Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Modern Research in Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Analysing the Distribution of Post-Reading Comprehension Questions in Secondary School Textbooks in Telangana, India
Revathi Srinivas
ABSTRACT:
Textbooks play a crucial role in developing ESL learners’ language abilities. They are a source of inculcating Higher Order Thinking Skills through several activities and exercises based on reading texts. Critiquing the existing taxonomies that describe the various levels of reading comprehension, Diana Freeman (2014) proposes a taxonomy that includes three categories of questions—Content, Language, and Affect. Using Freeman’s taxonomy this study analysed textbooks of classes VII-X prescribed for study in government schools in Telangana, India; investigated the reading comprehension questions that have the highest frequency in the textbooks the differences of frequencies across the three textbooks and their range of distribution. The study further investigated. Findings of the study indicate that textually implicit questions (Content) are found abundantly across the classes. This calls for a redistribution of question types across the books so as to provide a holistic reading experience to the learners and also develop critical reading abilities.
keywords: reading comprehension, Higher Order Thinking Skills, taxonomies, frequency & range of distribution of questions