Questioning Skills of EFL Teachers
By Masduki
May, 2011
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Ice-breaking Background:
Character Shift is here in the “Song of
Questions”
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Song I:
“Kowe bocah ngendi Le?”
“Kula lare ndesa”
“Kowe arep nyangdi Le?”
“Badhe dateng kuta”
“Kathik nggawa arit Le?”
“Damel mbacok Landa”
“Yen Landane mati Le?”
“Indonesia merdeka”
Song II
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“Kowe bocah ngendi Le?”
“Kula lare ndesa”
“Kowe arep nyangdi Le?”
“Badhe dateng kuta”
“Kathik nggawa arit Le?”
“Damel pados arta”
“Yen wus duwe duit Le?”
“Damel sinau maca”
Song III
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“Kowe bocah ngendi Le?”
“Aku bocah ndesa”
“Kowe arep nyangdi Le?”
“Arep menyang kuta”
“Kathik nggawa arit Le?”
“Kanggo mbacok kanca”
“Yen kancamu mati Le?”
“Sepedahe tak gawa”
The Real Background: Shift of teaching
paradigm should be here accordingly!
 PP 19/2005
A Shift in the Teaching of Reading:
A Traditional Approach To Reading
• Reading is a matter of simply extracting information
from the text
• The text is full of meanings
• The meanings can be poured straight into the readers’
mind
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The (relatively) new approaches to reading
Goodman (1995): Psycholinguistic Model
Eskey (1998): Interactive Model
Anderson (2000): Schema Theory
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Psycholinguistic View of Reading
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Reading is not a linear process.
 Readers sample texts, make and test hypotheses and
predictions about what they are reading (based on
their background knowledge)
How?
A reader makes use of his organ information processing for:
Recognition
Initiation
(Goodman, 1995)
Prediction
Confirmation
Correction
Termination
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The Interactive Approach Suggests
Reading is a more complex process.
2. Reading is “a kind of dialog” between the reader
and the text.
1.
3.
“Interaction”
perspectives.
has
been
handled
form
two
4.
Interaction between the reader and the text.
5.
Interaction between the lower and higher levels of
reading process.
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What can we learn from the models:
1. Teachers of reading comprehension are supposed to
activate necessary and relevant schemata to assist
the students.
2. The reader’s prior background of the content
facilitates his/her processing the text.
3. Fluent reading results from the simultaneous
interaction between the higher and the lower level
skills of reading.
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Lower level skills are known as identification skills:
 Recognizing words and sentences necessary for decoding and
extracting explicit information
Higher level skills require more cognitive efforts:
 Reading between the lines to find the implicit information
 Reading beyond the lines to understand the writer’s point of
view and making interpretation.
Fluent reading occurs only when lower and higher levels operate
together.
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What happens in EFL reading classes ?
EFL Reading Classes :
 Reading is a complex process.
 Students have not yet mastered the medium for successful
reading activities (Sadtono, 2005).
AN EFL TEACHING PROBLEM
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EFL Reading Classes continued
 Many studies are conducted focusing on learners:
e.g. investigating the strategy used by learners to
comprehend a text (Retno, 2004).
 Common evidence (Rubin. 1994; Yuliati, 1999;
Emeksiz. 2003) shows that reading interactions in
EFL classes may not always occur among the
learners themselves.
 Learners may need someone who will promote
interaction and comprehension.
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Who ?
THE TEACHER
Why?
1. To initiate and sustain interaction in the classroom is
the teacher’s responsibility.
2. The teacher’s performances is as important as the
learner for a complemented interactive process.
Teacher’s Intervention Is Required
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How/What Intervention ?
In EFL Reading Classes :
 Teachers make use of different tools to initiate
interaction in the classroom.
 The most commonly used tool is ASKING QUESTIONS
(Long and Sato. 1983; Johnson. 1990; Ellis. 1994).
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Why Questions?
Through asking questions, teachers help learners:
 Develop lower and higher cognitive process
 Use their background knowledge to interact with
the text and to build comprehension
 The teacher is a professional question maker
(Gall, 1970)
 To know how to question is to know how to teach
 To question well is to teach well
 Good questions are vital to good teaching
(Averbach, 1983)
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 Questioning is the most:
 Influential single teaching act.
 Valuable of all teaching devices.
 The Greatest medium of instruction (Hyman. 1989).
IT IS ALMOST IMPPOSSIBLE TO CONCEIVE OF TEACHING WITHOUT
ASKING QUESTIONS
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This Study :
A particular concern with the use of questions by non-native English
teachers, focusing on:
 The Types of Questions
How to make teacher questions effective in
understanding
helping students reach
(how teachers should make use of questions
teaching)
effectively
in
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The Research Problems
:
 What are the types of questions posed by EFL teachers
in RC courses?
 How do EFL teachers make effective questions in RC
courses?
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Findings:
4.1 The Types of Questions Posed by the EFL Teachers
in RC Courses
4.1 Display Questions:
Requesting the students to display their knowledge
known by the teacher
4.2 Referential
Asking for information which is not known by the
teacher
Closed
With only a single correct answer
Open
With multiple correct answers
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4.2 Strategies Employed by EFL Teachers to Make Effective
Questions
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Translation (Code Switching)
Repetition
Pausing (wait-time)
Probing
o Focusing on Subordinate Category
o Focusing on exemplification
Rephrasing
o Using clues that describe the attribute of the expected answer
o Comparing or contrasting the expected answer to something
o Giving an alternative/choice
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Conclusions:
The Types of Teacher Questions:
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The range of questions as observed falls into two categories:
 Display and Referential
 Display > Referential
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The observed teachers :
Activate lower level skill of reading
 Call for surface level meaning
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Conclusions…………………………….. continued
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Response  Types of questions
(e.g Wh-Question > Yes/No Question)
Open question types trigger more complex utterances than closed questions types
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Conclusion…………………………..continued
No rigid separation of question types took place during the reading
No single type of question turned out to be the most effective
Combination of display and referential  Effective
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The strategies to make effective questions
Translation
Repetition
Pausing
Probing +Modif.
Rephrasing +Modif.
Effective questioning strategies
(Helping /facilitating students to reach the
intended responses in comprehending a reading
text)
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………………………….continued
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Effective questioning strategy in one reading class (L-1)
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Not always effective in another class (L-2/EFL)
Language proficiency of teachers and learners
 Level of questions
 Purpose of questioning
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Contributing factors
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……………………….continued
No rigid separation of strategy took place during the reading
No single type of strategy turned out to be the most effective
Combination of more than one strategy
Effective
(for specific shared purpose)
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Possible Combinations
Translation
Clarity
Rephrasing
Wait-time
Distribution
Repetition
Sequence
Rephrasing (Structuring)
Probing
Translation
Clarity
Repetition
Rephrasing
Wait-time
Sequence
Probing
Rephrasing
Referring to the findings on question types and strategies
Aspects of Effective Teacher questions
Linguistic
Clarity
Conciseness
Non-Linguistic
Form
Sequence
Wait time
Distribution
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Suggestions
for Teachers and the LC
Teachers’ Intervention in ESP is required.
The intervention is directed to the use effective questions and questioning
strategies
---------------------------University Students
High order thinking
Exploration of concept and Ideas
High level questions (referential)
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Suggestion………………………………………………………continued
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Teaching
Asking Question
Adopt questioning strategies increasing students’ involvement !
 Support a special training for questioning skill !
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For other researchers
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Question  Important tool in language classroom
Strategy Modification  Make students get involved
A quantitative study to see the effect of different types of questions
on the student responses in other language skill is interesting
The students’ psychological effect upon receiving questions
Investigation involving more subjects with different background
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Research Method
The study is intended to explore:
The types and the strategies that make teacher question
effective in reading comprehension courses.
Qualitative Approach
to enable descriptions and in-depth analyses
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The Design
A Case Study
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It is a research design in which the researcher typically
observes the characteristics of an individual or a group of
individuals.
 The observation is to probe deeply and analyze intensively
multifarious phenomena:
 One exceptional case/individual actor (exemplary teachers)
was chosen
 A specific setting was examined (reading Comprehension
course)
 A particular event was observed (asking questions)
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Research Subjects
Purpose:
To describe some possible aspects that make EFL Teacher Questions
Effective.
The subjects required:
English teachers of reading comprehension course
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What Kind of Teacher?
Those who are believed:
 To be representative of everything observed
(Questioning
The act to be observed)
 To provide maximum insight and understanding
Exemplary Teachers (Good Teachers) Needed!
How to select?
“Selecting a sample of participants/subjects who is
perceived to be special, relevant, and to have
superior performance, and thus, deserve to be the
exemplary sample”
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Selection of the research subject
Conducted in UMM; 46 teachers were selected
Selection process:
 Already existing mechanism: Board of Academic Quality
Assurance (BKMA)
 Student’s opinion
Result:
2 exemplary teachers found
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Data and Data Sources
Utterances of Reading Comprehension Teachers:
Data
Teacher questions and Students’ opinion (statements)
Teachers and Students as a Source of data
Teacher questions and statements
(Soft Data)
Transcriptions of teacher questions
(Hard Data)
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Instruments
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The Researcher
Human instrument to respond, adapt, emphasize,
expand, process, clarify, and explore during data
collection and analysis
 Field-notes
To write everything the researcher experiences
and thinks during the data collection
 Video and Audio-tape recorder:
To record the events in the field
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Data Collection
The Researcher:
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Observing the classroom process
Recording verbal interaction (questions generated
by teachers) and stop recording until researcher
finds the point of data saturation
Interviewing the subjects
Transcribing
Coding the data
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Data Analysis
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Data Reduction
 Data Display
 Conclusion Drawing
 Verification
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Data Collection
Field notes
Transcription
Data Coding
Data Reduction
Data Display
Temporary Conclusion
(one semester?)
No
Yes
Final Conclusion
Types of EFL Teacher Questions
Effective EFL Questioning
Strategies
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Research Stages
Developing Research Design
 A Case study
Preliminary Study:
 Finding Research Focus
 Observing Feasible Subjects
(Exemplary Teacher)
Actual Study
Sources:
 Reading Classes
 Responses to Interview
DATA
Instrument:
 Researcher
 Video&Tape Recorder
 Field notes
Collection:
 Non Participant
 Interview
Analysis
Finding
Report Writing
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