Research focus and analysis of results

The main aim of this stage of the study was to evaluate the students’ comprehension of each text and to compare the reading comprehension results in relation to the English text and to the Polish text. It is important to explain that this analysis is based on the taxonomy of propositions identified at Stage 3.

In order to evaluate reading comprehension, an ability to identify the main idea of each paragraph was measured. Students’ reports were analyzed to see how well the subjects understood the texts. The propositions that the subjects constructed were evaluated in relation to each paragraph. The readers’ performance while reading each paragraph was compared with the answers presented below (see model answers) and scored from 1 to 4 points. The following scoring criteria were accepted to evaluate the students’ comprehension of each paragraph:

Very good (4 points) – the protocol indicates complete understanding of the main idea of the paragraph; only paraphrasing the text, i.e., talking about it in one's own words, is accepted for this score;

Good (3 points) – the protocol indicates partial comprehension of the main ideas, the reader ignores some important parts of the main message; only paraphrasing the text, i.e., talking about it in one's own words, is accepted for this score;

Fair (2 points) – the report indicates superficial comprehension, i.e. the student understands pieces of text information but is not able to find links among them and to draw conclusions concerning the main idea of the paragraph; only paraphrasing the text, i.e., talking about it in one’s own words, is accepted for this score;