Comprehension Questions Research Articles

English Medium Instruction in Multilingual Context: Exploring Teacher’s Ideology and Practices

The present study explores the ideological perspectives of basic level teachers who teach through English medium in EMI classroom. Teachers’ ideology has profound influence on their classroom application. The ideology of a teacher determines the path of teaching-learning pedagogy in the classroom. I have explored the experiences of teachers as an ideological phenomenon. Experiences help to develop one’s ideology. In context of Nepal, teachers are found to use several strategies such as: Paraphrasing, translation, code switching to deliver the classes in EMI classroom. The study is of course qualitative in nature. The sample population consisted of four basic level teachers who have been teaching content subjects like Science, Social, Mathematics and Moral science in English medium. I used purposive non random sampling technique to select the sample population of the study. I employed interview and classroom observation techniques to elicit my data. The interviews were audio recorded with some notes. I analyzed the data qualitatively using the thematic analysis approach. Different codes were formulated to develop themes. The findings gained from the data interpretation showed that teachers used more mother tongue, especially Nepali language to make the text clear to the students in the classroom. Translation, code switching and sometimes paraphrasing were used as teaching pedagogies in a single class. Notably, there were inconsistencies between what the teachers said and what they practiced in their classrooms. It was found that Job market, internationalization and neo-liberalism have fostered in the growth of EMI. Another striking finding was students were found as passive listeners in the classroom. The interaction was rare between the students and teachers. Students were assisted by writing answers of the comprehensive questions. Professional training, sufficient teaching materials and trained teachers need to be focused to make EMI meaningful.

Insurance demand experiments: Comparing crowdworking to the lab

AbstractWe analyze an insurance demand experiment conducted in two different settings: in‐person at a university laboratory and online using a crowdworking platform. Subject demographics differ across the samples, but average insurance demand is similar. However, choice patterns suggest online subjects are less cognitively engaged—they have more variation in their demand and react less to changes in exogenous factors of the insurance situation. Applying data quality filters does not lead to more comparable demand patterns between the samples. Additionally, while online subjects pass comprehension questions at the same rate as in‐person subjects, they show more random behavior in other questions. We find that online subjects are more likely to engage in “coarse thinking,” choosing from a reduced set of options. Our results justify caution in using crowdsourced subjects for insurance demand experiments. We outline some best practices which may help improve data quality from experiments conducted via crowdworking platforms.

Defining and Predicting Consumers Bread Choices based on Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Healthy Living Orientations

The bread still constitutes an essential part of meeting the daily nutritional requirement. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals and their bread consumption preferences and perceptions with a focus on quality and healthy life. The data are obtained digitally with 9583 consumers from survey questions created on google form throughout Turkey throughout the year 2020. First, descriptive statistics of the answers to the comprehensive survey questions are revealed. Then, correlation analysis is conducted to show the relationships between the variables, in line with each sub-objective set up under the primary purpose. Finally, by using some data mining and machine learning algorithms, it is tried to reveal future expectations based on some main determinant parameters such as health and quality expectation for bread consumption of consumers. All statistical and inferential evaluations are made using the Konstanz Information Miner (KNIME) analytics platform. The findings discover that increasing income and education level in bread consumption improves the level of awareness about health and quality of life in people, and these attitudes and perceptions bring about a proportional decrease in bread consumption of individuals. On the other hand, as a vicious circle, it reveals that the sedentary life brought by work-life in modern society causes an increase in body weight and an unhealthy living ecosystem. This study, it is tried to define and predict the behavioral attitudes of consumers toward bread consumption. The findings can offer meaningful advice to all actors and political decision-makers involved in the bread market and supply chain and consumers.

Achieving reading comprehension through integrated vocabulary instruction

Reading and vocabulary have long been considered an intrinsic connection to help students acquire the language, but the literature suggests vocabulary as a pivotal feature to guarantee reading comprehension. This research study from a master's dissertation tried to explain the gains and perceptions of integrated vocabulary instruction on reading comprehension performance. To accomplish the aim of the study, sixty-six A1 EFL students from a rural public school in their first baccalaureate year were selected and assigned into two groups (traditional and integrated). All participants took part in eight reading lessons with their designated vocabulary instruction. After each class, they took a reading comprehension test based on literal comprehension questions. Moreover, at the end of the research, the perceptions of the experimental group (integrated instruction) were gathered. After analyzing the data, this study found that integrated vocabulary instruction can lead to higher reading comprehension achievement at a beginner level of proficiency. Moreover, this research proposes an extensive study on the benefits of integrated instruction when working with upper proficiency levels.

Attention to verbal morphology in L2 Arabic reading: An eye‐movement study

AbstractAttention is believed to help facilitate learning. Godfroid and Uggen found that attention to irregular verb morphology motivated the learning of novel second language (L2) German forms. The current study explored the generalizability of these findings to geminate and sound verbs in Arabic, a typologically different language with a novel writing system. Eleven fourth‐semester learners of Arabic participated in the experiment. Participants completed a language learning background survey, took a fill‐in‐the blank pretest, read 20 sentence pairs while an Eyelink 1000 recorded their eye movements, and answered true/false comprehension questions that appeared on‐screen following each sentence. A posttest, identical to the pretest, and a prior vocabulary knowledge scale task were then conducted. Learners' reflections were recorded in a subsequent recall task and a follow‐up semistructured interview. Descriptive analyses of the eye‐tracking metrics reveal generally equivalent reading times between verb types, although participants made more direct visual comparisons between geminate‐ than between sound‐verb conjugations. Participants did not report awareness of geminate verbs, but noticed other aspects of input, and, on average, improved their written productive knowledge by 2% after only one exposure. Pedagogical implications are discussed in terms of input enhancement in a communicative L2 classroom.

Silent Reading and Reading Aloud for Better Comprehension and Speaking Motivation: A Comparative Study

This article compares the effectiveness of reading aloud and silent reading for comprehension and speaking motivation. The data were taken from the ninth graders of a community school of Jhapa, Nepal. The students were divided into two groups and each were asked to read ten sample comprehension questions. The groups were provisioned to have a silent reading and reading aloud differently. Each group was given just five minutes of time- two times a day- for three weeks and were measured for their scores. Conclusions were drawn comparing the pre- test and post- test results and by closely observing their oral participation in the class. The results showed that reading aloud is more effective than silent reading for comprehension and speaking encouragement.

Evaluating English Textbooks by Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Analyze Reading Comprehension Question

The use of Bloom’s taxonomy to form knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creation in choosing the type of reading test was to consider the role of higher and lower-order thinking skills in reading comprehension questions in English textbooks. The conceptual aspects of the reader's mental and visual response to the purpose of reading comprehension needs were the ability to generate new thoughts, separate ideas into parts, and judge the values of ideas by using appropriate criteria based on the text. This research contributed to the following questions: (1) the representation of Bloom’s taxonomy levels in English textbooks, and (2) the calculation of reading comprehension questions in each level of Bloom’s taxonomy. Using a qualitative approach with content analysis, the results showed that the types of reading comprehension questions could foster the student’s critical thinking regarding acquiring learning objectives in the English curriculum. Most of the question was focused on comprehension level (26%), knowledge/remember level (17%), application level (16%), synthesis level (14%), analysis level (13%), evaluation level (11%), and creation level (3%). By applying Bloom's taxonomy, English teachers were suggested to classify their instructional objectives and learning goals.

Learning multiword items through dictation and dictogloss: How task performance predicts learning outcomes

This article reports a quasi-experimental study which compared the effectiveness for multiword item learning of three listening-based activities: dictation, dictogloss, and answering text comprehension questions. In a dictation, students write down segments of text immediately after listening to them, whereas in dictogloss students try to reconstruct the text from memory. Chinese learners of English ( N = 142) first engaged in one of the three activities, then received the transcript of the text and used a different colour to make corrections to what they had written. The learners were given an unannounced immediate and a two-week delayed posttest concerning 10 expressions from the text. Both dictation and dictogloss led to better scores than answering comprehension questions in the immediate posttest, but the advantage diminished in the delayed test, and this most markedly so for the dictation activity. Items that were successfully retrieved during the text-reconstruction stage of the dictogloss activity rather than rectified by the students afterwards with the aid of the transcript stood the best chance of being recalled in the posttests. This suggests that dictogloss could be made more effective if it were implemented in ways that promote accurate retrieval at the text-reconstruction stage.

Trialing alternative listening assessment tasks: interactions between text authenticity, item focus and item presentation condition

ABSTRACT Purpose: The current study applies an innovative approach to the assessment of second language listening comprehension skills. This is an important focus in need of innovation because scores generated through language assessment tasks should reflect variation in the target skill and the literature broadly suggests that conventional methods of assessing listening may fall short of achieving this principle (Field [2019]. Rethinking the Second Language Listening Test from Theory to Practice. Equinox). Design: The study investigated interactions between different methods of presenting listening comprehension questions, the focus of the comprehension questions and the relative authenticity of the sound file in an English-medium university entrance listening test. In a balanced design, 61 participants completed a listening test featuring both scripted and unscripted sound files by answering explicit and implicit information comprehension questions under five counterbalanced question preview and presentation conditions. Test scores were analysed using ANOVA and examined for interactions. Findings: The results revealed interesting relationships between text authenticity and item focus whereby item responses were most frequently correct overall on the explicit items on scripted tasks. However, the reverse was observed on the implicit items, which were more frequently correct on the unscripted tasks. Value: The research findings have important implications for construct definition and highlight possible directions for the development of pedagogical listening tasks and assessments for English-medium academic study.

Reading at The University: Difficulty vs Fear

The act of reading is not a mere interaction between the reader and the text. It also involves the engagement between the reader and what he or she believes in. Readers find reading difficult because they have difficulties with the vocabulary of the target language used in the reading text. Next, some already have language barriers and understanding is hindered by language related issues such as sentence structure and or culture-related phrases. Readers fear reading because of top-down anxiety, bottom-up anxiety or even the classroom reading instructions. This study is done to investigate readers' perception of reading comprehension difficulties and also readers’ fear of reading. Thirty respondents from social sciences faculty in a public university were randomly chosen for this study. The instrument used is a questionnaire. The survey has 3 sections. Section A is about demographic profile; section B is about perceived difficulties in reading comprehension and section C is about reading anxiety. This study has revealed that the difficulties in the reading comprehension were more worrying when it comes to reading. Readers did not blame their lack of vocabulary knowledge for their reading difficulty. They were not very confident when it comes to answering the reading comprehension questions. Learners were anxious when they were given texts they had no background knowledge of. This fear supersedes the other fear for bottom-up reading and classroom reading. Overall findings of the study bear interesting pedagogical implications in the teaching and learning of reading.

Evaluation of level of foreign language proficiency based on eye movement data

Subject of study. Foreign language proficiency was evaluated using the optical recording of eye movements. Representation of unconscious cognitive processes in oculographic data during reading and correlation of eye movement parameters with the complexity of the text perceived by the reader were analyzed. Aim of study. The study was aimed at determining the correlation between the eye movement features of individuals reading texts in native and foreign languages, considering the peculiarities of the language and level of language proficiency. Method. The study comprised two stages. The total sample size was 63 Russian-speaking students, aged from 19 to 27 years, for whom English was a foreign language. The subjects’ level of proficiency in the Russian and English languages was estimated using the C-test method. The experimental task consisted of reading the English texts in the slides and answering the comprehension questions after a nine-point calibration procedure. Eye movements were recorded binocularly using an SMI-High Speed Tracker 1250 setup at a sampling rate of 500 Hz. The first stage was aimed at investigating eye movement features of native Russian speakers who are highly proficient in the English language while reading texts in both languages. In the second stage, the eye movement features of individuals reading texts in a foreign language at different levels of proficiency were investigated. Main results. The eye movement parameters of the individuals varied, depending on whether they were reading texts in their native language (Russian) or the foreign language (English), even at high proficiency in the foreign language. The eye movement patterns changed when they were reading texts in the foreign language (English) at different levels of proficiency. Practical significance. Based on the obtained data, the text complexity for the test subject can be evaluated. The text complexity evaluation using eye movement features enables algorithms to be designed for normalizing different texts in terms of complexity. The results of the study can be used when designing automated systems for evaluating foreign language proficiency level.

Meaning-Focused Output and Meaning-Focused Input Instruction and Willingness to Communicate: Effects and Perceptions

The present study sought to investigate the effects of meaning-focused input (MFI) and meaning-focused output (MFO) activities on willingness to communicate (WTC) of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The study aimed at exploring learners' perceptions towards the efficacy of MFO and MFI activities for developing WTC. The participants of study were 70 learners homogenized via an Oxford Placement Test, who were then randomly divided into two groups of 35. The WTC questionnaire, adopted from MacIntyre et al. (2001), was used both as pretest and posttest, and a semi-structured interview was used to probe participants’ perceptions towards MFI and MFO. The first experimental group received MFO activities and were given a reading text and asked to present a summary in spoken form based on the notes they took during the reading. In experimental group two, the reading activities were administered in an input mode. The learners were asked to read the texts and answer some reading comprehension questions. The results of statistical analyses indicated that the MFO group outperformed the MFI group for WTC. The content analysis of the interview also revealed students receiving MFO had more positive perception and found it more useful in enhancing WTC than those receiving MFI. Pedagogical implications are offered to teachers and material developers.

Creation of Learning Strategies for Development of English Reading Skill by the Extensive Reading in EFL Classroom

The research aimed to develop the reading process and comprehension through extensive reading of 30 English major freshmen students conducted at Lampang Rajabhat University, Thailand, in the academic year of 2018. Data was collected by using pre-and post-test. Several follow-up activities and guidelines, including formative and summative assessments, were also conducted. Moreover, the study also surveyed the coursework book at the end of the semester, which promotes learning strategies through comprehension questions of pre-and post-activities in class throughout the whole semester. All comprehension tests were valued in descriptive statistics, and the paired sample t-test was analyzed by SPSS Statistics in the study. Based on the statistical data, the overall results revealed that pre-and post-test had significant differences in scores at the level 0.01, which means that the post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. Further results were evaluated through qualitative measures including further discussion and conclusion.

Uniting genetic and geographic databases to understand the relationship between latitude and population demography

It was not known that phylogenetic analysis of population genetic data would show geographic structure when Avise et al.(1979) introduced the unnamed field of phylogeography. Since then, the field has grown from using single gene fragments to whole genomes resulting in more than 22,000 publications. This seemingly simple relationship between geography and genetic variation has provided the foundation for studying speciation, species delimitation, hybrid zone dynamics, adaptation, conservation genetics, community assembly, and historical demography to name a few (see Burbrink & Ruane,2021; Edwards et al.,2016). As with many burgeoning fields, there is often little consideration of how to make data sets accessible for future researchers addressing more comprehensive questions under a common framework. For example, it is important in biogeography to examine how shared environments or barriers affect population structure across communities of species, or test if range size or latitude are correlated with genetic diversity across taxa (Myers et al.,2019; Smith et al.,2017). However, addressing these types of questions using existing data requires researchers to assemble large databases manually. Genetic and geographic databases used to store this information like NCBI Genbank (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) are disconnected, and often of limited general use for conducting multitaxon studies. In this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Pelletier et al.(2022) have automated the process of connecting geography to DNA sequences via the phylogatR (phylogeographic data aggregation and repurposing) database.

Scrutinizing Activities in Online Extensive Reading Classroom: Highlighting Students’ Voice

Activities of reading numerous easy texts known as Extensive reading have successfully proven in building the students’ reading motivation and interest. Different from intensive reading which forces students to comprehend all of the words in the text, this activity is really beneficial to develop a love of reading. In this study, several activities have been conducted in an online extensive reading classroom. Not by giving comprehensive questions like intensive reading, this kind of activity provides interesting classroom activities underlying their general understanding of the text, such as creating reading logs, joining group discussion, giving response on the text, creating creative writing such as making a letter to one of the characters on the story, changing ending/beginning of the story, etc. Thus, this study focuses on scrutinizing classroom activities in an online extensive reading classroom by focusing on investigating the student’s voice. A survey encompassing 149 students was conducted in order to find their perception related to the activities of extensive reading in the virtual classroom. The findings show that most of the students show positive perception on the activities. The use of online platforms such as blogs, WhatsApp, zoom and google classroom also contribute on the students’ enjoyment and engagement. It undoubtedly forces them to be active in the classroom and show their best performance during joining the classroom activities.

The interactive reading task: Transformer-based automatic item generation.

Automatic item generation (AIG) has the potential to greatly expand the number of items for educational assessments, while simultaneously allowing for a more construct-driven approach to item development. However, the traditional item modeling approach in AIG is limited in scope to content areas that are relatively easy to model (such as math problems), and depends on highly skilled content experts to create each model. In this paper we describe the interactive reading task, a transformer-based deep language modeling approach for creating reading comprehension assessments. This approach allows a fully automated process for the creation of source passages together with a wide range of comprehension questions about the passages. The format of the questions allows automatic scoring of responses with high fidelity (e.g., selected response questions). We present the results of a large-scale pilot of the interactive reading task, with hundreds of passages and thousands of questions. These passages were administered as part of the practice test of the Duolingo English Test. Human review of the materials and psychometric analyses of test taker results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach for automatic creation of complex educational assessments.

A higher incidence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy may be associated with decreased sleep and increased depression in older adults

Aim: Diabetes mellitus (DM) tends to increase with aging. Nearly half of the patients with DM develop neuropathy (DPN). Despite its high burden and morbidity, the conditions that DPN may be associated with have not been adequately studied in older adults. We aimed to identify sleep duration and comprehensive geriatric assessment components that may be associated with DPN.
 Material and Method: This is a cross-sectional retrospective study. DPN diagnosed with a medical history, neurologic examination, and electromyography (EMG). 125 diabetic older patients were included. All comprehensive geriatric assessment tests and questions about sleep quality and time were performed. We divided the patients into two groups those without neuropathy and with neuropathy and compared them.
 Results: The median age of 125 patients was 72 (min-max; 64-94). 58.8% of them were women. The percentage of married people and living with their spouse and slept for 6 hours or more had a lower percentage in the DPN group. Polypharmacy and the percentage of heart failure were significantly higher in the DPN group. Lawton-Brody score, which shows instrumental daily living activities (IADL) and geriatric depression score (GDS) was higher in the DPN group. In logistic regression, we found that depression scores were higher and sleep duration was shorter in the DPN group (respectively, odd ratio:265 p:.012; odd ratio:.1.917 p:.045)
 Conclusions: DPN in older adults may affect the functionality and be associated with fewer sleep hours and depression. Not only blood glucose regulation but also other factors such as sleep duration and depressed mood may be associated with DPN in older adults.

Exploring the role of knowledge in predicting reading and listening comprehension in fifth grade students

Various knowledge sources have been hypothesized to relate to individual differences in reading comprehension skill in developing readers. We present results from two studies using explanatory item-response models to examine the unique role of knowledge in predicting reading and listening comprehension in 5th grade students (mean age of 10.77 years). In study 1, we investigated the importance of different knowledge sources for comprehending grade-level passages. Participants were 254 students with a range of reading abilities. We found that passage-specific topic familiarity, general academic knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge were all significantly associated with the probability of correctly answering questions about a passage. In study 2, we examined the possible transfer mechanisms that allow knowledge in one area to influence comprehension in a related but unfamiliar area. Participants were 26 students embedded in an Interactive Humanities course focusing on the Renaissance period. Students listened to parallel passages on Guttenberg and the printing press and Twitter use in the Arab Spring and answered comprehension questions. The probability of answering a question about the novel Twitter passage was significantly predicted by the ability to answer the corresponding question on the familiar printing press passage. Results point to the importance of knowledge sources in accounting for variance in comprehension performance.

STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN ANSWERING READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS OF REPORT TEXT AT THIRD GRADE OF SMPN 1 BENGKULU SELATAN

This research aimed to find out the students difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions of report text and the causes of the students difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions of report text. The participants of this research were 63 third grade students at SMPN 1 Bengkulu Selatan. This research used descriptive quantitative as research design. The data were obtained through the reading comprehension test and interview section. The reading comprehension test was adapted from Mandiri textbook published by Tiga Serangkai consisted 25 questions of multiple choice. The reading comprehension test was validated by using the interpretation guidelines according to SPSS. In reliability obtains by using Cronbach’s Alpha formula in SPSS software. The result of this research showed that students faced some difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions of report text and there were some causes of their difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions of report text. The students difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions were locating pronouns, understanding vocabulary and making inference. Making inference became the most difficult aspect with percentage of students who answered questions about making inference incorrectly was 73%. The causes of students difficulties in answering reading comprehension questions of report text were lack of vocabulary, lack of strategies and lack of interest or motivation.

A Case Study of Discourse-Oriented Analysis of English Reading Comprehension Test in Senior High

Reading comprehension is an important way for foreign language learners to improve their language competence, while discourse analysis is an important factor that affects reading comprehension. Previous studies have mainly focused on reading teaching guided by discourse analysis theory, and discourse-oriented analysis of English reading comprehension test is rarely involved, which is of crucial importance in high school English learning. This study adopts one case study and collects data by classroom observation and interview to inquire three different types of teachers’ beliefs about analysis of English reading comprehension test, ways of discourse-oriented analysis of English reading comprehension test items and relevant effectiveness. It is found that the more discourse knowledge is applied in class, the higher the teaching efficiency would be achieved and students’ participation would be involved in. Therefore, in reading teaching class, teachers should guide students to read and analyze the passages deeply, figuring out the thematic meaning, basic contents, stylistic features, content organization structure, language style and main idea, etc. While analyzing reading comprehension test items, teachers can apply previous acquired discourse knowledge if needed. Discourse knowledge will help teachers guide students to analyze and find out proper thinking and useful skills to do reading comprehension questions. It will also be helpful for teachers to abandon the traditional way of analyzing reading comprehension test items and organizing teaching based on the nature of discourse.