LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:12 December 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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An Investigation into Reading Comprehension Questions of Secondary EFL Textbooks in Ethiopia: Grades 11 and 12 in Focus

Yihun Birhanu Aynalem (MA)
Alamirew Gebiremariam Tessemand, Ph.D.


Courtesy: https://www.neaea.com/textbook/english-textbook/

Abstract

The objective of this research was to investigate into the reading comprehension questions of EFL textbooks in Ethiopian government secondary school classes. The research was conducted using descriptive case study design based on sociocultural theory of teaching EFL. Data was collected from grades 11 and 12 EFL textbooks which were the case participants of the study. Reading comprehension questions of the textbooks were recorded into a grid of word file and the researchers analyzed independently and iteratively using descriptive content analysis. In doing so, reading comprehension levels adapted from Barrett (1968) taxonomy were used. The inter-rater value between the researchers was computed using consistency ratio formula of Cohen’s Kappa, and the agreement coefficient value for identifying comprehension sublevels was 0.84. This value refers to a substantial consistency of the results presented and interpreted. Based on the descriptive content analysis, the findings of the study showed that EFL textbooks of teaching reading are dominated by literal comprehension level in general and recognition/recall of details (L1) and recognition/recall of comparison (L4) sublevels in particular. They deemphasized reorganizational sublevels such as classifying (R1), outlining (R2), summarizing (R3), and synthesizing (R4). Though inferential comprehension was the next preponderant thinking level next to literal comprehension, it was prevailed by inference of comparison (I4) sublevel which demanded the contextual meanings of words. Evaluation and personal response comprehension sublevels, on the other hand, were of insignificant representations. Grounded in the findings, it is recommended that secondary EFL textbooks of teaching reading should elicit comprehension questions proportional to different thinking levels that students can capitalize on developing their general comprehension abilities.

Keywords: Ethiopia, Secondary EFL Textbooks, Reading comprehension taxonomies, comprehension sublevels

1. Introduction

From the viewpoint of sociocultural theory (SCT hereafter), language teaching refers to the educational milieu in which students learning opportunities result from the mediating artifacts that guide them to achieve higher mental functions (Wertsch, 1991). Unlike Piaget (1970) who contends that children’s cognitive developmental is a pre-requisite for their learning, and hence cognitive constructivism is the priority, Vygotsky (1978) attributes the origin of humans’ higher mental constructions to the social and cultural situations in which they grow up. Such an epistemological argument has an implication on the conceptualization and implementation of mediated language teaching in the actual educational settings. For students’ potential or missed learning opportunities of language, SCT proponents contend, the goal-oriented mediating instructional artifacts such as EFL textbooks deemed relevant to the present study have a significant impact.

EFL textbooks are thus the mediating artifacts (instructional tools) that guide students to the object of learning the target language (Richards, 2001). In the context of teaching reading, they determine what reading comprehension levels students need to learn during lessons. This is to say that the design and practice of teaching reading comprehension arise from the theoretical perspective of educational objectives of thinking levels that textbooks comprise of. With this regard, researchers made use of a variety of taxonomies of cognitive demands designed by Bloom (1956), Marzano et al (1988), and Anderson et al. (2001). Bloom, in particular, divided the thinking processes which are hierarchically complex into six categories- knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Anderson et al. (2001) reviewed this taxonomy of cognitive domains and redefined it by transposing the last two higher order cognitive levels. Such a repositioning results from the assumption that evaluation is a precursor thinking skill to a creative work otherwise known as synthesis.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Yihun Birhanu Aynalem (MA)

Alamirew Gebiremariam Tessemand, Ph.D.

College of Humanities, Language Studies, Journalism and Communication
Department of Foreign Languages & Literature
Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
yihunbirhanu@gmail.com
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