Reading Questions of Junior High School English Textbooks

 

 

Dyah Sunggingwati

 

 

Reading is emphasized in English instruction at junior high school. A reading text in the textbooks is usually in the form of a text followed by some questions as the common technique to improve reading comprehension. This study formulates three research problems: (1) to what extent the reading questions cover reading comprehension in the textbooks of Let’s Learn English, (2) to what extent the higher levels of the textbooks correspond with the higher levels of reading comprehension questions, and (3) to what extent the reading questions have followed particular sequence patterns. To answer the questions this study was conducted by describing the data with the design of an evaluative procedure. To analyse the data, the criteria of Barret’s taxonomy and sequence patterns were applied. The results reveal that the reading questions in the textbooks of Let’s Learn English 1, 2, and 3 cover three levels of reading comprehension based on Barret’s taxonomy, namely literal, inferential, and evaluative. The literal level is dominated by Let’s Learn English 2, followed by Let’s Learn English 3 and Let’s Learn English 1. The inferential level is dominated by Let’s Learn English 1, followed by Let’s Learn English 3 and Let’s Learn English 2. Let’s Learn English 1 has more questions I the level of evaluation than Let’s Learn English 3 and Let’s learn English 2.

 

 

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Sunggingwati, D. (2003). Reading questions of junior school English textbooks. Bahasa dan Seni, 31(1), 84-105.

 

 

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