group makes a list of the main ideas in the passage. Then the class
as a whole discusses the main points and the teacher writes them on the
blackboard.
 The Focus of
Comprehension
Questions
1. Literal comprehension of the text. This involves
understanding what the text explicitly says.

2. Drawing inferences from the text. This

involves taking messages from the text that are
not explicitly stated but which could be
justified by reference to the text.
3. Using the text for other purposes in addition to understanding. This
involves applying ideas from the text to solve problems, applying the
ideas in the text to personal experience, comparing ideas in the text
with other ideas from outside the text, imagining extensions of the text,
and fitting the ideas in the text into a wider field as in a review of the
literature.
4. Responding critically to the text. This involves considering the
quality of the evidence in the text, evaluating the adequacy of the
content of the text, evaluating the quality of expression and clarity of
language of the text, expressing agreement or disagreement with the
ideas in the text, and expressing satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the
text.
In predicting the passage the learners see about eight topic-related
words taken from a text they are going to read. They use these words
to predict what sort of text it is and what content it will contain
(Rinvolucri, 1981). Learners can also be encouraged to make questions
rather than statements based on some starting point. Their reading
attempts to find answers to those questions.
The starting point for the questions can be:
(1) the title or the first sentence of the text;
(2) the theme of the text;
(3) the pictures which accompany the text;
(4) the previous parts of the text.