INVESTIGATING THE USE OF STUDENT-GENERATED QUESTIONS IN DISCIPLINARY READING PRACTICES IN HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17770/sie2019vol1.3711Keywords:
disciplinary knowledge, reading to learn, reciprocal reading, student-generated questionsAbstract
The paper sets out to explore the issue of students’ strategic ability of learning from disciplinary texts in tertiary education settings. While performing reading tasks, students acquire or restructure subject-area knowledge as well as improving conceptual resources and literacy skills indispensable for their academic attainment. The so-called reciprocal reading instruction promotes the adoption of a procedure in which students are required to generate their own text-based questions, then ask and answer them in pairs. The exploratory case study reported in this paper aimed to examine the performance of advanced Polish students of English during ten reciprocal reading sessions, part of a subject-specific course. The analysis of the collected data focused on selected aspects of the students’ question-generating behaviour. Additionally, the data obtained from a semi-structured interview were scrutinized in order to find out how the students evaluated their task performance. The paper finishes with a discussion of the implications of the study for the use of student-generated questions and reciprocal reading tasks in enhancing disciplinary knowledge and academic literacy skills.
References
Alexander, P. A., & Jetton, L. (2000). Learning from text: a multidimensional and developmental perspective. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, D. P. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III (285–310). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Britt, M. A., Rouet, J. F. & Durik, A. M. (2018). Literacy Beyond Text Comprehension: A Theory of Purposeful Reading. New York: Routledge.
Chamot, A. U. (2009). The CALLA handbook: Implementing the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education Inc.
Chodkiewicz, H. (2014). Explaining the concept of ‘reading to learn’: A way forward in exploring the issues of L2/FL reading competence. In H. Chodkiewicz, & M. Trepczyńska (Eds.), Language Skills: Traditions, Transitions and Ways Forward (238–255) Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Ediger, A. M. (2006). Developing strategic L2 readers… by reading for authentic purposes. In E. Uso-Juan, & A. Martinez-Flor (Eds.), Current Trends in the Development and Teaching the Four Language Skills, (303–328). Berlin & New York: Mouton De Gruyter.
Frankel, K. K., Becker, B. L., Rowe, M. W., & Pearson, P. D. (2016). From “What is Reading?” to What is Literacy?. Journal of Education, 196(3), 7-17. DOI: 10.1177/002205741619600303
García, F. C., García, A., Berben, A. B. G, Pichardo, M. C., & Justicia, F. (2014). The effects of question-generation training on metacognitive knowledge, self-regulation and learning approaches in science. Psicothema, 26(3), 385-390. DOI: 10.7334/psicothema2013.252
Grabe, W. (2004). Reading-writing relations. In D. Belcher, & A. Hirvela (Eds.), Linking Literacies. Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections (15–47). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. Cambridge: CUP
Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2019). Reading to learn: why and how content-based instructional frameworks facilitate the process. In K. Koda, & J. Yamashita (Eds.), Reading to Learn in a Foreign Language: an Integrated Approach to FL Instruction and Assessment (9–28). New York, NY: Routledge.
Graesser, A., & Lehman, B. (2011). Questions drive comprehension of text and multimedia. In M. T. McCrudden (Ed.), Text Relevance and Learning from Text (53–74). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Graesser, A., & Person, N. K. (1994). Question asking during tutoring. American Educational Research Journal, 31(1), 104-107. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312031001104
Gunn, T. M. (2008). The effects of questioning on text processing. Reading Psychology, 29(5), 405-442. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02702710802165374
Janzen, J. (2001). Strategic reading on a sustained content theme. In: J. Murphy,& P. Byrd (Eds.), Understanding the Courses we Teach (369–389). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
King, A. (1990). Enhancing peer interaction and learning in the classroom through reciprocal questioning. American Educational Research Journal, 27(4), 664-687. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312027004664
King, A. (1991). Improving lecture comprehension: Effects of a metacognitive strategy. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 5(4), 331-346. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2350050404
King, A. (1994). Guiding knowledge construction in the classroom: Effects of teaching children how to question and how to explain. American Educational Research Journal, 31(2), 338-368. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312031002338
King, A. & Rosenshine, B. (1993). Effects of guided cooperative questioning on children's knowledge construction. The Journal of Experimental Education, 61(2), 127-148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1993.9943857
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension. New York: CUP.
Klingner, J. K., Vaughn, S., & Boardman, A. (2015). Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Koda, K. (2005). Insights into Second Language Reading. A Cross-linguistic Approach. Cambridge: CUP.
Koda, K. (2019). Integrated Communication skills approach: reading to learn as a basis for language and content integration. In K. Koda, & J. Yamashita (Eds.), Reading to learn in a foreign language: an integrated approach to FL instruction and assessment (30–53). New York, NY: Routledge.
Martin, J. R. (2013). Embedded literacy: Knowledge as meaning. Linguistics and Education, 24(1), 50-63. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2012.11.006
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci0102_1
Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1986). Interactive teaching to promote independent learning from text. The Reading Teacher, 39(8), 771-777. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/20199221
Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of the intervention studies. Review of Educational Research, 66(2), 181-221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543066002181
Shanahan, C. (2009). Disciplinary comprehension. In. S. E. Israel & G.G. Duffy (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension, (240–260). New York, NY: Routledge.
Taboada, A., Bianco, S., & Bowerman, V. (2012). Text-based questioning: A comprehension strategy to build English language learners’ content knowledge. Literacy Research and Instruction, 51(2), 87-109. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2010.522884
Taboada, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (2006). Contributions of student questioning and prior knowledge to construction of knowledge from reading information text. Journal of Literacy Research, 38(1), 1-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15548430jlr3801_1
Yang, Y. (2010). Developing a reciprocal teaching/learning system for college remedial reading instruction. Computers & Education, 55(3), 1193-1201. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.05.016