Republic of the Philippines

Sorsogon State College

School of Graduate Studies
Sorsogon City

Art of Questioning to Illiterate Adult Readers

Using the Second Language (L2)
Marra N. Cantoria
MAED-English
INTRODUCTION

Using the art of questioning in teaching reading has been a traditional

way of developing the reading skills of an individual. Questions have been used
as a tool to assess the readers’ knowledge, comprehension and even their
critical thinking skills. Questions that are well-crafted can create new learnings
and insights. On the other hand, poor questions may lead to confusion and
miscomprehension.That is why, the art of questioning is a crucial part in every
reading activity.This helps the readers analyse information,connect ideas and
concepts and articulate their thoughts thoroughly.
Questioning in reading activity can somehow assess what has been
learned, test the reader’s memory and comprehension, initiate individual
thinking in response to new information,seek views and opinions, provide an
opportunity to share his views, foster speculation, hypothesis and ideas, and
challenge the level of thinking and possibly mark a change to a higher order
thinking. (mmiweb.com.org)
Reading text are usually accompanied by comprehension questions
that require the readers to read and then answer questions about the text to
clarify and show their understanding. Yet in his discussion on the teaching of
reading, educational researcher John Macalister (2011) warns that reading
comprehension questions are overused. He argues that in order to be effective
comprehension questions must be carefully considered and crafted and
teachers need to have a clear goal for the class. Most comprehension questions
are not well designed, Macalister finds, and are therefore ineffective and
mundane in their ubiquitousness (p. 164).
However, one of the problems that is being encountered in teaching
reading is the lack of literacy of the adult readers as they are being asked
especially if the language used is L2.. Many adults are reluctant to admit their
literacy difficulties and ask for help.The National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) is
based on a different definition of literacy, and therefore follows a different
approach to measuring it. The aim of this survey is to profile the English literacy of
adults based on their performance across a wide array of tasks that reflect the
types of materials and demands they encounter in their daily lives.
Adults that are being asked questions in every reading activity may
promote a particular philosophy and set of guiding principle, outline shifts in
perspective on their performance, to provoke thought, discussion and debate if
possible ,to promote and encourage a set of practices that reduce barriers to
learning and contribute to engagement and success only if they know how to
comprehend by the use of the second language. But some adult readers are
born non-readers.They were not able to comprehend at all and synthesize the
idea of the text.
OBJECTIVES:

At the end of reading session, it is highly anticipated to develop the art of

questioning to adult readers using the second language, know the causes of
illiteracy of adult readers,compare the relative effects of several children book-
reading styles on a range of adults’ literacy skills and assess the progress of
reading skills of adult readers in reading.

RATIONALE:

HOW DO ILLITERATE ADULT READERS DEAL WITH THE ART OF QUESTIONING IN

READING WITH THE USE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE?

Many past studies of adult literacy have tried to count the number of
“illiterates” ,thereby treating literacy as a condition that individuals either do or
do not have. Such efforts are inherently arbitrary and misleading. They are also
damaging, in that they fail to acknowledge both the complexity of the literacy
problem and the range of solutions needed to address it.

SUBJECT

The subject in this study is a 43-year old woman named Rosa (Not her real
name due to the sensitivity of the research study) who lives in Fabrica, Bulan,
Sorsogon. She was the second among her four siblings, and she’s the only one
who doesn’t have a life partner due to her mental condition. She takes care of
her mother and they live together in a shanty with no reading materials at
all.She was enrolled in elementary but she only attained grade 1. And
according to her cousins, the subject was afraid to be asked by the teacher
especially in English subject.
METHODOLOGY

The researcher conducted twice a week reading session and it lasted

for three weeks. First, the subject was given an Alphabet chart and let her read
it. Rosa found it really hard to recognize the letters considering that she did only
reach Grade 1 level. The researcher went back to the fundamental lesson, by
teaching her the sounds of each alphabet in Filipino. As the session went on, she
has been refreshed of the individual sound of each letter.

The researcher noticed that she can actually read when the text is
being repeated to her. But the problem now arose. She was not able to
comprehend and not able to understand what she is reading about. The
researcher decided to read alone orally the text in Filipino. The story is entitled
‘’Pulang Watawat’’ by Maria Hazel J. Derla.

PULANG WATAWAT
Maria Hazel J. Derla

‘’Unahan tayo!’’ At sabay-sabay na nagtakbuhan ang mga magkakaibigan na sina Barbie, Anna,
Jacko at Mark. Mag-uunahan silang makarating at makuha ang pulang watawat na nasa dulo ng kalsadang
ginawa nilang laruan ng mga hapong iyon. Si Eva ang nagbabantay ng watawat na ito.
‘’Sige, takbo! Bilisan niyo!’’ Ang sigaw ni Eva sa kaniyang mga kaibigan.
 Nang biglang matapilok si Anna. Sinubukan niyang muling tumakbo ngunit hindi na niya makukuha
ang pulang watawat.Siya pa naman ang nangunguna sa kanilang takbuhan. Napaiyak si Anna, talon na
siya.Ipinangako pa naman niya ito sa bunso niyang kapatid na si Celia.
Walong kamay ang sa kanya ay bumuhat.‘’Sama-sama nating kunin ang pulang watwat.’’ Ang sabi
ng kanyang mga kaibigan.’’

After the researcher read the selection orally, she asked Rosa set of
questions to determine if she understood the short text.The questions were
repeated to her at least four times for her to fully grasp and answer them
correctly. These are the answers of Rosa:

Table 1
QUESTIONS ROSA’S ANSWERS
1.Ano ang pamagat ng kwento? Pulang Watawat
(What is the title of the story?)
2.Sinu-sino ang mga tauhan sa Eva,Jacko,Barbie,Anna,Mark
kwento? (Who are the characters in
the story?)
3.Ano ang nais nilang makuha? (What Watawat. Pulang Watawat.
do they want to get?)
4.Ano ang nangyari kay Anna? (What Natapilok si Anna.
happened to Anna?)
5.Nakuha ba ni Anna ang pulang Hindi.
watawat? (Did Anna get the red flag?)
6.Ano ang ginawa ng mga kaibigan ni Inbuhat siya san mga kaibigan niya. (in
Anna?(What did Anna’s friends do?) bicol)

Rosa was able to answer the questions correctly but it took her more or less
than 15 minutes to answer them. However, she managed to answer the
questions correctly, only if the researcher herself read the text orally.

In session 2 of reading, the researcher used another technique to improve

her comprehension in answering the questions given to her. First, the researcher
let her read the short story. It took her less than 25 minutes to finish reading the
story. Then, the researcher used laptop as to show the animation of the story
before she will be asked again set of questions.
This time, the questions that are given to her is in English language. These are her
responses:

Table 2:

QUESTIONS ROSA’S ANSWERS

1.Who are the main characters in the -
story?
2.Describe the character of the hare -
and the tortoise.
3.What did the tortoise challenge to -
the hare? Why?
4.What happened during the race? -
5.What did the hare do upon knowing -
that the tortoise won in the race?
6.What is the lesson of the story? -

In this table, it is very much clear that Rosa doesn’t have any comprehension at
all when the text is in L2. So the researcher tried to rephrase the questions in the
simplest way as possible .But the result was still the same. Finally, the researcher
code switched the story and the questions.
The questions were also translated to Filipino.
Table 3:

QUESTIONS ROSA’S ANSWERS

1.Sinu-sino ang mga pangunahing Si pagong at kuneho
tauhan sa kwento?
2.ILarawan ang katangian ni kuneho Si kuneho mahambugon
at pagong. Si pagong naman diri. Maboot siya.
3.Ano ang hinamon ng pagong kay Magkaroon ng paligsahan. Dahil
kuneho? Bakit? mahambog si kuneho.
4.Ano ang nangyari sa paligsahan? Natulog si kuneho at diretso diretso si
pagong.
5.Ano ang ginawa ng kuneho nang Hiyang-hiya si kuneho.
malaman niya na nanalo si pagong sa
paligsahan?
6.Ano ang aral na nakuha mo sa Diri dapat maghambog.
kwento?

In the 3rd reading session, the researcher now used questions cards – these are
set of cards that contain questions which are more likely to be answered by the
adults for they are covering the different aspects of life’s questions in terms of
mental,social,physical,emotional and spiritual aspects. This time, the question is
in English Language.
The researcher let the subject choose eight question cards to be answered. And
these are the questions that she had picked. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to
understand again the content of the question even if the researcher rephrased
again the questions in a simplest way as possible it could be. Unfortunately, the
result was still the same.so the researcher translated the questions into Filipino.

.
Table 4:

QUESTIONS (Translated into Filipino) ROSA’S ANSWER

1.Ano ang iyong pinakamalaking Wala po
kabiguan bilang dalaga?
2.Ano ang pinakamalaking alalahanin Ang mawala si mama
mo sa buhay?
3.Paano mo pinapalakas ang loob ng Sinasabi ko na ‘’Kaya mo yan.’’
isang tao?
4.Anu-ano ang mga pag-uugaling Singungaling, palaaway, pangit ang
ayaw mo sa isang tao? ugali
5.Ano ang pinaka mahalagang Nang tanggapin ko si Kristo bilang
desisyon na nagawa mo sa buhay tagapagligtas ko
mo?
6.Madalas ka bang magmahal? Oo
7.Anu-anong mga talento mo ang nais Pagluto at pagkanta
mo pang linangin?

These are the set of methodologies conducted by the researcher, as to transpire

the objectives of the case study.

DISCUSSION

The art of questioning has been shown to engage students in reading

while also supporting them to gain meaning. However, most of the research in
using art of questioning focuses on its use with young learners;it doesn’t go
beyond its perspectives. Adult readers who are lack of literacy should be put
into consideration too.
In this research, the subject was being asked comprehension questions
using the English language. To further discuss this condition, in the first place, the
subject has mental condition ever since she was born. She has disorder in her
mental aspect which really made her illiterate.And because of their socio
economic status, she wasn’t given any treatment for her mental health. She did
not experience such medication. But the subject was then able to obtain her
school level but only in Grade 1.The subject experienced such nervousness
whenever she will be asked by her teachers especially her English teacher.
The researcher did various techniques to help the subject to fully
comprehend and be able to make inferences. It is highly expected in this case
study that the subject would have improvement in terms of answering questions
using the second language. But due to her age, which actually said to be has
lesser chance to learn. As what some of the well renowned psychologists say,
young children are more competent, active agents of their own conceptual
development compared to adults. In short, the mind of the young child has
come to life (Bruner,1972,1981a, b; Carey and Gelman,1991, Gardner, 1991 and
Brown,1986; Wellman and Gelman,1992)
Another objective that was stated in this case study is to know the
causes of illiteracy of adult readers .Illiteracy in individuals stems from different,
generally inter-related causes insurmountable barriers of those
concerned.(www.foundationalalphabetisation.org) In the case of the subject, it
is congenital because of her mental condition. Another thing that contributes to
her severe illiteracy is their family’s economic status-difficult living conditions,
lack of books and lack of stimulation as to the importance of reading and
dropping at school as early as Grade 1.
Comparing the relative effects of several children book-reading styles on
a range of adults’ literacy skills is also transpired in this case study. The subject
was presented children stories and and later on, a complex one. Considering
that the subject is illiterate, she ought to start from the basic forms of reading
materials. There is a relative effect of using children books to adults and
children.They both tend to start from the very first step in learning to read.For the
subject, since she is illiterate, it doesn’t matter at all whatever reading materials
will be used because after all, she still can’t fully understand the text about.
Finally, one of the aims of this research is to assess the progress of reading
skills of adult readers in reading. The varying ages of adult learners also has
implications for instruction. Although most adults who receive literacy instruction
are in their 20s and 30s, along with an increasing number of youth who have
dropped out of high school, a significant portion of learners—18 percent—are
over 40. That percentage can be expected to increase during economic
downturns and shifts that require adults to further develop their skills to meet the
literacy demands of available jobs. Understanding this older group of learners is
important because adults as young as mid-30s may experience some age-
related changes in brain processing. Though most of the processes involved in
reading and writing appear to be largely unchanged in later adulthood, older
adults do experience declines in areas affected by visual perception and speed
of processing—changes that might need consideration when planning
instruction and practice.(www.nap.edu.read)

INTERVENTION

Acquiring literacy skills is critical for all adults. Literacy can empower an
individual to be an active citizen in the democratic process, open up
educational and employment opportunities that can lead to economic stability
(e.g., deFur & Runnells, 2014), facilitate health and well- being (Taggart &
McKendry, 2009), create access to recreation and leisure activities, and
enhance self- confidence (van Kraayenoord, 1994). Acquiring even rudimentary
literacy skills can increase social interaction, leading to a greater sense of
belonging (e.g., Forts & Luckasson, 2011).

The researcher used varied techniques to encourage the subject to

learn more and improve her literacy. Motivation is essential. Adults with extensive
support needs have given the opportunity to set personal goals that ensure that
their reasons for continued learning are meaningfully embedded within their
literacy learning activities. The researcher also gave services, and supports
around adults’ goals and also, used systematic instruction to teach new skills,
but do so within integrated skill instruction that includes each aspect of literacy.

RECOMMENDATION

All of the studies documented in this case study may have been improved
by the future researchers in terms of varying interventions, demonstrating what
illiterate adults’ needs that they may acquire new literacy skills well into
adulthood. And the art of questioning using the L2 must be enhanced too.
These findings support claims of researchers and practitioners who have long
advocated that literacy instruction for this group should continue beyond formal
age (e.g., Moni et al., 2011).

These illustrations can be examples of interventions too that may use for future
research.
REFERENCES:

John Macalister (2011) p. 164

Bruner,1972,1981a, b; Carey and Gelman,1991, Gardner, 1991 and Brown,1986;

Wellman and Gelman,1992

www.foundationalalphabetisation.org

.www.nap.edu.read

DeFur & Runnells, 2014

Taggart & McKendry, 2009

Van Kraayenoord, 1994

Forts & Luckasson, 2011

Moni et al., 2011

van Kraayenoord, C.E. (1994). Literacy for adults with an intellectual disability in
Australia. Journal of Reading, 37(7), 608–610