Abstract
In this article I examine self-questioning as a means of enhancing students' understanding of texts, especially literary texts. Theoretical trends underlying self-questioning in reading are outlined. Next, research on the effects of self-questioning instruction is explored. Results indicate that students can be trained to ask questions during reading and that such training may lead to significant gains in reading comprehension and recall. Qualitative research indicates what approaches might be effective in the literature classroom.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Alfassi, M. (1998). Reading for meaning: The efficacy of reciprocal teaching in fostering reading comprehension in high school students in remedial reading classes. American Educational Research Journal 35(2), 309–332.
Anderson, V.& Roit, M. (1993). Planning and implementing collaborative strategy instruction for delayed readers in grades 6-10. Elementary School Journal 94(2), 121–137.
Andringa, E. (1990). Verbal data on literary understanding: A proposal for protocol analysis on two levels. Poetics. Journal of Empirical Research on Literature, the Media and the Arts 20(2), 157–172.
Ash, B.H. (1992). Student-made questions: One way into a literary text. English Journal 81(5), 61–64.
Baumann, J.F., Seifert-Kessell, N.& Jones, L.A. (1992). Effects of think-aloud instruction on elementary students' comprehension monitoring abilities. Journal of Reading Behavior 24, 143–172.
Beach, R. (1993). A teacher's introduction to reader response theories. Urbana, Illinois: National Council of Teachers of English.
Beck, T.E. (1998). Are there any questions? One teacher's view of students and their questions in a fourth-grade classroom. Teaching and Teacher Education 14(8), 871–886.
Bimmel, P.E. (1999). Training en transfer van leesstrategieën. Training in de moedertaal en transfer naar een vreemde taal, een effectstudie bij leerlingen van het voortgezet onderwijs [Training and transfer of reading strategies. Training in the mother tongue and transfer to a foreign language, a training study with students in secondary education.] 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands: Malmberg.
Block, C.C. (1993). Strategy instruction in a literature-based reading program. Elementary School Journal 94(2), 139–151.
Bowman, M.& Gambrell, L. (1981). The effects of story structure questioning upon reading comprehension. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Los Angeles, April, 13-17. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 203 301).
Braaksma, M.A.H. (2002). Observational learning in argumentative writing, unpublished thesis. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.
Britton, B.K.& Graesser, A.C. (Eds) (1996) Models of understanding text. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Brown, R., Pressley, M., VanMeter, P.& Schuder, T. (1996). A quasi-experimental validation of Transactional Strategies Instruction with low-achieving second-grade readers. Journal of Educational Psychology 88(1), 18–37.
Carnine, D.& Kinder, B.D. (1985). Teaching low-performing students to apply generative and schema strategies to narrative and expository material. Remedial and Special Education 6(1), 20–30.
Chambers, A. (1993). Tell me. Children, reading and talk. Lockwood, UK: The Thimble Press.
Cheung, S.F. (1995). Comprehension monitoring strategies: Effects of self-questions on comprehension and inference processing. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School, Division of Education.
Commeyras, M. (1995). What can we learn from students' questions? Theory into Practice 34(2), 101–106.
Commeyras, M.& Sumner, G. (1996). Literature discussions based on student-posed questions. The Reading Teacher 50(3), 262–265.
Commeyras, M.& Sumner, G. (1998). Literature questions children want to discuss:What teachers and students learned in a second-grade classroom. Elementary School Journal 99(2), 129–152.
Couzijn, M.& Rijlaarsdam, G. (1996). Learning to read and write argumentative text by observation. In G. Rijlaarsdam, H. Van den Bergh & M. Couzijn (Eds), Effective teaching and learning of writing. Current trends in research (pp. 253–273). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Dillon, J.T. (1988). The remedial status of student questioning. Curriculum Studies 20, 197–210.
Ehlers, S. (1995). Deuten als Problemlösen. [Interpretation as problem solving.] In S. Ehlers (Ed.), Lerntheorie Tätigkeitstheorie Fremdsprachunterricht (pp. 119–135). Standpunkte zur Sprach-und Kulturvermittlung 4. Munich: Goethe-Institut.
El-Koumy, A.S.A. (1996). Effects of three questioning strategies on EFL reading comprehension. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Chicago, Illinois. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 411 696).
Elshout-Mohr, M. (1992). Metacognitie van lerenden in onderwijsleerprocessen. [Metacognition of learners in teaching-learning processes.] Tijdschrift voor Onderwijsresearch 17(5), 273–289.
Ezell, H.K., Hunsicker, S.A.& Quinque, M.M. (1997). Comparison of two strategies for teaching reading comprehension skills. Education and Treatment of Children 20(4), 365–382.
Frances, S.M.& Eckart, J.A. (1992). The effects of reciprocal teaching on comprehension (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 350 572).
Getzels, J.W.& Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). From problem solving to problem finding. In I.A. Taylor& J.W. Getzels (Eds), Perspectives in creativity (pp. 90–116). Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
Glaubman, R., Ofir, L.& Glaubman, H. (1997). Effects of self-directed learning, story comprehension, and self-questioning in Kindergarten. Journal of Educational Research 90(6), 361–374.
Graesser, A.C. (1985). An introduction to the study of questioning. In A.C. Graesser& J.B. Black (Eds), The psychology of questions (pp. 1–15). Hillsdale, New Jersey/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Graesser, A.C.& McMahen, C.L. (1993). Anomalous information triggers questions when adults solve quantitative problems and comprehend stories. Journal of Educational Psychology 85, 136–151.
Graesser, A.C., Singer, M.& Trabasso, T. (1994). Constructing inferences during narrative text comprehension. Psychological Review 3, 371–395.
Graesser, A.C., Millis, K.K.& Zwaan, R.A. (1997). Discourse comprehension. Annual Review of Psychology 48, 163–189.
Gurney, D., Gersten, R., Dimino, J.& Carnine, D. (1990). Story grammar: Effective literature instruction for high school students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities 23(6), 335–342.
Hart, E.R.& Speece, D.L. (1998). Reciprocal teaching goes to college: Effects for postsecondary students at risk for academic failure. Journal of Educational Psychology 90(4), 670–681.
Huang, Z. (1992). A meta-analysis of student self-questioning strategies. Dissertation, Hofstra University (UMI Dissertation Services No. 9211456).
Hynds, S. (1990). Challenging questions in the literature classroom, Report series 5.3. Albany, New York: National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning.
Janssen, T. (1996). Asking for trouble. Teacher questions and assignments in the literature classroom. Siegener Periodicum für Empirisches Literaturwissenschaft 15(1), 8–23.
Janssen, T.M. (1998). Literatuuronderwijs bij benadering [Approaches to literature teaching.] Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers.
Kelly, M., Moore, D.W.& Tuck, B.F. (1994). Reciprocal teaching in a regular primary school classroom. Journal of Educational Research 88(1), 53–61.
Klingner, J.K.& Vaughn, S. (1996). Reciprocal teaching of reading comprehension strategies for students with learning disabilities who use English as a second language. Elementary School Journal 96(3), 275–293.
Klingner, J.K., Vaughn, S.& Shay Schumm, J. (1998). Collaborative strategic reading during social studies in heterogeneous fourth-grade classrooms. Elementary School Journal 99(1), 3–22.
King, A.& Rosenshine, B. (1993). Effects of guided cooperative questioning on children's knowledge construction. Journal of Experimental Education 61(2), 127–148.
King, A. (1994). Guiding knowledge construction in the classroom: Effects of teaching children how to question and how to explain. American Educational Research Journal 31(2), 338–368.
King, A. (1997). ASK to THINK-TELWHY®©: A model of transactive peer tutoring for scaffolding higher level complex learning. Educational Psychologist 32(4), 221–235.
King, A., Staffieri, A.& Adelgais, A. (1998). Mutual peer tutoring: Effects of structuring tutorial interaction to scaffold peer learning. Journal of Educational Psychology 90(1), 134–152.
Kitajima, R. (1997). Referential strategy training for second language reading comprehension of Japanese texts. Foreign Language Annals 30(1), 84–97.
Kooy, M. (1992). Questioning classroom questioning. Journal of Learning about Learning 5(1), 14–26.
Langer, J. (1990). The process of understanding: Reading for literary and informative purposes. Research of the Teaching of English 24(3), 229–260.
Langer, J. (1991). Discussion as exploration: Literature and the horizon of possibilities, Report Series 6.3. Albany, New York: National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning.
Lederer, J.M. (2000). Reciprocal teaching of social studies in inclusive elementary classrooms. Journal of Learning Disabilities 33(1), 91–106.
Lovett, M.W., Borden, S.L., Warren-Chaplin, P.M., Lacerenza, L., DeLuca, T.& Giovinazzo, R. (1996). Text comprehension training for disabled readers: An evaluation of reciprocal teaching and text analysis training programs. Brain and Language 54(3), 447–480.
Masuda, H.Y. (1993). The effects of reader-generated questions on the processing of expository prose. Dissertation Abstracts International 53, 12A, 4264.
Neber, H. (1996). Förderung der Wissensgenerierung in Geschichte: Ein Beitrag zum entdeckenden Lernen durch epistemisches Fragen. [Promoting knowledge-generation in history: A contribution to learning by discovery through epistemic questioning.] Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie [German Journal of Educational Psychology] 10(1), 27–38.
Neber, H. (1999). Aktives Lernen durch epistemisches Fragen: Generieren versus Kontrollieren im Kontext des Geschichtsunterrichts. [Active learning by epistemic questions: generating versus controlling in history classes.] Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie 13(4), 212–222.
Nolte, R.Y.& Singer, H. (1985). Active comprehension: Teaching a process of reading comprehension and its effects on reading achievement. The Reading Teacher 39, 24–31.
Nystrand, M.& Gamoran, A. (1991). Instructional discourse, student engagement, and literature achievement. Research in the Teaching of English 25(3), 261–291.
Olson, G.M., Duffy, S.A.& Mack, R.L. (1985). Question-asking as a component of text comprehension. In A.C. Graesser& J.B. Black (Eds), The psychology of questions (pp. 219–226). Hillsdale, New Jersey/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Otero, J.& Graesser, A.C. (2001). PREG: Elements of a model of question asking. Cognition and Instruction 19(2), 143–175.
Palincsar, A.M.& Brown, A.L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction 1, 117–175.
Palincsar, A.& Klenk, L. (1992). Fostering literacy learning in supportive contexts. Journal of Learning Disabilities 25(4), 211–225.
Penkingcarn, W. (1992). The effects of student-generated questions on the reading comprehension of high school students in Thailand. Dissertation Abstracts International 53, 12A, 4265.
Pressley, M., Brown, R., El-Dinary, P.B.& Afflerbach, P. (1995). The comprehension instruction that students need: Instruction fostering constructively responsive reading. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice 10(4), 215–224.
Rich, R.& Shepherd, M.J. (1993). Teaching text comprehension strategies to adult poor readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 5(4), 387–402.
Rosenblatt, L.M. (1938). Literature as exploration. New York: D. Appleton Century Company.
Rosenblatt, L.M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Rosenshine, B.& Meister, C.E. (1994). Reciprocal teaching: A review of the research. Review of Educational Research 64(4), 479–530.
Rosenshine, B., Meister, C.& Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of intervention studies. Review of Educational Research 66(2), 181–221.
Scardamalia, M.& Bereiter, C. (1992). Text-based and knowledge-based questioning by children. Cognition and Instruction 9(3), 177–199.
Schraw, G., Dunkle, M.E.& Bendixen, L.D. (1995). Cognitive processes in well-defined and ill-defined problem-solving. Applied Cognitive Psychology 9(6), 523–538.
Singer, H.& Donlan, D. (1982). Active comprehension: Problem-solving schema with question generation for comprehension of complex short stories. Reading Research Quarterly 17(2), 166–186.
Trabasso, T., Van den Broek, O.W.& Liu, L. (1988). A model for generating questions that assess and promote comprehension. Questioning Exchange 2, 25–38.
Trabasso, T.& Magliano, J.P. (1996). Conscious understanding during comprehension. Discourse Processes 21(2), 255–288.
van de Ven, P.H. (1996). Moedertaalonderwijs. Interpretaties in retoriek en praktijk, heden en verleden, binnen-en buitenland. [Mother tongue education. Interpretations in theory and practice, past and present, at home and abroad.] Groningen, The Netherlands: Wolters-Noordhoff.
van den Bos, K.P., Brand-Gruwel, S.& Aarnoutse, C.A.J. (1998). Text comprehension strategy instruction with poor readers. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 10, 471–498.
van der Meij, H. (1993). What's the title? A case study of questioning in reading. Journal of Research in Reading 16(1), 46–56.
van der Meij, H. (1994). Student questioning: A componential analysis. Learning and Individual Differences 6(2), 137–161.
van Dijk, T.A.& Kintsch, W. (1983). Strategies of discourse comprehension. New York/Londen: Academic Press.
Vittayarungrangsri, P. (1993). The effectiveness of student-generated question technique on reading achievement: An experimental study. PASAA 23, 47–57.
Westera, J.& Moore, D.W. (1995). Reciprocal teaching of reading comprehension in a New Zealand high school. Psychology in the Schools 32, 225–232.
Weinrich, H. (1983). Vers la constitution d'une compétence interrogative. [Towards a competence in questioning.] Zielsprache Französisch: Zeitschrift für Französisch-Unterricht in der Welt 2, 57–64.
Wong, B.Y.L. (1985). Self-questioning instructional research: A review. Review of Educational Research 55, 227–268.
Zaki, H.B. (1997). The effect of guided generative output on incidental vocabulary acquisition and retention and on text comprehension and recall. Dissertation Abstracts International 58, 03A, 850.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Janssen, T. Instruction in Self-Questioning as a Literary Reading Strategy: An exploration of empirical research. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature 2, 95–120 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020855401075
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020855401075