Analysis of ESL Students Comprehension of LOTS and HOTS Questions According to Gender

Several studies have indicated that ESL students in China are weak in answering comprehension questions which are based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). The objectives of this study were to investigate students’ overall performance in answering LOTS and HOTS ESL comprehension questions, to compare students LOTS and HOTS comprehension question answering skills according to gender and to gauge teachers’ views on how to improve students LOTS and HOTS ESL comprehension skills. The LOTS and HOTS comprehension questions in this study were based on Bloom’s taxonomy. This descriptive study used the QUAN-qual model, whereby the quantitative data was collected using a comprehension test and the qualitative data was collected through interviews via SKYPE. The sample of this study consisted of 100 ESL third year high school students from Urumqi, China and their three ESL teachers. The data collected from the comprehension test was analyzed using the independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test (SPSS Program for Windows). The qualitative data was analyzed based on emerging themes. The findings revealed that the students performed significantly better at answering LOTS questions compared with HOTS questions. The findings also indicated that female students scored significantly higher in answering LOTS and HOTS comprehension questions compared with their male counterparts. The analysis of teacher interviews indicated that Chinese students were able to answer LOTS questions but they struggled to answer HOTS questions because they had limited vocabulary, lacked critical thinking skills and failed to use the right strategies.