The Influence of Inferential Questions Versus Textually Explicit Questions on EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension Test Performance at Different Proficiency Levels

The purpose of this research is to investigate which type of questions, textually explicit (TE) or inferential (IF) questions, would best facilitate text comprehension by Iranian EFL learners at three proficiency levels (i.e. low, intermediate, and high). In the study, six classes of Iranian high school students (N=108) were classified into three proficiency levels. Three classes were selected as group 1 (or IF group) and three classes were selected as group 2 (or TE group). Group 1 received reading instruction accompanied by IF questions, while the other received reading instruction accompanied by TE questions. The treatment was carried out in six sessions during a two-month period. The performance of the students in the two groups and their subgroups (low, intermediate, and high subgroups) were then analyzed. The results of the current study indicated that reading instruction entailing different types of reading questions (i.e. TE or IF), influenced the reading comprehension of the participants but there was no significant difference between them. This study, furthermore, showed that the participants in Group 1 and 2 benefited from their reading instruction according to their proficiency levels. That is, in terms of gain, the higher proficiency participants showed more gain scores, in both TE and IF groups, than the intermediate students proficiency participants, who, in turn, had a significantly better performance than those in the low group.