The Effectiveness of Inserted Strategy Questions on Comprehension of Well-Structured and Less-Structured Expository Text Among Iranian EFL Learners at Pre-Intermediate Level of Proficiency

As students progress in their education, they are increasingly exposed to expository texts as they transit from a focus on learning how to read to a focus on learning how to learn from what they read (Chall, 1983). In this respect, this study aimed to explore the effectiveness of inserted strategy questions within well- and less-structured expository text on EFL leaner s comprehension of passages of differing levels of complexity. Participants of the study included 42 pre-intermediate EFL learners at two different Language institutions in Dezful. An independent factorial design was utilized between-participants variables (ISQs and structured text). Then the effectiveness of ISQs and well-structured text was measured by performance on a written summary task. The quantitative data were analyzing through description statistics and analyses of variance (ANOVA). The results show main effects of ISQs and structured text were found on the written summary, as was an interaction between these two factors when the cause/effect structure was presented at the more complex level. Both ISQs and well-structured text improve students’ comprehension of expository passages; however, the effect is greatest when both factors are combined, especially when the text is more complex.

Keywords:

Reading and Learning , Expository Text , Inserted Strategy Questions (ISQ) , Structured Text