This document outlines the background, objectives, research questions, and significance of a study investigating the use of self-questioning reading strategies to improve reading comprehension among Malaysian secondary school students. Specifically: - The study aims to examine the pedagogical approach and effectiveness of self-questioning strategies, as well as student attitudes towards these strategies. - Previous research found self-questioning to be an effective comprehension strategy, though it has not been extensively studied in Malaysia. - The study aims to address the Malaysian education goal of developing critical thinking by applying self-questioning techniques in reading. - Relevant theories discussed include schema theory, cognitive load theory, and self-questioning theory, which

1. Contents
1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Background of the Research................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Statement of Research Problem .......................................................................................... 2
1.3 Research Objectives............................................................................................................ 3
1.4 Research Questions............................................................................................................. 3
1.5 Operational Definitions......................................................................................................... 3
1.6 Limitations of the Study........................................................................................................ 4
1.7 Significance of the Research................................................................................................ 4
Title:
Improving Reading Comprehension of Malaysian Secondary School Students via Self-
Questioning Reading Strategies
The Significance of Self-Questioning Reading Strategies for Reading Comprehension on
Malaysian Secondary School Students

2. 1.0 Introduction
Reading in general is one of the most common past-time activities across the globe
throughout centuries. Although the trend changes over places and time, reading books is
considered a beneficial activity to do doers. Confucius once said, no matter how busy you may
think you are, you must find time for reading or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.
Inculcating consistent reading habit among the members of a nation is vitally emphasized to
achieve towards developed country. Reading is one of most common ways to gain information
and expand knowledge in a subject. The rate of literacy among Malaysian adults currently has
reached up to 90%, according to Sharynn (2013). She concluded that this should allow more
Malaysians to practice reading as their common activities. In reference to the National Library of
Malaysia (2010), reading habits among Malaysians has risen as much as 1.3% in the span of
five years. However, National Library of Malaysia perceived the percentage as still low with
those aged between 10 to 40 years old only read 8 books per year in 2010 compared to 2 books
per year in 2005. They were determined that as a person grow older, he reads much lesser.
Thus, from these statistics, younger Malaysians read more than the elders in general.
1.1 Background of the Research
There are several reading strategies developed throughout the century including self-
questioning reading strategy. Self-questioning reading can be described as a form of reading in
which readers are not just looking at words on a page to understand the text but rather they ask
questions as they read while think about what the authors’ mean and his purpose for writing.
The American National Reading Panel (2010) found self-questioning the most effective strategy
to teach, based on effect size for comprehension gains. This type of reading allows reader to
stimulate their thinking as well as to help them remember what they are reading. Instruction that
is in line with self-questioning reading critical thinking employs questioning techniques that
require students to “analyse, synthesize, and evaluate information, to solve problems and make
decisions (think) rather than merely to repeat information (memorize)” (Snyders, 2008, p.91).
1.2 Statement of Research Problem
Recent studies in Malaysia showed that students in language classes are usually passive
and unable to respond critically to literary texts (Jaffar, 2004 & Hwang and Embi, 2007). In order
to encourage reading comprehension with higher memory and application retention,
Rumelhart's (1994) Interactive Model is introduced as a cognitive-based model. Information
from several knowledge sources (schemata for letter-sound relationships, word meanings,
syntactic relationships, event sequences, and so forth) are considered simultaneously. The
process of teaching critical thinking may actually lessen the problem described. Having said so,
Afzali (2012) proved in his research that lectures and rote memorization do not contribute to
critical thinking. Instructional strategies that employ students’ higher-order thinking skills have

3. proved to be helpful in improving critical thinking skills (Snyder, 2008). With the respect of
including the Malaysian Education Blueprint aspiration in producing future students with critical
thinking abilities, this research will employ to apply a reading technique on Malaysian students
which is self-questioning.
1.3 Research Objectives
The research objectives of this study are:
i. To investigate the pedagogical approach in using self-questioning reading strategies
for reading activities in ESL classroom
ii. To determine the effectiveness of self-questioning reading strategies on reading
comprehension in ESL classroom
iii. To evaluate students’ attitude towards self-questioning reading strategies for reading
activities
1.4 Research Questions
The research questions of this study are:
i. What is the pedagogical approach in using self-questioning reading strategies for
reading activities in ESL classroom?
ii. What is the effectiveness of self-questioning reading on reading comprehension in ESL
classroom?
iii. What is the students’ attitude towards self-questioning reading strategies for reading
activities?
1.5 Operational Definitions
The definitions used in this study are:
1.5.1 Reading comprehension
The term reading comprehension, according to Brummitt-Yale 2008, means the act of
understanding what you are reading which in depth is an intentional, active, interactive
process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing.
The four skills are known as (1) identifying word meanings, (2) drawing inferences, (3)
identifying the writer's technique and recognizing the mood of a passage, (4) finding
answers to questions (Lunzer and Gardner, 1979) but Spearitt (1972) modified the fourth
factor with 'the ability to follow the structure of a passage'. For the purpose of this
research, the term reading comprehension refers to students’ ability to grasp the
meaning of their reading texts critically.
1.5.2 Self-Questioning

4. According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, self-questioning refers to examination
of one's own actions and motives. Socrates, the famous philosopher from Greek,
invented self-questioning during his time to produce students who are able to think
critically (Corley & Rauscher, 2013). Over time, his approach is being modified and
reviewed to fit in modern classroom. Corley & Rauscher stated that when teachers ask
higher‐order questions and give students opportunities to develop deep explanations,
learning is enhanced across content areas. They also emphasized that teachers can
facilitate students to learn independently and consequently improve their learning skills
by modeling good questioning techniques and encouraging students to ask questions
themselves. In this study, the term self-questioning refers to a strategy employed in
reading literary texts among students.
1.5.3 Interactive reading
The term interactive reading was coined by David E. Rumelhart in 1977 from his
Interactive Reading Model. According to him, the model is described as the reading and
linguistic elements processed and interpreted together by the brain. Rayner and
Pollatsek (1989) explained that ‘in interactive models, readers are usually assumed to be
drawing upon both top-down and bottom-up information before eventually settling upon
an interpretation of the text. Readers are seen to play an active role in the process of
reading because they constantly hypothesized about the meaning of the text. For the
purpose of this research, the term refers to the action of engaging to the text as readers
read the text critically.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
This research has several limitations from the aspect of sample and timeframe. Limited
respondents participated in this study as the research is unable to reach more participants
within the time constrain. More researches in the future can be done in wider sample coverage,
variety of instruments and longer span of time.
1.7 Significance of the Research
This research may benefit students by providing them new insights on how to read more
efficiently and effectively. It is also worth mentioning that this study is parallel to the Malaysia
Ministry of Education’s National Education Blueprint which one of the five aspirations included
Quality with the aim of Malaysia being the top third countries in TIMSS and PISA in 2025. The
National Education Blueprint highlights maximizing students’ outcomes from the aspect of
thinking skills in of the 11 Shifts in the Road Map. The study is also significant to the nation by
producing future leaders who are more knowledgeable and educated when dealing with new
information.

5. 2.0 Literature Review
Self-generated questions are being thoroughly explored within instructional area for all students
in the field of reading comprehension (Taboada, 2003). With self-generated questions, students
are able to interact with their reading materials (Katayoon, 2012). Past research has not
examined how student-generated questions can improve literary text comprehension in
Malaysia despite findings from various studies reveal that student-generated questions have an
apparent significant on reading comprehension. In relation to this, few theories have been
identified to be involved in the affiliation of student-generated questions and previous knowledge
to reading comprehension.
2.1 Schema Theory
Learners’ previous knowledge is contained in dynamic cognitive structures known as
schemata (Winn & Snyder, 2001). Two factors influencing the rate of learning of a person
reading a text are new information received from the text and also his or her previous
knowledge (Anderson & Pearson, 1984). Here is where schemata are involved. The most
substantial point related to this theory is information that fits into existing schema is more easily
understood, learned and retained than those information that does not fit into an existing
schema (Slavin, 1991). According to Guastello, Beasley, & Sinatra (2000), it is the teacher’s
vital role to ensure that learners have enough background knowledge related to the new
information and also provide learners with suitable techniques or approach to associate new
information to previously learned knowledge. They justified their claims by stating that students
may not be able to comprehend the new materials if they do not acquire enough background
knowledge to link with new information. Thus, our ability to apprehend and memorize new
information critically depends on what we already know and how our knowledge is organized
(Slowiaczek & Clifton, 1980). Schema theory helps in proving the process of retaining memories
and comprehension for the learners when they are receiving new information from their reading
materials.
2.2 Cognitive Load Theory
Cognitive load is a term used to describe the amount of information processing expected
of the learner. Therefore, the theory is explained as the fewer cognitive loads a learner has to
carry, the easier his or her learning should be (Chalmers, 2003). The cognitive load theory
states that we can consequently optimize learners’ comprehension in some ways if we can
reduce the amount of unnecessary cognitive learning load which behave like obstacles in the
way of adapting working memory to long-term memory (Sweller, 1988). Due to the fact that the
working memory’s capacity is low, as Sweller mentioned, the practicality of different learning
techniques depends on their capability to decrease the amount of unessential cognitive load to
fit their memory. Van Dijk & Kintsch (1978) noted that by disregarding insignificant details, few
learning techniques may help to emphasize more important points and relationships of content

6. thus consequently facilitate learning process. When the information derived from the reading
activities, learner may digest them into chunks of questions as response to their reading
materials. Thus, student-questioning activity is one of the few techniques suggested by
Taboada (2013) in order to help improving reading comprehension.
2.3 Self-questioning Theory
Taboada (2003) listed few reasons to why students’ questions are important to
education which include the questions gather as a centre-piece for student learning in a range
of contents, a cognitive singularity that can reveal important aspects of a learner’s knowledge
structure and it relates to complex inquiry-based tasks such as problem solving. Katayoon
(2012) mentioned that questioning while reading can be considered as a type of response to
literary texts. The ability to generate effective questions in regards to the reading materials
reflects learners’ comprehension of the information gathered (Taboada, 2003). Students’
questions may enhance reading comprehension by tapping into the different elements and
relationships of a text representation (Taboada, 2003). Self-questioning instruction is likely to be
an effective approach to improve students’ text comprehension yet the majority of the self-
questioning studies in the literature mainly centred on the effect of self-questioning strategy as
post-reading tasks (Katayoon, 2012). This theory will be the centre of this research in applying
self-questioning activities on students while reading.
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