The Effect of Knowing the Main Idea of a Text on Answering Multiple-Choice Questions Which Look for the Details of the Text

Year 2013, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 67 - 77, 01.06.2013

Pegah Merrikhi

Abstract

This paper describes a classroom research with two groups of high school students to clarify the effect of knowing the main of a text (here, the name of a story) on answering multiple-choice questions which look for details. The two groups read the same story with an appropriate level of difficulty which was suitable for their level of English proficiency. The only difference between their stories was that one of them had the name of the story above it and the other did not have. Each group then took a reading comprehension test and their mean scores were compared. The findings suggest that the group of students who read the story with the name of it above did not excel the group who read the same story without its name when answering to questions looking for minute aspects of the story. This lack of excellence shows that knowing the main idea of a text does not play an important role in answering reading comprehension questions which look for details of a text. The results suggest more research in this realm and also the need for instruction on answering reading comprehension texts. 

Keywords

reading comprehension, reading instruction, reading process, second language learning

References

• being misleaded by the names or titles of a reading text when answering to analytical questions or
• questions looking for details. And finally it seems to be of prime importance to ask students look for
• two kind of clues while reading a text: 1) the clues which guide readers toward the minute points of
• the text 2) the clues which help readers easier and better come to the broad and main point s of a
• text such as the name or the title of the text. Future researchers who are interested to work on
• reading skill can conduct this research in different settings with different subjects; like students of
• different language background with higher proficiency in English and they can also use another kind
• of materials for treating the subjects during the course participation. Or they can use the topics whose
• name doesn’t directly imply the main point of the topic and report their findings in order to get more
• evidence in this field and help all of those worldwide who are making efforts to improve reading
• comprehension skill.
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• The picture of the story which was included in both tests Appendix 2
• The story by which reading comprehension skill of the high school students was tested. (The students
• were at an elementary level of English proficiency).
• The old lady and the bank robber
• An old lady went out shopping last Tuesday. She came to a bank and saw a car
• near the door. A man got out of it and went into the bank. She looked into the car. The
• keys were in the lock.
• The old lady took the keys and followed the man into the bank.
• The man took a gun out of his pocket and said to the clerk, “give me the money ”
• But the old lady did not see this. She went to the man, put the keys in his hand
• and said, “young man, you’re stupid Never leave your keys in your car: someone’s going to steal it ”
• The man looked at the old woman for a few seconds. Then he took his keys, ran
• out of the bank, got into his car and drove away quickly, without any money. Appendix 3
• The multiple-choice test which was made based on the above-mentioned story: 1) What was the story about?
• a) an old man b) a bank
• c) money d) a bank robbery 2) The robber came to the bank…
• a) on foot b) by car
• c) by bus d) by taxi 3) Where was the gun?
• a) in the bank b) in the car
• c) in the robber’s pocket d) in the woman’s bag 4) Who was more important in this story?
• a) the man b) the old lady
• c) the clerk d) the people