| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系在職進修碩士班 === 95 === This study aimed to explore the effects of pre-reading questions and previewing on Taiwanese senior high school students’ reading comprehension of American short stories. 124 tenth graders from a senior high school in Pingtung County participated in this study. These students were divided into Control Group (CG), Pre-reading-question Group (PQ), and Previewing Group (PV) according to the results of a pre-test. All of the subjects read three American short stories, answered a questionnaire, and then recalled the content of the stories. Before reading a story, the subjects in PQ read three pre-reading questions relevant to the content of the upcoming story and those in PV were provided with a summarized plot of the subsequent story, while the control counterparts did not receive any pre-reading guides. Major findings of the study were summarized as follows.
First, the subjects in PQ and PV greatly outperformed those in CG on the overall reading comprehension of the three American short stories. Second, previewing was more helpful to the comprehension of short stories than pre-reading questions. Third, more than half of the subjects expressed that they enjoyed reading American short stories. What’s more, the two pre-reading activities were found to make the subjects in both groups enjoy reading the American short stories more. Fourth, according to the subjects’ responses to the questionnaire, students in PQ and PV reported a positive attitude toward the pre-reading activities. They thought that pre-reading questions and previewing respectively helped them to comprehend as well as to anticipate more the content of the stories.
On the basis of the findings in this study, it is recommended that English teachers in senior high schools in Taiwan give students opportunities to read American short stories and at the same time design pre-reading activities to facilitate their comprehension. Recommended pre-reading activities include previewing and pre-reading questions. When appropriate pre-reading activities are introduced, not only students’ reading comprehension can be improved, their attitudes to English reading and the effects in English learning can be enhanced as well.
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