Question strategies in testing reading comprehension: A comparative study of pre–questioning, post–questioning, and infixing

Reading comprehension tests have always been a difficult area to language learners. This difficulty may partly stem from lack of effective strategies in dealing with reading comprehension questions at an effective time. Therefore, this study aimed at comparing three strategies relevant to reading comprehension questions: Pre-questioning, post-questioning and infixing. To conduct the study, forty-two high-school students were randomly selected. Then nine narrative passages, each three devoted to one strategy, formed the materials. Time was also carefully measured. Students met three sessions with a time span of eight days between each two sessions, and each session they were given three passages at random. Following the test, the researchers conducted an unstructured interview with the students and their teachers. Results proved that infixing questions can lead to better performance in reading comprehension tests. The study can bear both theoretical and practical implications in teaching and testing reading comprehension.