Reading beyond Literal Comprehension : Categorisation of Questions and Analysis of Textbooks

Many studies point out the importance of questions in the instruction of reading and classify questions so that they may help the reader understand the text. Few attempts have been made, however, to examine ways of questioning appropriate for literary works contained in the textbooks for Japanese high school students. This paper claims that categorising questions into three types, namely literal questions, inferential questions and interpretational questions will contribute to the students' appreciation of literature. Using the three categories, we analysed the questions attached to Ibuse's Black Rain (translated into English) in a textbook for senior high school students. Most of the questions fell into literal questions, one into interpretational, and none into inferential. Black Rain (in the original) is also used in a senior high school textbook for the Japanese language. Having a wider variety of questions than its English counterpart, the Japanese textbook encourages a student to read between the lines or present his/her interpretation of the text. We conclude that it is essential for the English teachers to help their students read literature beyond its literal meaning by asking various questions which range from literal, through inferential, to interpretational ones