Improving English reading for EFL readers

As regards comprehension questions, you can ask some general questions (top-down questions) about the reading text through which you can have a clear idea about their understanding of it!

The analysis of the data depends on the questions you ask! If the resulting data is qualitative, then you need a thematic analysis of it; if you have quantitative data, then you need to analyze it statistically!

But if you ask about the analysis of a concept map, the questions normally result in qualitative data, which are thus analyzed thematically!

I teach at a university in Bangladesh. Though I am a teacher of English literature, last semester I took a basic language course. For a couple of year since my lecturer-ship at a private university, I teach a course on four skills.

To test students' reading comprehension, you can give various types of questions which they will not get directly from the given passage, rather they will be able to use their own words, find out specific information, follow the sentence structures as mentioned in the given comprehension, get the deeper meaning of specific idioms and phrases. Questions might include short questions, writing summary or short paragraph by following the given structure, paraphrasing the given passage, matching. Even you can give them options to play with words.

Thank you for your interesting question. All I mentioned is what I do in my language class. Best wishes for you, dear Meng Zhao .

Depending on the depth of knowledge acquired you want to test, you can make questions on key concepts or the details of the reading material.

You are not specific about the age of your students. For younger students, it may be helpfull to improve their reading fluency at the same time. In this respect I favour reading acquisition along with language acquisition. In this latter respect I propose the strategy argued for in "Philosophy and teaching reading to home-schoolers: phonics vs. whole words" une 2016 om Asian Academic Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 3(6). Also availbly on the Research Gate.

نعم

Reading comprehension is contingent on several affective, cognitive, and linguistic processes, which can be reciprocally influential. For instance, positive attitudes towards English could affect both reading fluency and reading strategy use, and it could mediate the liaison between reading fluency and the use of reading strategies. Therefore, rendering piquant reading content and tasks, improving vocabulary and syntactic knowledge, and furnishing training on cognitive and metacognitive reading strategies could be drivers for improving English reading proficiency and fluency among EFL readers.

Concerning your inquiry about assessing EFL reading, the approach of dynamic assessment could be fruitful since it can help assess EFL reading abilities and promote reading development in English. As for your question of the frequent data analysis approach in EFL reading comprehension and visualization, relevant systematic reviews indicated the trend skews towards the use of quantitative analysis. You could go through the following articles for relevant insights.

Abdolrezapour, P. (2017). Improving L2 reading comprehension through emotionalized dynamic assessment procedures. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 46(3), 747–770. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-016-9464-9

Ali, N. A. S. (2021). The impact of story pyramid strategy on university students’ reading comprehension performance level. Materials Today: Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.04.523

Bahari, A., Zhang, X., & Ardasheva, Y. (2021). Establishing a computer-assisted interactive reading model. Computers & Education, 172, 104261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104261

BalıkcıoĿlu, G., & Efe, T. (2016). The role of metacognitive activities on university level preparatory class EFL learners' reading comprehension. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 232, 294–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.10.024

Ha, H. T. (2021). Exploring the relationships between various dimensions of receptive vocabulary knowledge and L2 listening and reading comprehension. Language Testing in Asia, 11(1), 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40468-021-00131-8

Habók, A., & Magyar, A. (2019). The effects of EFL reading comprehension and certain learning-related factors on EFL learners’ reading strategy use. Cogent Education, 6(1), 1616522. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1616522

Heggernes, S. L. (2021). A critical review of the role of texts in fostering intercultural communicative competence in the English Language classroom. Educational Research Review, 33, 100390. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2021.100390

Li, H., Majumdar, R., Chen, M.-R. A., & Ogata, H. (2021). Goal-oriented active learning (GOAL) system to promote reading engagement, self-directed learning behavior, and motivation in extensive reading. Computers & Education, 171, 104239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104239

Moghadam, Z. B., Narafshan, M. H., & Tajadini, M. (2021). Development of a critical self in the language reading classroom: An examination of learners’ L2 self. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 100944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2021.100944

Muijselaar, M. M. L., Swart, N. M., Steenbeek-Planting, E. G., Droop, M., Verhoeven, L., & de Jong, P. F. (2017). Developmental relations between reading comprehension and reading strategies. Scientific Studies of Reading, 21(3), 194–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2017.1278763

Reiber-Kuijpers, M., Kral, M., & Meijer, P. (2021). Digital reading in a second or foreign language: A systematic literature review. Computers & Education, 163, 104115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2020.104115

Yang, Y., & Qian, D. D. (2020). Promoting L2 English learners’ reading proficiency through computerized dynamic assessment. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 33(5–6), 628–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2019.1585882

Good luck,