Implementing Paragraph-Level Question Creation in Reading Activities

Abstract

This study examined the effects of paragraph-level question generation as a means of promoting purposeful reading of long texts. Participants were first-year international students at a Japanese university. The generated questions were analyzed in terms of textual answerability and question type (cross-paragraph, main-idea, or detail-focused). A post-activity questionnaire was also analyzed. The findings suggest that question types varied according to paragraph function and that paragraph-level question generation clarified learners’ reading focus and supported sustained, goal-oriented reading.