
P. KÄNGSEPP
386
mentation with students in other elementary grades could be
beneficial for more reliable conclusions on the effect of an-
swering inferential support questions on promoting reading skills.
The limitations in tests (no normative test only teachers choices
of questions, no memory test, no vocabulary test, no fluency
test); possible floor effect and ceiling effect of scores, and the
limitations of the analysis that no predictive relationships can
not be said. So the results remain in descriptive level but they
give some important aspects to study questioning in compre-
hension in the future.
Conclusion
In summary asking inferential support questions has positive
effect on the text comprehension only in certain conditions. The
impact of support questions depends on the students’ grade
level as well as on the timing of support questions. Our findings
also suggest that asking of support questions can be used for
directing the attention to specific information and to prompt to
specific connection. The outcomes of this study have practical
implications for elementary grade teaching of reading compre-
hension skills by using support questions. Especially, these
outcomes might be helpful in providing texts (study aids) used
for exercising reading comprehension with inferential support
questions. When preparing these assignments, the combined
impact of the both factors—readability of the underlying text
and timing of inferential support questions—must be taken into
account. When using an easy readable text answering of infer-
ential support questions promotes text comprehension rather
independently of their timing. In the case of texts that are
harder to read but still within the power of students, inferential
questions that are posed after reading might more effective for
promoting reading comprehension. When the text is clearly
beyond the capabilities of students, answering of inferential
support questions generally has no positive effect on text com-
prehension and corresponding reading assignments can barely
promote students’ skills of reading with understanding.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Edgar Krull for his comments and advice
in preparation of the article.
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