Comparing the Effects of Practicing Explicit and Implicit Questions on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners Reading Comprehension Performance

The importance of reading comprehension as one of the key language learning skills is known to anybody engaged in language learning and teaching. However, an inclusive comprehension of a text requires mastery of different reading sub skills including not only the explicit meaning of the text but also its implicit meaning.  Whether the students who receive implicit questions after reading a text have better reading comprehension or those who receive explicit questions has been the main question to get verified across Iranian University students. As such, a general proficiency test made by Oxford University Press and the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate was administered to 90 General English students of both genders majoring in various courses of study in Tafresh Azad University, and a homogenised selection of 60 were put randomly into two classes to serve as participants. Then, ten reading passages from the book Select Readings Intermediate were selected and two sets of items were developed explicit items were practiced in one class and implicit ones in another. Finally, a post test of reading comprehension including forty multiple choice items of both types was used to verify any impact from the instruction. It was concluded that practice with either type of items results in similar levels of comprehension.