Effectiveness of Pre-Questions in Teaching Reading Texts: A Case of Grade VIII Students

Abstract

This thesis entitled Effectiveness of Pre-questions in Teaching Reading Texts: A Case of Grade Eight Students was an attempt to find out the effectiveness of pre questions in teaching reading texts in grade eight and to provide pedagogical suggestions in teaching reading texts. To fulfill these objectives, I used both primary and secondary sources of data. I conducted an orientation class for two days (i.e., two periods) and collected the required data from B.B. memorial English Secondary School Class Eight as the primary source of data. I selected 30 students by administering a proficiency pre test. After that the students were ranked from the first position to the 30th position on the basis of the result of the proficiency pre test. Then the students with odd-numbered positions were grouped under Treatment Group and those with even-numbered positions were grouped under Controlled Group. Thus, the two groups, each comprising 15 students, were formed attempting best to maintain homogeneity in proficiency. I taught each group 20 periods and every period I gave a class test to both groups Comprehension was assumed to be reflected on the four 'components of comprehension', namely, objective question answers, short answers, description writing and summary writing-all text-based. The pre and post questions were designed with this assumption in mind. I used the pre-questions for Treatment Group but I did not use them for Controlled Group. I collected all answer papers and scored them out. As the secondary sources I used different books and journals which were already collected and prepared by other writers, resources, organizations. They mainly include books in the field of ELT by nationally and internationally recognized authors, Lower Secondary English Curriculum, English Language Teaching training manual etc. The collected raw data were minutely analyzed using the simple statistical tools sketches, percentage, mean etc. I found that the use of pre-questions was effective in teaching reading texts for comprehension. This study consists of four chapters: introduction, methodology, analysis and interpretation and findings and recommendations. The first chapter (introduction) deals with the general background, review of the related literature, objectives of the study and significance of the study. The second chapter introduces methodology, which consists of sources of data, population of the study, sampling procedure¸ tools of data collection, process of data collection, and limitations of the study. The third chapter (analysis and interpretation) includes the raw data and its analysis using tables, charts, diagrams etc. The fourth chapter deals with findings and recommendations of the study.