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Taking on the Role of Questioner: Revisiting Reciprocal Teaching
Author(s) -
Williams Joan A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1598/rt.64.4.6
Subject(s) - reciprocal , reciprocal teaching , confusion , comprehension , mainstream , psychology , reading comprehension , reading (process) , transition (genetics) , mathematics education , teaching method , pedagogy , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , theology , psychoanalysis , gene , programming language
English learners (ELs) often struggle with asking questions in the classroom. They frequently need support to become confident questioners when confusion arises during reading. This skill becomes even more significant when such learners transition into mainstream classrooms. One possible framework for helping ELs make this transition includes the reciprocal teaching strategies of predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing. Two of the strategies, questioning and clarifying, provide support for all students, but are of particular note for facilitating the skill of confident questioning by ELs. The kind of foundation that provides effective support of comprehension strategies like reciprocal teaching requires explicit instruction. This article provides a detailed description of the use of reciprocal teaching as a support for guiding ELs into the self‐assured role of questioner during the reading of expository text. Examples from transcripts demonstrate the ability of these students to effectively use questioning to facilitate the comprehension of what they read.