Content area
Developed by Beck and McKeown in the 1980s, Questioning the Author (QtA) emphasises active engagement with texts to construct meaning rather than passive information extraction. Despite numerous studies attempting to solve challenges in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, there is a lack of interpretive studies that investigate this issue from the actual field. This exploratory study investigated how EFL teachers' implementation of QtA and their perspectives toward the use of the QtA strategy in teaching reading comprehension in Saudi secondary schools through nine interviews and eighteen classroom observations, analysed thematically. Findings showed that effective QtA use requires lengthy, relevant passages to facilitate critical analysis, but Saudi curricula primarily offer short, culturally disconnected texts, reducing student engagement. Despite this, teachers viewed QtA positively, noting it improved reading attitudes and classroom language practice, though its effectiveness varied by proficiency level. The study highlights the need for better-aligned instructional materials while affirming the potential of QtA in EFL instruction.
Developed by Beck and McKeown in the 1980s, Questioning the Author (QtA) emphasises active engagement with texts to construct meaning rather than passive information extraction. Despite numerous studies attempting to solve challenges in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, there is a lack of interpretive studies that investigate this issue from the actual field. This exploratory study investigated how EFL teachers' implementation of QtA and their perspectives toward the use of the QtA strategy in teaching reading comprehension in Saudi secondary schools through nine interviews and eighteen classroom observations, analysed thematically. Findings showed that effective QtA use requires lengthy, relevant passages to facilitate critical analysis, but Saudi curricula primarily offer short, culturally disconnected texts, reducing student engagement. Despite this, teachers viewed QtA positively, noting it improved reading attitudes and classroom language practice, though its effectiveness varied by proficiency level. The study highlights the need for better-aligned instructional materials while affirming the potential of QtA in EFL instruction.
Keywords: thematic analysis, reading comprehension, Questioning the Author, reading, EFL classrooms
Recent findings from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicate that Saudi Arabian students demonstrated reading proficiency that falls below the established baseline level (Level 2) and exhibited performance that is below the average of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD; PISA, 2022). Consequently, a considerable proportion of students encounter difficulties with fundamental reading skills, including the ability to construct meaning, formulate inferences, and engage in comparative or contrastive analysis of ideas. These competencies are typically assessed at or above Level 2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. While students in Saudi Arabia have been shown to be capable of completing basic reading tasks such as identifying the main idea in short texts or locating explicit information, more complex tasks often present significant challenges. These include the ability to comprehend extensive textual material, to interpret abstract concepts, and to differentiate between facts and personal opinions (PISA, 2022). A notable finding was that, when comparing results from 2018 to 2022, there was slight change in the reading scores of students, suggesting that challenges persist over time (Alkhudaydi, 2022).
Despite decades of research in reading comprehension, it is still one of the most complex cognitive activities. Reading comprehension aims to extract and construct meaning (Snow, 2002) and help people construct mental representations of the meaning and purpose of the texts (van Moort et al., 2021). Reading comprehension needs the coordination of multiple linguistic and cognitive processes, including word reading ability, working memory, inference generation, comprehension monitoring, vocabulary, and prior knowledge (Perfetti et al., 2005). Thus, reading comprehension is of paramount importance for students' academic success in schools, daily life, and the workplace. Despite the complexity of reading comprehension in the first or native language of an individual, in the second language reading comprehension brings an extra source of challenges, such as limited vocabulary knowledge and difficulties in processing syntactic structures (Smith et al., 2018).
A considerable amount of literature has indicated that learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) face many reading comprehension difficulties (Duke & Pearson, 2009). For example, studies indicated that learners in public education often have weak reading comprehension skills (AlHarbi, 2022), and English teachers have noticed that students are not able to read English fluently (Alshammari, 2022). Many reading comprehension teaching strategies have been used to help students enhance their proficiency in reading comprehension, such as think-aloud (Al-Qahtani, 2020), flipped classroom (Alsmari, 2020), cooperative learning (Al-Mubireek, 2021), self-questioning (Aldossari & Aldajani, 2021), and mind mapping (Alqasham & Al-Ahdal, 2022). Despite numerous studies attempting to solve challenges in the EFL context, there is a lack of interpretive studies that investigate this issue from the actual field.
As far as the researcher is aware, there is no research in the Saudi EFL context concerning the ways EFL teachers use QtA to enhance students' comprehension and how they conceptualise implementing QtA in their classrooms. Although a considerable amount of literature focuses on the impact of teaching strategies on reading comprehension, there is almost none in which the learners took an active role by using QtA for reading comprehension in the Saudi context. Hence, a knowledge gap and research contribution have been identified regarding the impact of using QtA on enhancing reading comprehension skills for L2 learners in the Saudi Arabia context. This study problematizes the low level of reading comprehension among second language learners and suggests using the QtA strategy for the development of teaching reading comprehension for EFL students. In the Saudi Arabian context, L2 refers to English as a second language, while Arabic is the official and native language (L1). English is taught as a compulsory subject in Saudi schools and is widely used in higher education, business, and international communication. Consequently, within the Saudi context, the term L2 is predominantly used to denote English as a second language, acquired and utilised after Arabic. Thus, I collected data for this study in the Saudi context, which is a country that considers English to be a foreign language.
This paper aims to explore how EFL teachers implement QtA strategy in secondary schools and their opinions of QtA. The following questions framed the research:
1. How do the EFL teachers implement QtA in Saudi secondary classes?
2. What do EFL teachers think of teaching reading comprehension using the Questioning the Author strategy in EFL classes?
This study was an exploratory study to investigate how EFL teachers implement the QtA and to explore teachers' perspectives and attitudes toward the use of the QtA strategy in teaching reading comprehension in Saudi secondary schools. I collected data from nine interviews and 18 lesson observations with nine EFL teachers who worked in nine Saudi public secondary schools. I used thematic analysis to understand the data and develop findings from the teachers' data. By answering the research questions, I sought to provide teachers with additional understanding about how they can use the QtA in teaching reading comprehension for EFL students.
Literature Review
There is a consensus in existing reading comprehension literature in L1 and L2 showing that reading strategies contribute critically to improving students' skills (Anderson, 2005; Do & Le Thu Phan, 2021). This reflects a shared understanding across first and second language settings; effective reading strategies are essential for developing students' reading comprehension. Regardless of language background or educational context, incorporating strategic approaches to reading instruction can significantly improve learners' ability to engage with and understand texts. Thus, knowing how teachers implement strategies for reading comprehension is an essential feature of reading learning. The QtA strategy has been widely recognised for its effectiveness in teaching reading comprehension in L1 contexts since the 1980s (Beck et al., 2021). Considering this established background, this study aimed to explore and explain the implementation of the QtA strategy in L2 contexts.
QtA was developed by Beck and McKeown (2002) in the United States in the 1980s. The first book was published in 1997, entitled Questioning the Author: An Approach for Enhancing Student Engagement with Text followed by another book in 2006, entitled Improving Comprehension with Questioning the Author. This book is an approach for text-based instruction (Beck & McKeown, 2006). The central premise underpinning the QtA is that students often fail to understand the ideas presented in their textbooks. Therefore, the QtA strategy was designed to establish a conscious interaction between students and their texts to build a deeper understanding through teaching students to question the texts' ideas while they are reading (Beck et al., 1997). This strategy was developed as a story map that aims to discover the logical organisation of the ideas in the texts and their relationship in forming the structure in the texts. The QtA strategy considered comprehension as a complex and active process that leads a reader to extract information from texts, decide what is important, retain it in their memory, and then link it with the new one to make sense of the ideas presented in the text (Kendeou et al., 2014). According to Beck et al. (2021), the QtA strategy focuses on promoting learners' interaction with texts, activating prior knowledge, and using a logical sequence of queries. Therefore, the QtA might help learners benefit from better understanding and engagement with the texts, namely:
* Students can understand and learn from reading texts.
* Students can construct their meaning rather than retrieving surface information from texts.
* Students are guided and encouraged to construct rich discussions about what they are reading.
* The process aims to look for understanding texts as a collaboration task between teachers and students.
It is important to note that building understanding is not retrieving or extracting certain information from texts. Rather, it is an integration process starting from teaching students to address ideas in the text while they are reading, posing queries around these ideas, and engaging in classroom discussions regarding understanding exactly the meaning of texts. The QtA strategy adopts the view of cognitive processing, which explains how comprehension occurs (Baker & Beall, 2014). Beck et al. (2021) defined queries as "general probes the teachers use to initiate and develop discussion" (p. 8). Practically, the queries are open-ended, authororiented, text-based, and give responsibility for constructing meaning to learners (Byrnes & Wasik, 2019). Briefly, the queries are centred between texts and discussions because the interaction between texts and discussions is accomplished through the queries (Beck & McKeown, 2006; Beck et al., 2021).
Despite the process of building meaning placed on students, teachers are responsible for segmenting texts based on authors' ideas that might carry meaning and developing a series of initial queries to elicit students' discussions. In addition, another central concern is that the QtA considers texts a human product, which is not always perfect in delivering ideas for an audience (Beck & McKeown, 2006). This view proposes that reading texts is incomplete and readers must make efforts for completing texts by cognitive and metacognitive interactions (Reichenberg, 2014). Despite the success of the QtA in assisting students in developing their way of understanding meaning in L1 (Sencibaugh & Sencibaugh, 2015), no studies like the context of this study have been done.
In investigating the use of the QtA strategy for teaching reading comprehension, this study aimed to understand how EFL teachers implement the strategy within Saudi secondary classrooms. While the QtA approach has been well established in L1 contexts, there remains a notable gap in research regarding its use in L2 settings, particularly in non-Western, EFL-dominant environments. This study responds to that gap by providing empirical insights into how QtA can be practically applied in EFL classrooms to enhance students' reading comprehension. The core principles of this strategy support students in actively engaging with texts and constructing meaning rather than passively receiving information. Such approaches are critical for promoting higher-order thinking especially in contexts where traditional reading instruction tends to be more teacher-centred. Moreover, these findings may have broader implications for educators and policymakers in similar EFL contexts around the world where there is an increasing push to adopt more interactive, student-centred pedagogies. By contributing to the growing body of knowledge on reading comprehension strategies in L2 contexts, this study offers practical and theoretical insights with global relevance (Grabe & Stoller, 2019).
Methodology
Methods
This section outlines the methodological foundations and ethical practices employed in the study including the guiding research paradigm, the rationale for using a qualitative inquiry approach, utilising semi-structured interviews, the recruitment and selection of participants, the procedures for data generation and analysis, and the measures taken to ensure rigour and trustworthiness. Each stage is supported by relevant literature to ensure transparency, coherence, and alignment with the study's research aims.
The study was grounded in an interpretive research paradigm, which acknowledges the subjective nature of human experience and emphasises understanding the meanings individuals ascribe to their social world (Guba & Lincoln, 1981). Interpretive inquiry is particularly suitable for educational research that seeks to explore how people make sense of teaching and learning within specific contexts (Richards, 2003). This paradigm, often referred to interchangeably as qualitative, constructivist, or naturalistic (Ernest, 1994; Robson, 2002), supports research aiming to investigate phenomena as they unfold within their natural settings. In this case, this study sought to explore EFL teachers' perceptions of the QtA strategy and how they implemented it in their classrooms. The interpretive nature of the paradigm provided a lens through which to examine teachers' lived experiences and personal understandings of the teaching strategy within the broader context of EFL education.
This study adopted the qualitative method. This method is well-suited to research focused on understanding participants' experiences, beliefs, and practices, as it allows for rich, in-depth exploration of phenomena through flexible, context-sensitive methods that emphasise meaning-making rather than measurement (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011). The following sections will provide a comprehensive discussion of the participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis, and trustworthiness.
The Researcher Personality
Clarification relationship between researchers' values, interests, assumptions, and experiences with what they will research is an integral section in qualitative research (Corlett & Mavin, 2018). As the main researcher in this current study, I have 14 years of experience in teaching EFL students at both levels: public school students and university students in the same context of this study. I am interested in doing research on reading comprehension skills, strategy instruction, and teaching practices for EFL.
Participant Recruitment
After receiving approval from the Education Administration in the AL Baha region to present sessions for teachers, the Education Administration invited English teachers to attend a training course on reading strategies, which I conducted over three days as part of the professional development program for English teachers. After completing the course, I explained the aim and tools of the study to all the English teachers who attended. Forty-two EFL teachers completed the training sessions, and nine of them agreed to participate in the study. As the aim of the paper is to explore teachers' perceptions of using the QtA strategy and its implementation in EFL classes, participants were selected using a convenience sampling technique from among those who agreed to take part in the study. All participating teachers had prior exposure to the QtA approach through professional development workshops and inschool training sessions. Most had at least six years of experience teaching English as a second language in Saudi schools, and several were observed to be highly fluent in key QtA techniques, such as initiating meaningful queries, paraphrasing student responses, and guiding discussions to uncover the author's intent. Their familiarity and comfort with the QtA played a significant role in their willingness to participate in the study. These teachers varied in their experience and expertise in teaching EFL, from 6 to 12 years of teaching experience. The nine teachers work in nine secondary schools in the country, and they teach between 13 to 16 teaching hours a week. All English teachers are native Arabic speakers with English as their second language. Four of them have M.A. degrees in TESOL, and three have B.A. degrees in English literature, while one has Ed.D. (Doctoral of Education) in TESOL. To protect participants' identities, I assigned pseudonyms to the teachers by de-identifying their real names.
For this study, I travelled to the schools where the teachers attended the training sessions. I visited each of the classrooms where teachers were implementing the QtA strategy. As teachers' schedules were often limited, I coordinated with the school administration and the teachers themselves to arrange the classroom visits and ensure the timing of the QtA strategy implementation. Teachers used the QtA strategy regularly in their reading comprehension lessons, but the frequency varied depending on the individual teacher's planning and class schedule. I conducted my observations during these scheduled lessons to ensure that I was present for the actual implementation of QtA.
Data Collection
Reading comprehension is widely recognised as multifaceted and complex, involving multiple cognitive processes (Perfetti & Adlof, 2012), because it consists of multiple levels in language from recognition of letters to interacting with readers' knowledge. Teaching practices in classes play a critical role in comprehension. Hence, this study adapted the interpretivist stance to explore EFL teachers' practices in using the QtA and their perception towards it in the Saudi context. The collection of data fell into two categories as lesson observations of the sample classes and teachers' interviews.
The qualitative method "endeavours to understand the world of the participant by situating the researcher with all their values and assumptions in that world" (Morcom, 2014, p. 21). It underpins the interpretive paradigm, which assumes that meaning is constructed socially and subjectively through participants' consciousness (Walliman, 2006). It is commonly used in social studies if researchers aim to explore participants' perspectives, shared meanings, or developing insights toward situations (Wellington, 2015). I first sought and received informed consent to conduct the study in 2023. Once the teachers provided me with informed consent. I conducted the teachers' interviews in schools in a private room beginning with questions about the principles of using QtA in teaching English. After that, I asked teachers to describe their understanding of the QtA and their reflections on student responses to the QtA. Then, I asked the participants about factors affecting the implementation the QtA. I asked open guiding questions such as, "How will you implement the QtA in teaching reading for EFL learners? and explain your role and students' roles" to explore the participants' understanding of the QtA and their descriptions of it in their context.
I asked some follow up questions during interviews to ensure the clarity of teachers' responses. This technique included asking teachers to clarify their understanding of implementing the QtA strategy in EFL classes. For example, I asked participants to explain how they prepare lessons based on the QtA strategy. The range of interviews was between 35 to 45 minutes while the length of transcriptions was between 2815 to 3801 words. All interviews were recorded to capture teachers' responses. Once the interviews finished, I immediately transcribed the recordings verbatim.
The lesson observations provided insights into the teachers' practices in implementing the QtA in teaching reading comprehension in EFL classes because observation does not depend on what participants say but it is based on "direct evidence of the eye to see what actually happens in the classroom" (Denscombe, 2007, p. 97). Thus, it was conducted to identify the implementation of the QtA in the classrooms and how EFL teachers used the QtA principles in teaching reading. I was a non-participant observer in this study.
Eighteen lessons were observed during February and March 2023, with two observations for each participant by 45 minutes. The lesson observations were audio recorded and then analysed deductively first and inductively second, immediately after transcribing them. Each recording was analysed first deductively based on the QtA principles (Segmenting the Text, Forming Queries, and Making Discussion). No one can observe everything, but the researcher must start somewhere (Merriam, 1998). Thus, I started analysing the observation by the QtA principles first to see how teachers implement the strategy in classrooms. The deductive coding of lesson observations captures teachers' understanding of the principles of the QtA about implementing it in EFL classes. Table 1 summarises the outcome of deductive coding with a theme, namely, implementing the principles of the QtA in EFL classes in terms of number of occurrences.
In this study, the combination of interview and observation enabled a holistic understanding of the QtA implementation by capturing both what teachers articulated about their practices and how these practices manifested in classroom settings.
Data Analysis
Qualitative data analysis is nonnumeric data using a variety of inductive and iterative techniques, including categories and contextualising strategies (Tashakkori et al., 2020). This process aims to make sense out of the data (Creswell, 2007) and capture meaning relevant to the research questions (Braun & Clarke, 2022). The interviews and lesson observations were recorded in English, and I transcribed them one by one manually because an automatic transcription software did not recognise English Arab accents well. The transcript process is the process of transforming audio or video from data collection tools into text (Adu, 2019). I used MAXQDA software for managing the data, organising classifications of codes, themes, and facilitating a rigorous and systematic order of the interviews and observations transcripts. The data of the study were analysed by following a latest version of Braun and Clarke's (2022) approach, which is explained in Table 2.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness in qualitative research is to ensure confidence in methods, data, and interpretation (Adler, 2022). It is "a set of criteria advocated by some writers for assessing the quality of qualitative research" (Bryman, 2016, p. 697). It consists of four main criteria as credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011).
Credibility in qualitative research refers to the extent to which the findings authentically represent the experiences and perspectives of the participants or community being studied (Rohleder & Lyons, 2017, p. 58). To establish credibility, I employed triangulation, transcript review, prolonged engagement, and peer debriefing.
I used data triangulation by comparing findings from two different data sources: semi structured interviews and classroom observations. This helped to validate whether teachers' stated perceptions aligned with their actual classroom practices. The convergence of evidence across these sources strengthened the credibility of the interpretations. I also engaged with participants over an extended period, beginning with a three-day training course and continuing through multiple classroom visits for three months. This prolonged contact allowed me to build trust, observe teaching practices in natural settings, and gather richer, more nuanced insights. As a result, the authenticity of the data collected was significantly enhanced. In addition, after transcribing the interviews, I conducted a transcript review by sharing each transcript with the respective participant and inviting them to verify the accuracy of their statements. This process ensured that the transcriptions accurately reflected the participants' intended meanings and minimised the risk of misrepresentation. Although none requested changes, this process ensured that their views were accurately captured and helped validate the authenticity of the accounts. I discussed the initial emerging codes, themes, and interpretations with an academic colleague who is experienced in qualitative research and TESOL studies. He had graduated from a UK university, where he had used the qualitative method in his dissertation. For this study, I travelled to the schools where the teachers attended the training sessions. I visited each of the classrooms where the teachers implemented the QtA strategy.
Confirmability is the degree to which the results of an inquiry could be confirmed or corroborated by other researchers (Baxter & Eyles, 1997). In this study, confirmability was established in two ways. First, I shared the initial coding of one interview with a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom to ensure the quality of the coding and to reach agreement on the coding approach and the meanings of the codes. Second, I thoroughly documented the process of inquiry, including data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Importantly, the findings were grounded in, and limited to, the data and analysis conducted within this study.
Transferability describes the degree to which a study's findings can be transferred to other contexts, settings, or respondents (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A thick description strategy was employed to support transferability (Bitsch, 2005). I provided rich and detailed contextual information throughout the research report to give readers a clear understanding of the context. These included accounts of the Saudi educational context, the training and onboarding process for new teachers, and the realities of teaching English in public schools. The research process was also described in depth, including data collection procedures and the analytic strategies used to interpret the data.
Dependability refers to the extent to which a study can be replicated by other researchers while yielding consistent findings (Riazi et al., 2023). In this study, peer examination served as a key strategy to enhance dependability, as previously discussed in the credibility point. A colleague who completed their tertiary education in the UK and is currently employed as an assistant professor at a university in Saudi Arabia was invited to review the research process. This review included the data collection procedures, coding methods, and emerging themes. Their feedback facilitated the identification of potential biases and helped ensure that the interpretations remained grounded in the data.
Findings
Using thematic analysis, as outlined by Braun and Clarke (2022), I explored the implementation of the QtA principles in EFL classes. The analysis revealed five key themes, which are examined in detail in the findings chapter. The first theme, Implementing the Principles of the QtA in EFL Classes, highlights how implementation depends on teachers' practices and their understanding of the three QtA principles in the Saudi context, including segmenting the text, making queries, and encouraging discussion. The second theme, Roles of Teachers in Implementing the QtA, examines how teachers described their procedures for preparing and applying these principles in their lessons. The third theme, Teacher Reflections on Their Teaching Practice Using the QtA, captures how teachers evaluated and adapted their instructional approaches during QtA use. The fourth theme, Teachers' Reflections on Student Responses to the QtA, explores how teachers perceived student engagement and the quality of their responses during QtA-based lessons. Finally, the fifth theme, Factors Affecting the Implementation of the QtA, identifies key challenges teachers reported, particularly concerning the types of reading content and limited classroom time. These themes were developed from interviews and classroom observations and are supported by direct evidence from the data.
Implementing the Principles of the QtA in EFL Classes
Implementing the QtA in EFL classes is to actively engage students with texts. This can be achieved through three key principles: dividing a text into smaller segments, encouraging students to raise queries about the text, and facilitating discussions to explore and foster understanding of the text.
All EFL teachers had their own way of preparing QtA plans for teaching reading. The participants' comments on how they used the strategy suggest a need to reform its implementation in the Saudi context. Thus, their comments presented a preliminary conceptualisation of how they would implement the strategy in EFL classes. Many of their comments related to preparing lessons indicated a prolonged process of planning before applying the QtA. For example, two participants, Nawaf and Ali, referred to the cause of the challenge to "low levels of competency in their students," "lack of enriching reading sources in textbooks," and "difficulties in segmenting texts." Notably, Yousef and Mahdi appeared to put considerable effort in planning concerning procedures of implementing the QtA: "I spent a day thinking and organising my plan." One participant, Khalid, asked for help into planning from the teaching supervisory centre: "I asked my supervisor to revise my planning."
Also, lesson observations provided some evidence supporting their viewpoints on how they implement the principles of the QtA. For example, these appeared in three diverse ways of segmenting the texts.
Firstly, Kareem segmented texts based on the paragraphs in the official textbooks. Sameer stated that "the text is short, and I segmented it as it is in the textbook," and Mansour expressed the text as, "the text is written to retrieve explicit information, so it does not give students a chance for inference." This appeared to mean that the texts, consisting of six texts in the textbook, focus on facts and scanning information, rather than empowering inferencing or assessing the writers' ideas. Secondly, Nawaf designed their stopping points in the texts and then created discussions to construct meaning through these stopping points. Thirdly, Nawaf and Ali segmented texts based on themes and took the textbooks' themes as points to help develop discussions.
Teachers explained their viewpoints on segmenting texts in their interviews. Teachers elucidated their perspectives on the segmentation of texts. It was the opinion of certain members of the teaching faculty, namely Ahmed, Saeed, and Mahdi, that the process of segmenting texts had the effect of redesigning the scaffolding of the texts. For instance, Ahmed expounded that text segmentation facilitates students' processing of information by dividing it into smaller, more manageable components. Saeed concurred with this assertion, stating that text segmentation enables students to focus on a single component at a time, thereby gradually building their understanding. Similarly, Mahdi asserted, "text segmentation enables the targeting of specific learning objectives and ensures that students grasp key ideas before progressing to subsequent material." However, another teacher, Ahmed, preferred using a segmentation in textbooks as the ideal guide for delivering goals. The teacher, Ahmad, stated, "I rely on the textbook as it provides a structured approach to achieving the learning objectives." The teacher, Mansour, elected to divide the texts into smaller units and intermittently paused to inquire, stating, "I divide the text into small chunks and frequently pause to assess comprehension through the formulation of questions."
All teachers segmented the texts by themselves, and they did not give students any chance to engage in the process of segmenting the texts. Despite this, it was evident in lesson observations that all teachers demonstrated small chunks of texts by posing queries, making discussions, and searching for evidence which supported students' understanding. There was a common thread in observations that all teachers, even those who followed textbook segments, focused on a single word or sentence, which had a clue of meaning to raise queries and make discussions. For example, in one lesson observation, Nawaf stopped at the following point and raised a query.
The second pillar of the QtA strategy is creating queries because it is a way to elicit meaning from students and encourage them to interact with author's ideas in a text. Despite differences between queries and questions, some teachers used them alternately while implementing the QtA. The slight difference between them is that questions are used to assess comprehension, or a way of communication with students in language learning (Chaudron, 2012), while queries help students in constructing the meaning of a text (Beck et al., 2021). All teachers used queries in their implementation of the QtA. Of the nine interviews, most teachers were concerned with forming queries as "key of comprehension of the text" or "thread of meaning," while the other three teachers mentioned that queries were "method of assessing students." The lesson observations explored an extra task of queries when some teachers used them to assess students' understanding.
Despite this, some teachers did not use queries to retrieve information. This is a positive sign that teachers are aware of the core task of queries because the queries require much more interaction and engagement with texts, while retrieving questions does not. Teachers explained in the interviews that queries were used in two directions: one to support students' grasping the meaning of texts, and secondly, to encourage students to move discussions along. The extract "What is the author telling us about from the Stone Age to the email era?" illustrates how the teacher, Nawaf, intensively used the follow-up queries to make students focus on the author's ideas.
The third pillar of the QtA principles is creating discussions. This code focused on how the teachers transform their planning into actions in the classrooms through discussions and fostering dialogues among students. All teachers made efforts to form discussions and keep discussions continuing until students explored the meaning and found some evidence to support their meaning.
The inductive analysis of lesson observations revealed that teachers used three techniques to make discussions productive: recapping, annotating, and paraphrasing. For example, one teacher, Saaed, noted that he always asked students to summarise the ideas that they discussed in discussions, "please, summarise your group discussion" and asked them to connect them with what they had discovered earlier, "how can you link this meaning with what we discussed in the beginning." Others used reiteration techniques to make the discussion move forward. For example, the below extract is from one student's participation in a discussion:
Student 1: Why a man has plenty of sodas in his room?
Student 2: Umm I think because he has an invitation next week.
Teacher: [Repeats S2 answer] true, he invited his friends to watch a basketball match.
It is noteworthy that the teacher later added a comment to guide students' thinking toward the author's perspective in the text by asking: "What do you think the author is telling us about popcorn, plenty of sodas, and crisps?"
Yousuf, supported students with lower language competence by paraphrasing their ideas to make them clearer to others. For example, he rephrased a student's comment by asking, "Do you want to say that this man is rich?"
The analysis of how teachers implement the QtA in Saudi EFL classrooms showed that teachers have a deep understanding of the way they use the strategy and attempted to overcome challenges faced in this context.
Role of Teachers in Implementing the QtA
This theme emerged from the inductive coding process of the data, which represents the nature of teachers' roles in teaching reading with the QtA. The theme, Role of Teachers in Implementing the QtA, encapsulates three codes. It reveals an integration between teachercentred learning and student-centred learning. Table 3 represented a summary of codes generated in this theme.
The code, Coordinator Role, was identified in all teachers who considered it an important means in implementing the QtA in the EFL situations. This role was confined to organisational tasks, such as defining segments, initiating queries, and setting rules of discussions. Comments such as, "we are designers," "organisers," "planners behind and in front of the scene" were represented in this code. I noted in all observations that teachers assigned students into small groups before implementing the QtA. This is one method used in the QtA to make students transfer their understanding to others (Beck et al., 2021). This role was mentioned by some teachers as it helped them to encourage students' interactions to construct meaning from texts.
The code, Facilitator Role, manifested in assisting students in focusing on the author's evidence, which leads them to an understanding of meaning. A substantial number of comments were simply shown as directed instructions to students to stay on meaningful tracks, giving advice, or motivating them to keep discussions. A teacher, Mr. Khalid, for example, told students that "it is necessary to get evidence to convince us with your understanding," while another teacher, Mr. Saeed, advised students to "come back to the author's idea in the text to ensure you are interpreting meaning perfectly." It was observed that teachers always solve students' language difficulties by expressing their ideas clearly. Teachers commonly wrote on the whiteboard vocabulary equivalent of Arabic vocabulary, which was raised by students. For example, a student expressed his idea about text using some of his native language vocabulary. The teacher, Mr. Yousif, directly transformed the student's Arabic words to English and wrote them on the board, and commented, "I think you mean this." There were also several comments explaining new vocabulary in the texts before introducing initial queries. Teachers commented on this point that the essential purpose of explaining new vocabulary was for "preparing students," "tackling lack of vocabulary," and "filling a linguistic gap."
The third code, the Evaluator Role, focused on validating students' discussions in constructing the meaning, supporting them with threads for finding the meaning, or providing them with feedback on their discussions. A cluster of teachers' observation comments contributed to using the evaluator role to give signs for students to take discussions seriously. Through this role, students' performance was monitored in query discussions by using a continuous assessment. It was observed that the assessment was linked with the QtA queries discussions. Thus, the teachers took on the mantle of an evaluator role to promote interactions among students in query discussions. The below extract illustrates teachers' views of the evaluator's role in the QtA: "It is not for assessing comprehension, it is more for promoting students to do their best in discussions."
I observed this clearly in one lesson when the teacher was not satisfied with a student's answer. The teacher advised the student to trace conjunction words in the original text to better understand the meaning. Teachers also often gave hints to show students they were following the discussion closely, encouraging them to work harder to explore the meaning of the text.
Regarding using evaluation questions to redirect students' discussions, I observed that when students' discussions went far from the author's ideas, teachers used evaluation questions to deliver a message to students about their kind of discussions. For example, a teacher noticed some students starting to talk about their interests in a lesson focusing on car brands, so he asked them, "what does the author mean by naming Mercedes Benz and Porsche in segment 2?" At this moment, the teacher sent a message to the students that he was following their discussions, and he returned them to the author's ideas in the text by asking, "what does the author mean by spending 9.6 million in a year?"
The observation data revealed three roles' teachers had performed while implementing the QtA, namely, coordinator, facilitator, and evaluator, which aimed to make students concentrate on the meaning.
Teacher Reflections on Their Teaching Practice Using the QtA
The teachers were deeply concerned with supporting students in clarifying vocabulary, dividing students into multilevel groups, and providing continuous feedback to ensure they stayed on task in discovering meaning. Numerous comments demonstrated that teachers were keen to help all students understand the meaning or at least follow a thread that led to it. For example, one teacher, Ali, remarked, "I always try to make sure even the weaker students can catch some clues about what the author is saying. Otherwise, they just give up."
Importantly, the teachers focused not only on grasping meaning but also on ensuring that students were able to derive meaning based on textual evidence. As one teacher, Sameer, explained, "It is not enough to just tell them what it means they have to find it in the text. I guide them to find hints or keywords." This approach is a line with language teaching goals that emphasise meaning making and learner autonomy.
Furthermore, the inductive analysis revealed that the teachers realised early on that a cornerstone of engaging low-performing students during the QtA implementation was the need for ongoing support from both teachers and high-performing peers. This support varied in extent and form. For instance, teachers explained vocabulary, translated certain words, or posed guiding questions that directed students back to the author's ideas. One teacher, Khalid, noted, "Sometimes I just translate a difficult word, but other times I ask a question like, 'Why do you think the writer said that?' to push them to think."
Teachers often attempted to build a foundation before initiating queries, helping students better understand the author's intentions. However, several teachers also expressed concerns about the practical constraints of preparing students for the QtA strategy. One teacher, Mahdi, shared, "We do not have enough time. I have to finish the textbook, and we do not have many reading materials to support this kind of teaching." Others highlighted systemic issues such as limited instructional time and heavy teaching loads. As another teacher, Saeed, put it, "There are too many students, and not enough time to support everyone, especially the weaker ones." Consequently, many teachers resorted to predictable preparatory routines such as vocabulary explanations, warm-up questions, and guided oral readings before engaging students with the text.
Teachers' Reflections on Student Responses to the QtA
A set of responses referred to a high level of students' engagement in queries discussions. Some teachers were surprised by the students' levels of engagement in the discussions. Comments such as "they have participated more than I expected," "students break their fear of expressing their thoughts," "they are managing tasks effectively," or "I heard their voice finally" were examples of data segments in this theme. For some teachers who were concerned earlier about students' low level of language, they were surprised when group query discussions led to engaging students in expressing their ideas with their colleagues freely, without concern for making mistakes.
Whilst recognising that the QtA was not easy to implement in EFL contexts, the teachers acknowledged its appropriateness, provided that the students were well-prepared in its principles, and appropriate texts were available. It was also evident that students were reluctant to engage with teachers because they were afraid of making mistakes or losing marks. This was expressed by some students when their teachers asked them at the end of implementing the QtA about their experience. For example, comments such as "I feel free talking with my friends," "my colleague understands me," "I can ask my friend about any word I do not know," and "I am not thinking of corrections" appeared in students' responses. A substantial number of responses simply showed that there was a relationship between the QtA strategy and increasing students' confidence in practising language in classrooms. For example, the below extract illustrates the teacher's feelings towards the QtA and students' speaking confidence: "I feel that giving students access to dictionaries, giving them space with their colleagues to construct the meaning, and enlightening them on how some words carry signals to meaning, I am pretty sure helped students in enhancing their comprehension."
Factors Affecting Implementing the QtA
Participants were not asked about specific factors that they faced while using the QtA in teaching reading, but they drew attention to some obstacles facing them while implementing the QtA in EFL classes. The teachers' comments revealed some crucial factors that influenced the implementation the QtA in reading comprehension. This theme consisted of four codes summarised in Table 3 below.
The code, Lack of Vocabulary, suggested that the level of students' competency in language is a key factor in comprehension and therefore adopting more teaching strategies, such as the QtA was beneficial in this regard. Despite some teachers pointing out that their students attained a good engagement with the QtA, the lack of vocabulary appeared to be a challenge from the beginning. Therefore, the teachers took time and effort to familiarise their students with the new vocabulary. It seemed that vocabulary recognition is the key for EFL students to facilitate grasping meaning from texts. This was the reason that the teachers spent time explaining new vocabulary and enabled their students to have a list of vocabulary related to the reading texts. Teaching practices, such as reading texts aloud and explaining new vocabulary before posing queries helped low-competence students in decoding and thus overcome their lack of vocabulary. All teachers asked students to read the reading texts at home in advance and then read them in pairs in the classroom, before applying the QtA procedures. Initially, I was surprised when they applied these processes, but when I determined their aims, I understood why they spent time preparing students before presenting the QtA in action. Thus, these teaching practices appeared to be good attempts to overcome a lack of vocabulary knowledge, which hinders understanding meaning.
Teachers felt that The Lack of Lesson Time, while using the QtA, and most comments reflected that students did not have adequate time for reading texts before starting to ask queries and discussions. Comments such as "students need more time for reading texts" or "I borrowed two extra class periods from my colleagues to complete lessons" were repeatedly raised by teachers. Some teachers extended their lesson time by asking the following teachers to give them extra time while finishing their tasks. The teachers needed time whereby they had to accomplish the QtA activities, and their assistance during lessons was not enough to manage the substantial number of students. This code "Lack of lesson time," connected directly with what teachers mentioned in the code "Teachers' reflections on student responses to the QtA" by saying they spent a long time preparing students before implementing the QtA and assessing their discussions. Teachers seemed they have a high level of mastery the QtA principles, but their comments appear in relation to methods of implementing it in EFL classrooms in the Saudi context. This has appeared in some comments such as "in our traditional education system of teaching English," "poor environment of implementing interactive strategies," and "classroom environment does not help students' free movement." Students often sat in line from the front to the back of classrooms, and teachers stood in front of them all the time, but while implementing the QtA, teachers reorganised students repeatedly into groups in every lesson I observed, which took at least five minutes from the lesson's time.
Teachers' comments on "Assessing students' discussions" were concerned with the difficulties of judging students' ideas during discussions to ensure students trace author's ideas in texts. Many comments, such as "it is necessary to evaluate what students discuss every moment" or "assessing discussion consumes my time," were examples of data in this code. Some teachers have learned from this challenge to assign a monitor in each group to manage their colleagues' discussions. For example, the teacher, Mahdi, stated that "I assigned highlevel performance students to lead groups." Whilst some teachers used high-level students in English, teachers attempted to find a way to assess students' discussion outcomes, such as asking them to introduce what they thought about the queries, and how they caught the meaning, or supporting us with actual pieces of evidence from texts. At this point, students start having active discussions with teachers and other students, in trying to show and convince others of what they have reached.
Finally, the inductive analysis of recording lesson observations and interviews extracted another challenge, namely the code, "Following-up Queries," which tended to teachers' comments about asking follow-up queries in short reading texts, and limited students' responses. It is worth noting, the essential aim of posing queries in the QtA is promoting meaning oriented responses (Beck & McKeown, 2002; Beck et al., 2021). A substantial number of comments have remarked that queries and follow up queries were unfamiliar for some students. Thus, students treated queries as direct questions and gave direct answers without digging deeper into texts. It was observed that some students from five different lessons, and different teachers, were unsure about what they had to do in what the teachers asked in followup queries. The teachers always were attempting to promote students' discussions by asking queries such as "why the author told us about this information in this part of the text?" or "what does he mean by ...?" and "how did you catch his ideas?" These kinds of queries were used again as follow-up questions; besides, they were posed as initial queries. Seemingly, this way of using teachers for initial and follow-up queries alternatively led to a kind of obfuscation of what the query was addressed. This aligned with some teachers' comments that one of my hardest decisions in the QtA was when "I have to pose follow up queries to return students to the right way of meaning" because every discussion took me to a unique way.
Discussion
The discussion emphasises essential elements, including key findings from existing knowledge, potential implications, and the insights gained, focusing on the usefulness, transferability, and relevance to other contexts. This paper enhances our understanding of how EFL teachers implement the QtA strategy in their classrooms and their perceptions of it. The findings also shed light on how EFL teachers perceive the QtA strategy, as a valuable, though sometimes demanding, method of teaching reading comprehension in their educational context.
Understanding of the QtA Principles
The teachers showed a very deep understanding of the QtA principles and the reality of teaching English. This appeared when they expressed their views on how policymakers shaped their teaching practices based on constraints, such as fixed textbooks, limited reading sources, and limited time for practising a language. However, although some teachers' comments frequently show that they feel constrained by the need to complete a sequence of textbook objectives within a limited time limit, they still demonstrate a deep understanding of the QtA strategy and actively seek opportunities to implement it in their context. Similarly, some comments highlighted that the selection of reading texts is closely tied to sociocultural factors. Teachers expressed positive views on QtA, describing it as a strategy that supports students in thinking critically and understanding texts more deeply, despite challenges in time and curriculum constraints.
Teachers as a Source of Knowledge in the EFL Classroom
One significant finding of this study is that the QtA was applied in the authentic pedagogical practice of teaching reading in the public secondary schools' context and revealed how teachers' knowledge of reading comprehension methodology interacts with the process of students constructing meaning from texts. The outcome of the study suggests that the teachers ask Yes/No questions more than posing queries while implementing the QtA, but they are always committed to initiating, guiding, and transforming students' discussions to deeper points related to authors' ideas (Beck et al., 2021).
In addition, the findings of this study highlighted an important aspect of the teacher's role in implementing the QtA strategy within the EFL context. EFL teachers are often regarded as the primary source of knowledge in their classrooms, especially in the absence of other supporting resources, and are known for their content-based instructional roles, which are common in Saudi public schools. This aligns with some existing literature in the EFL context, which suggests that the students need to feed their knowledge and curiosity in the English language, and the opportunity to do that through their teachers, particularly, when there is a lack of knowledge sources such as English reading materials, audio-visual resources, native speakers, libraries or resource centres (Almoslamani, 2022; Al Seghayer, 2021; Fitria, 2023). Consequently, the teachers in this study were a source of students' knowledge compared with other sources, which led to overloading teachers with more tasks while implementing the QtA. For example, in some cases, the students waited for their teachers' knowledge before starting to search for authors' ideas or constructing their own meaning from texts. Grabe and Stoller (2019) argued that students in EFL need extensive reading materials to improve their reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge. However, providing students with basic reading sources such as dictionaries, journals, and books in their learning environment is not a priority for the government at present. This could be one reason for the limited opportunities for the students to access knowledge and their low language competence. Despite these challenges, teachers valued QtA for promoting student independence and engagement with texts, though they expressed concern over students' overreliance on the teacher's input.
Assessing Students' Discussions
The data revealed the reason EFL teachers might struggle in forming the follow-up queries whilst implementing the QtA or assessing students' discussions. As has been discussed by Al Tamimi (2019), the first policy of teaching English in public schools was launched in 1943, and language policy consequently reformed in 2012 by recommending teaching English from year four for four hours per week. The influence of dominating Arabic language during this long time of learning (Al-khresheh, 2020) could make teachers face difficulties in assessing progress in second language learning. Furthermore, teachers might have worries about the notion of judging students' discussions. It is not surprising to find difficulties in teaching English skills in secondary schools because teachers themselves are not satisfied with the level of English instruction they received, and the Saudi EFL classrooms act as some barriers to limit students from communicating effectively, which is a prerequisite for learning (Al-Nasser, 2015). Teachers' perceptions of QtA were positive in terms of student interaction, but they also expressed uncertainty regarding how to evaluate open-ended discussions, which differ from traditional assessment methods they are more familiar with.
EFL Teachers' Roles
Regarding the teachers' roles whilst implementing the QtA, according to Beck et al. (2021), teachers are active players in the QtA concerning four roles: guides, initiators, facilitators, and responders. In this study, the participating teachers demonstrated those roles through various practices, such as segmenting texts, posing queries, assessing discussions, redirecting students toward the author's ideas, and addressing linguistic challenges. These findings confirm and align with Beck et al.'s (2021) framework for teachers' roles in QtA. It is also important to recognise the broader context in which these teachers work. In Saudi Arabia, teachers are held accountable for their students' performance, despite having little to no control over curriculum design or content. Student success is largely determined by written exams, with 60 marks required to pass, six of which are allocated for reading comprehension, and 40 for performance tasks and classroom interaction. As a result, teachers must take on multidimensional roles to ensure their students achieve these benchmarks. Teachers viewed these roles as intellectually rewarding, stating that QtA made them feel more like facilitators of learning rather than deliverers of content. However, they also felt pressure balancing this role with formal assessment demands.
Challenges of Implementing Questioning Strategy
The outcome of this study has also highlighted some challenges that teachers faced while implementing the QtA. For example, the lack of vocabulary, prior knowledge, lack of language practice, and lack of reading sources all contribute to overloading the teaching process while implementing the QtA. This finding pointed out to the particularly challenging situations in which the EFL teachers teach English in the context of this study, considering the lack of reading sources that are essential for enhancing students' understanding of meaning in texts.
Although these challenges seemed to be chronic issues in teaching English (Alkhresheh, 2020; Almoslamani, 2022), the teachers fostered learning of reading through supporting students, enriching discussions, creating interactive situations, by asking students to read at home, and bringing their texts to schools for more discussions, even during free time among themselves. The teachers demonstrated a deep understanding of students' linguistic needs, they understood their reality of teaching English, and realised students' struggle with English (Alharbi, 2022, Alsubaie, 2020; Radzuwan & Qrqez, 2019). The teachers frequently took the initiative to provide students with information and respond to any limitations of language within the QtA discussions. The data revealed teachers' active problem-solving in a variety of ways. For example, they always activated students' prior knowledge about the related topics they would discuss in class. Despite their concerns, teachers expressed strong commitment to QtA, often describing it as worth the extra effort due to the way it increased student engagement and promoted deeper thinking about texts.
Implications
The important instructional implication is that teaching reading using QtA in an EFL context is a promising technique for enhancing interaction with texts because it focuses on linguistic aspects, interaction with texts and exposing students to more detailed textual analysis. This can promote language acquisition through literary texts (Yanto et al., 2020). The policymakers and stakeholders in education can initiate the enhancement of teaching English by facilitating resources of knowledge, teachers' development, and developing English modules to make them more relevant to the students' needs. English textbooks are crucial to providing learners with essential skills in language and awareness of practising the language. While this study presents promising findings, EFL teachers must be aware of how they can use QtA in the EFL context, particularly in the Arab context and be reminded of the challenges that might be faced during teaching English.
Limitations
The study has limitations to acknowledge. This study had nine Saudi English teachers who work in a small city in the southwest of the country, and who studied from primary to master's level in Saudi Arabia. This specific demographic and geographical context may limit the transferability of the study's findings to broader populations, as the experiences of teachers in other regions or educational backgrounds may differ. Therefore, while the insights gained from this study provide valuable perspectives on the context, caution should be taken when transfering the results to other settings. The pedagogical practices of these instructors are influenced by the educational system, cultural norms, and the contextual particularities of this geographical area. Consequently, the findings may not be readily transferred to English teachers who have pursued their studies internationally. Moreover, the limited sample size may compromise the representativeness of the findings concerning the diversity of experiences or teaching practices across different regions or educational backgrounds.
However, the study presents a valuable interpretive view of the phenomenon. This is aligned with Glaser and Strauss' (2017) view that the outcomes of a study are open for modification through gathering new data; they are not a fixed endpoint. In addition, one important limitation of the findings was that being immersed in lesson observations and interpreting teachers' interviews, I drew on my experiences and expectations to understand the process of implementing the QtA. It is also important to consider that the findings do not shed light on students' interactions whilst implementing the QtA, but they provide an initial conceptualisation of how EFL teachers implement the QtA in their classrooms.
The study's findings shed light on how teachers navigate the complexities of implementing the QtA strategy in their classrooms, but these insights are context specific. Factors like cultural, educational, and institutional settings in Saudi Arabia, as well as teachers' unique experiences, must be considered when assessing transferability to other contexts. The findings offer valuable insights for researchers, educators, and policymakers in similar EFL environments. This focus on transferability highlights the nature of qualitative research, which aims to deepen understanding and inform practice in comparable educational settings.
References
Adler, R. H. (2022). Trustworthiness in qualitative research. Journal of Human Lactation, 38(4), 598-602. https://doi.org/10.1177/08903344221116620
Adu, P. (2019). A step by step guide to qualitative data coding. Routledge.
Aldossari, A., & Aldajani, M. (2021). The effectiveness of a self-questioning strategy at developing academic achievement and critical-thinking skills among secondary-school students in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20(8), 278-299. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.8.17
Alharbi, A. (2022). Reading skills among EFL learners in Saudi Arabia: A review of challenges and solutions. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 15(3), 204-208. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2022.15.3.0922
Al-khresheh, M. (2020). The impact of cultural background on listening comprehension of Saudi EFL students. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 11(3), 349-371. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol11no3.22
Alkhudaydi, D. (2022). Factors influencing students' achievement in scientific literacy: A secondary analysis of PISA 2018 Data from Saudi Arabia [Doctoral dissertation, Florida Institute of Technology]. https://repository.fit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2352&context=etd
Almoslamani, Y. (2022). The impact of learning strategies on the academic achievement of university students in Saudi Arabia. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 18(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/LTHE-08-2020-0025
Al-Mubireek, S. (2021). The Effects of cooperative learning versus traditional teaching on students' achievement: A case study. TESOL International Journal, 16(2), 31-55.
Al-Nasser, A. S. (2015). Problems of English language acquisition in Saudi Arabia: An exploratory-cum-remedial study. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(8), 1612. http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0508.10
Al-Qahtani, A. A. (2020). Investigating metacognitive think-aloud strategy in improving Saudi EFL learners' reading comprehension and attitudes. English Language Teaching, 13(9), 50-62. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v13n9p50
Alqasham, F., & Al-Ahdal, A. (2022). Effectiveness of mind-mapping as a digital brainstorming technique in enhancing attitudes of Saudi EFL learners to writing skills. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 17(2), 1141-1156. https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/3819/1014
Al-Seghayer, K. (2021). Characteristics of Saudi EFL Learners' Learning Styles. English Language Teaching, 14(7), 82-94. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v14n7p82
Alshammari, H. (2022). Investigating the low English proficiency of Saudi EFL learners. Arab World English Journal, 13(1), 129-144. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol13no1.9
Alsmari, N. (2020). The effect of flipped classroom instruction on developing Saudi EFL learners' comprehension of conversational implicatures. International Journal of English Linguistics, 10(2), 107-127. https://doi.10.5539/ijel.v10n2p107
Alsubaie, A. M. (2020). The effectiveness of multiple intelligence based differentiated instruction on metacognitive reading comprehension in Arabic language among middle school students in Saudi Arabia. Amazonia Investiga, 9(26), 158-166. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2020.26.02.17
Al-Tamimi, R. (2019) Policies and issues in teaching English to Arab EFL learners: A Saudi Arabian perspective. Arab World English Journal, 10(2) 68-76. https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol10no2.6
Anderson, N. J. (2005). L2 learning strategies. In E. Hinkle (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 757-771). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Baker, L., & Beall, L. C. (2014). Metacognitive processes and reading comprehension. In S. Israel. & G. Duffy (Eds.), Handbook of research on reading comprehension (pp. 397- 412). Routledge.
Baxter, J., & Eyles, J. (1997). Evaluating qualitative research in social geography: Establishing rigour in interview analysis. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 22(4), 505-525. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-2754.1997.00505.x
Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2002). Questioning the author: Making sense of social studies. Educational Leadership, 59(3), 44-47.
Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2006). Improving comprehension with questioning the athor: A fresh and expanded view of a powerful approach. Scholastic.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., Hamilton, R., & Kucan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. International Reading Association.
Beck, L., McKeown, M., & Sandora, C. (2021). Robust comprehension instruction with questioning the author. The Guilford Press.
Bitsch, V. (2005) Qualitative research: A grounded theory example and evaluation criteria. Journal of Agribusiness, 23 (1), 75-91. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.59612
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2022). Thematic analysis: A practical guide. Sage.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods. Oxford University Press.
Byrnes, J. P., & Wasik, B. A. (2019). Language and literacy development: What educators need to know. Guilford Publications.
Chaudron, C. (2012). Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524469
Corlett, S., & Mavin, S. (2018). Reflexivity and researcher positionality. In C. Cassell, A. L. Cunliffe, & G. Grandy (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative business and management research methods (pp. 377-398). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526430212.n2
Creswell, J. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Sage.
Denscombe, M. (2007). Critical incidents and learning about risks: The case of young people and their health. In M. Hammersley (Ed.), Educational research and evidence-based practice (pp. 204-219). Sage.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2011). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. Sage.
Do, H., & Le Thu Phan, H. (2021). Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies on second language Vietnamese undergraduates. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 12(1), 90- 112. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol12no1.7
Duke, N., & Pearson, P. (2009). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. Journal of Education, 189(1-2), 107-122. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022057409189001-208
Ernest, P. (1994). An introduction to research methodology and paradigms. Research Support Unit, School of Education, University of Exeter.
Fitria, T. N. (2023). Implementation of English language teaching (ELT) through understanding non-EFL students' learning styles. Education and Human Development Journal, 8(1), 10-25. https://doi.org/10.33086/ehdj.v8i1.4457
Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (2017). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge.
Grabe, W., & Stoller, F. L. (2019). Teaching and researching reading. Routledge.
Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y. (1981). Effective evaluation: Improving the usefulness of evaluation results through responsive and naturalistic approaches. Jossey-Bass.
Kendeou, P., Van Den Broek, P., Helder, A., & Karlsson, J. (2014). A cognitive view of reading comprehension: Implications for reading difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 29(1), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/ldrp.12025
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Mokhtari, K., & Sheorey, R. (2002). Measuring ESL students' awareness of reading strategies. Journal of Developmental Education, 25(3), 2-11. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ645740
Morcom, V. (2014). Scaffolding social and emotional learning in an elementary classroom community: A sociocultural perspective. International Journal of Educational Research, 67, 18-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2014.04.002
Perfetti, C., Landi, N., & Oakhill, J. (2005). The acquisition of reading comprehension skill. In M. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The science of reading: A handbook (pp. 227-247). John Wiley & Sons.
Perfetti, C., & Adlof, S. (2012). Reading comprehension: A conceptual framework from word meaning to text meaning. In J. Sabatini, E. Albro, & T. O'Reilly (Eds.), Measuring up advanced in how we assess reading ability (pp. 3-20). Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Radzuwan, A. R., & Qrqez, M. (2019). The sources of reading comprehension difficulties among Saudi EFL learners. Trends in Social Sciences, 1(1), 7-16. http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/id/eprint/6351
Reichenberg, J. L. (2014). The use of iPads to facilitate growth in reading comprehension skills of second grade students. Liberty University.
Riazi, M., Rezvani, R., & Ghanbar, H. (2023). Trustworthiness in L2 writing research: A review and analysis of qualitative articles in the Journal of Second Language Writing. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3), 100065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2023.100065
Richards, K. (2003). Qualitative inquiry in TESOL. Palgrave Macmillan.
Robson, C. (2002). Real world research: A resource for social scientists and practitionerresearchers (2nd ed.). Wiley.
Rohleder, P., & Lyons, A. (2017). Qualitative research in clinical and health psychology. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Sencibaugh, J. M., & Sencibaugh, A. M. (2015). The effects of questioning the author on the reading comprehension of middle school students. Reading Improvement, 52(3), 85-92. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1095659
Smith, S., Briggs, J., & Pothier, H. (2018). Exploring variation in reading comprehension among young adult Spanish-English bilinguals: The role of environmental language contact and attitudes toward reading. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(6), 695-716. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006917690913
Snow, C. (2002). Reading for understanding: Toward an R&D program in reading comprehension. Rand Corporation.
Tashakkori, A., Johnson, R., & Teddlie, C. (2020). Foundations of mixed methods research: Integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and behavioral sciences. Sage.
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). (2022). PISA 2022 results factsheets: Saudi Arabia. https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-sults/webbooks/dynamic/pisa-country-notes/f69c2e4b/pdf/saudi-arabia.pdf
van Moort, L., Koornneef, A., & van den Broek, P. (2021). Differentiating text-based and knowledge-based validation processes during reading: Evidence from eye movements. Discourse Processes, 58(1), 22-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/0163853X.2020.1727683
Walliman, N. (2006). Social research methods. Sage.
Wellington, J. (2015). Educational research: Contemporary issues and practical approaches. Bloomsbury.
Yanto, E., Saefullah, H., & Kwary, D. (2020). Implementing a literary text extensive reading program through learning logs. The Qualitative Report, 25(5), 1393-1411. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4111
© 2025. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.