An Investigation of Reading Comprehension Questions in the Coursebooks “Yedi İklim” and “Yeni Hitit” for Teaching Turkish As A Foreign Language

Year 2021, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 1 - 16, 03.07.2021

Elçin Esmer

Abstract

The study aims to analyze the forms and levels of the reading comprehension questions in the coursebooks “Yedi İklim” and “Yeni Hitit” commonly used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language based on Widdowson (1993) question form classification and Barrett’s (1976) taxonomy of cognitive and affective dimensions of reading comprehension. The data for the study consisted of two hundred seventy two reading comprehension texts and all questions related with them in the coursebooks. The descriptive survey research design was employed in the study. Also quantitative method was applied to identify the frequency of the question forms and levels in the data. Results revealed that most of the questions in both coursebooks were in the form of Wh-question and these questions took place in the literal level as the basic/lowest level. The questions in both coursebooks required students to understand ideas and information explicitly stated in the reading text. In other words, they did not require detailed thinking. Therefore it was thought that they did not develop students’ thinking process adequately.

Keywords

Reading comprehension questions, lower and higher level of thinking, Widdowson’s question form classification, Barrett’s taxonomy, coursebooks.

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