The Impact of the Question Network Strategy on Reading Comprehension among First-Year Intermediate School Students

Abstract

This research aims to identify the effect of the question network strategy on reading comprehension among first-year intermediate school students. To achieve this objective, the experimental method was adopted. The sample consisted of 60 first-year intermediate school students, divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group, each with 30 students. The researcher ensured the equivalence of the groups based on the variables of age and previous year's grades. After verifying equivalence, the research requirements were prepared, including defining the subject matter, formulating behavioral objectives, developing lesson plans, and creating a reading comprehension test. To confirm the statistical properties, the test was administered to a pilot sample of 100 students from within the research population. Its validity and reliability were verified, and the difficulty, discrimination, and effectiveness of the alternatives were calculated. The experiment was then conducted over a semester, from Sunday, October 19, 2025, to Sunday, January 18, 2026. At the end of the experiment, the reading comprehension test was administered, and the data were collected and analyzed. Statistically, using a t-test, the experimental group students outperformed the control group students. The goal of learning Arabic is to acquire and master its skills to an acceptable degree according to the educational stage. The degree of mastery of these skills then increases as the student progresses through the educational stage until reaching a high level of proficiency, enabling the learner to acquire a significant degree of language proficiency. The language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are sequential in their linguistic importance. Therefore, it is crucial for the learner to master all language skills by the time they reach middle school, as other subjects rely on these skills, and any weakness in them leads to weakness in learning all other subjects.