From text to task: a diachronic analysis of post-reading comprehension questions and tasks in Iranian high school English textbooks

Textbooks play a pivotal role in fostering English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ language proficiency. Among the various skills addressed in English language teaching (ELT) materials, reading comprehension is widely regarded as an essential component for improving learners’ linguistic knowledge. Typically, reading passages are followed by a series of activities designed both to assess students’ understanding and to enhance their ability to interpret, analyze, and engage more deeply with the text. Although a substantial body of literature has examined the cognitive demands of EFL instructional content, relatively little attention has been devoted to analyzing second language reading comprehension questions and task types. To fill this lacuna, this study examined the representation of post-reading comprehension questions and tasks using Freeman’s taxonomy across nine Iranian high school English language textbooks from three successive generations in the history of ELT in Iran. The post-reading comprehension questions and tasks in each textbook were analyzed and categorized using a descriptive content analysis approach. The findings indicated that the Content category was the most prevalent across all three generations, followed by the Language and Affect categories. In addition, Generation 2 textbooks contained the highest overall frequency of post-reading comprehension question types, except for the Form question type, which occurred most frequently in Generation 1 textbooks. Across all nine textbooks analyzed, the Explicit question type emerged as the most commonly used, whereas the Evaluation question type was the least represented. The results of the chi-square tests also revealed significant differences among the three generations in terms of the frequency of different question types. The findings have several practical implications for policy makers, material writers, and English teachers.