The question answer method and reading comprehension

Abstract

The Question-Answer method is one of the oldest methods used in education. This method is also known as the Socratic method. This study tried to identify the influence of the Question-Answer method on the reading comprehension of English texts by students. This research was pre-experimental, it had a population of 25 participants of fourth semester “B” from the Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros at the Universidad Técnica de Ambato. The treatment was carried out with the entire population of students. Each of the learners read the different readings presented, and actively participated in each of the prepared sessions. Most of the questions asked were planned in advance, with the intention of promoting critical thinking and understanding of readings, some questions were added during the sessions and depending on the context. There were used two tools as a pre-test and a post-test on reading comprehension, they were adapted from a Preliminary English Exam (PET) and the different readings used by the researcher. In the statistical part, a T-student was developed, to observe and verify the influence that this method could have on the reading ability of the students. The results showed that through this method a positive influence was obtained in the reading comprehension of the participants, in the reading of the English language.