Is Comprehension Adequate for a Reading Class: An Expanded View of Reading Instruction

A teaching activity usually found in English reading class is that teacher tells students to read a comprehension passage within a timeframe and then checks their comprehension by going through their answers. This teaching activity can be called comprehension-based instruction. Although it is favored by many English teachers, its effectiveness is open to question. This paper mainly evaluates this teaching activity critically by drawing on some reading theories and some research findings and discusses the inadequacy of it. what's more, this paper suggests an expanded view of reading instruction which not only emphasize comprehension but also help develop students' strategic competence and overall language proficiency.