An exploratory study of teachers’ questioning strategies in speaking lessons

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI LAN HUONG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS MASTER THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH ,Ph.D Nghệ An – 2018 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI LAN HUONG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS Code: 8140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: LÊ VĂN CANH, Ph.D Nghệ An, 2018 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: “An exploratory study of teachers’ questioning strategies in speaking lessons” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching, Vinh University and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution in any other degree or qualification Signature Ho Thi Lan Huong iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Le Van Canh, who helped me with his precious knowledge, absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advice and detail critical comments during the long process of researching and writing this Master Thesis, without which the study would not have been complete Secondly, I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all my teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high School, where my investigation was carried out I thank them for their advice, great cooperation which are very useful for me to finish this study In addition, I am fully grateful to the help of all the students taking foreign languages at Nguyen Duc Mau high School, thank for their willingness to answer my questionnaires so that I could finish the survey for my study Last, I also wish to thank my family and all my friends for their various kinds of help and encouragement Vinh, May 2018 iv ABSTRACT This report aims to propose solutions to improve teachers’ questioning strateties in speaking lessons The key research questions revolve around the relationship between students’ attitude, teachers’ characteristics, capability to teach and graspe students’ attention, and effectiveness of questioning strategies From a study of 504 students and teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high school, it was found that teachers at the school mostly use questions with anticipation to a direct answer and to contrast, redirect learning, and control class In addition, teachers at the school also use most yes-no questions which is priate for students in the class through helping them avoiding fear of answering wrongly too often However, the study has few restrictions ranging from sample details, data gathering methodology, and analysis approach In fact, future research should employ larger data sample and longer observation period v TABLE OF CONTENT STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii ABSTRACT iv TABLE CONTENT v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rationale 1.2.Aims of the study 1.3.Research questions 1.4.Methods of the study 1.5.Scope of the study 1.6 Thesis design CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of Questions 2.2 Classification of questions in foreign language learning 11 2.2.1.Questions in the classroom settings 18 2.2.2.Criteria for effective questioning 20 2.3 Teachers’ questions and students’ responses to teachers’ questions in foreign language classrooms 21 2.4 Factors that affect students’ responses to teachers’ questions 22 2.4.1 Learner’s factors ………………………………………………………….22 2.4.1.1.Intelligence .22 2.4.1.2.Aptitude 23 2.4.1.3 Personality 23 2.4.1.4 Learner’s age 23 2.4.1.5.Intelligence Learning style 24 2.4.1.6 Learner’s belief `24 vi 2.4.2 Teacher’s factors …………………………………………………………27 2.4.3.Previous studies on teachers’ questioning strategies 29 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 32 3.1 Research method 32 3.2.Participants 32 3.3.Methods of data collection 33 3.4 Types of observation 35 3.5 Data analysis 36 3.6 Ethical issues 37 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 Results from teachers’ questionnaire: 38 4.2 Results from Student responses: 42 4.3 Results from classroom observation 50 4.4 Discussion 52 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS 54 5.1 Summary of the study 54 5.1.1 The common teachers’ questioning pattern as observed in their teaching of speaking 54 5.1.2.How students respond verbally to the questions their teachers asked 55 5.2 Limitations of the study 56 5.3.Recommendations for further research 57 REFERENCE .59 LIST OF TABLES AND APPENDIX Table Coding scheme for teacher questions…………………………………….18 Table 2: List of teachers participate in the study 33 Table 3: Statistics on teacher survey (1) ………………………………………… 39 Table 4: Statistics on teacher survey (2) ……………………………………40 vii Table 5: Statistics on observational of sixteen speaking classes ………………51 Appendix A: ……………………………………………………………………….61 Appendix ……………………………………………………………………….63 viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rationale English has roamed around the globe and established itself as an international language spoken in many countries, both as mother-tounge as well as a secondary foreign language In fact, it is considered the standard communication tool in many industries like communication, science, technology, education, etc (Reddy, 2016).The importance of English is not only in how people speak it but also in what it is used for.The need to enhance their language skills is becoming a matter of great urgency.So as to meet the need of the learners, teachers are constantly challenged by the matter how to make English teaching and learning more effective and communicative Teaching and learning Englishmean training student’s four language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing.These skills are equal in the level of importance.However, the level of applying communicative activities in teaching and learning them is different.The author herself is really interested in speaking skill.In fact,in high school, Teachers and students find it difficult to start talking in the target languages.How to encourage students to speak English and join speaking activities is the worry of many teachers In the context of Nguyen Duc Mau high school, English is taught as a compulsory subject.In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should require an adequate number of words and should know how to use them effectively As a teacher of English, from my observationand my own teaching experience,I realise that speaking lesson classroom interaction is restricted Only some students get involved in the activities conducted by the teacher whereas others keep silence or other things It is true that some students may be very good at writing or reading English but they fail to speak English fluently and naturally Some students stare that they are afraid of making mistakes,however a lot of them frankly admit that they are not motivated to speak Therefore, it is necessary to investigate what motivates and supports students in learning English In process of teachingand learning English,there are a lot of factors affecting the success of language learners such as age, personality, aptitude, motivation and so on.However in this study, I would like to focus on the teachers’ questioning strategy in speaking lesson in order to motivate the participation of students in speaking class Questioning is one of the most common techniques all teachers used in the classroom Teachers tend to ask a considerable number of questions in each lesson period There has been much research on teacher talk in recent years This interest reflects the importance of such talk in language teaching Issues which have been investigated include the amount of type of teacher talk, speech modifications made by teachers, instructions and explanations, type and number of questions asked and error correction One aspect of teacher talk which has received a lot of attention is that of teacher's questions Comparisons have been made between the types of questions addressed to learners in a classroom and those addressed to them outside the classroom Studies have also looked at the didactic function of questions and the relationship between different question types and learning outcomes Meanwhile, questioning is central to positive teaching methods It is important to choose the right type of question to stimulate students' thinking and engage them in effective discussions Teaching methodologies by asking questions are conducted by asking exploratory questions and challenges that target higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation Addressing challenging questions can stimulate students to explore ideas and apply new knowledge to many other situations Conversely, the question of life often expresses the desire to explore, the understanding of people from the beginning to begin to speak People develop their intellect with age, which is also reflected in the ability to structure their questions: from simple (at a young age) to complex (at maturity), including the question form and content to answer A child, in front of a strange object can only ask "What is this?" But the answer may be just a noun As an adult, he may ask, "How you create this?" which requires a more complex answer and a knowledgeable person might ask, "What -what is next? Asking about the time? S3: ask about fee 9.Do you like playing game to relax? Some of them are eager to say : yes In summary,there were various reasons to affect the students’responses.Many students stated that teachers’s clear instruction,logical teaching steps along with good behaviour such as friendliness,enthusiasm,tolerance or sense of humour would motivate themto responded to teachers’questions without being afraid of giving not correct answers.Some students admitted that the lack of confidence and being afraid of losing face resultes in poor participation 4.3 Results from classroom observation Lastly, from the observational data of sixteen 45 minutes classes, in overall, teachers ask about 9.5 questions per speaking class in average The average total number of questions asked between eight teachers per class ranged between 6.5 (for teacher no.6 with 6-10 years of experience) to 11.5 (for teacher no.8 with 16-20 years of experience, no.5 with 6-10 years of experience, and no.7 with 11-15 years of experience) In average, these teachers ask a question for every – minutes to - minutes during the speaking lessons Such frequency supports the literature review on the frequent use of questioning in lessons After all, in teaching lessons, questioning is the main means of communication between teachers and students In active teaching, communication between teachers and students is insignificant but very meaningful in terms of teaching methods It shows the teacher's interest in the job which encourage students to learn Additionally, in average, it seems that more experienced teachers would ask more questions during classes While those with 1-5 years of experience asked 10 and questions, those with 6-10 years asked 6, 10, and 11 questions, the one with 11-15 years asked 11 questions, whereas the most experienced ones asked and 12 questions While the difference is slight, the outcome may actually such tendency Furthermore, teachers seem to ask overwhelmingly more Yes-no questions compared 50 to Open-ended ones In fact, in average, while teachers ask between and yes-no questions, they would only ask around or open-ended one per class Again, teachers who asked the most open-ended question are the more experienced ones (No and No who asked and 1.5 such questions per class) Teachers Total Open- Total no ended Yes- Open-ended Yes-no no questions questions per questions questions Question asked class per class lesson 18 10 11 1.5 5.5 19 0.5 9.5 10 10 5 18 2.5 11.5 11 5.5 6.5 19 9.5 11.5 20 1.5 10 11.5 Sum 26 126 1.625 7.875 9.5 Average per Table 5: Statistics on observational of sixteen speaking classes In short, more experience teachers seem to ask more questions, particularly openended ones and teachers seem to ask, in average, 9.5 questions per class, mostly yesno questions 51 4.4 Discussion Nevertheless, the research findings disclose the current situation of the employment of questioning strategies in speaking lessons at Nguyen Duc Mau high school Generally speaking, teachers at the school mostly use questions with anticipation to a direct answer and to contrast, redirect learning, and control class Though, more experienced teachers would occasionally mix questions promoting high level of thinking from students into their strategy From students’ perspective, while students homework very regularly, they are rather shy away from participating in answering teachers’ questions and reviewing class after school Additionally, they are unable to judge the appropriateness of questioning strategy employed by the teachers, whether they use probing questions or just those fully anticipating a direct answer and to contrast, redirect learning, and control class Meanwhile, teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high school seems to spend lots of time asking questions In a 45 minutes lessons, they ask, in average, 9.5 questions per class, mostly yes-no questions This strategy is in line with previous suggestion on the use of questions anticipating answers While this type of question set in assessing existing knowledge, assessing the level of information memorization, in cases where accurate, specific, not requiring much thought, they are much easier for students to understand and answers thus helping to avoid the fear of answering wrongly too often In fact, for students at this school, this strategy may be appropriate as students are rather shy from participating in building lessons Though, it should also be reminded that questioning strategy should also consist of proper procedure in asking, waiting to be answered, and other factors, not just the content of the question For instance, efective questioning requires the participation of both teachers and students It is important for the teacher to create a "waiting time" before requesting a response Waiting time is defined as the time between the question that the teacher gives and the next student answer It gives students the opportunity to think before answering It is important to allow more students to come up with ideas instead of just a few Any student who wants to share ideas should be given the opportunity If time 52 is not allowed, these students need to have a place to share, for example a diary, etc to record ideas for discussion later In summary,this part consisted of some data collected from the teachers’questionaire, classroom observations to calculate the frequency of each question type, and the students’ responses to the question the teacher asked The next chapter will focus on major findings,discussion and recommendations for solving the research questions 53 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS This chapter will deal with a conclusion of the study and pedagogicalimplications 5.1 Summary of the study 5.1.1 The common teachers’ questioning pattern as observed in their teaching of speaking Questioning is central to positive teaching methods It is important to choose the right type of question to stimulate students' thinking and engage them in effective discussions Teaching methodologies by asking questions are conducted by asking exploratory questions and challenges that target higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation In fact, questioning can be considered as a "weapon" for both teachers and students in the teaching process The general purpose of the dissertation is to identify current situation of the employment of questioning strategies by teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high school in speaking lessons From literature review, it is understood that questioning is a core process of thinking, understanding, teaching, and learning, there should be some overseas study that questions the classroom Meanwhile, how to make questions to encourage students in speaking lesson is not easy at all As a matter of fact, there are a number of issues that interfere with the ability of students to communicate in the classroom, such as: self-deprecation, lack of knowledge, lack of active participation and use the mother tongue while communicating Nonetheless, while there are many different types of questions that make it difficult to decide on discrete and directly observable categories, over the years, many authors have tried to categorised questions into several types Though, the two common types are closed questions and open-ended questions In a classroom setting, teachers, although the level of results may vary, feel asked the easiest way to encourage students to interact more in lessons Additionally, at Nguyen Duc Mau high school, it seems that more experienced teachers would ask more questions during classes Furthermore, teachers seem to ask 54 overwhelmingly more Yes-no questions compared to Open-ended ones.It is clear that yes-no question is easy and quick to answer.Additionally,response choice can clarify the question text for the respondent.Howerver,the teacher should take its disadvantage into consideration.It may not have the exact answer the respondent wants to give.And it does not give information about whether or not the respondent actually understood the question being asked The study took into consideration factors from both teachers and students’ factors alongside few ethical issues with the paper While the observation sheet merely concerns about the frequencies or the mixed of types of questions employed by teachers at the target school, the questionnaire for teachers will consist of questions asking about their experience in teaching and intent when asking questions Furthermore, beside the teachers’ questionnaire, another survey will be given to students with names deliberately void and the sample will be random This procedure will allow freedom in expressing their opinions about teachers and personal dedication in studying The findings of this study showed that teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high school mostly used questions with anticipation to a direct answer and to contrast, redirect learning, and control class Though, more experienced teachers would occasionally mix questions promoting high level of thinking from students into their strategy Meanwhile, teachers at Nguyen Duc Mau high school mostly use yes-no questions, which may be appropriate for students in the class through helping them avoiding fear of answering wrongly too often In fact, for students at this school, this strategy may be appropriate as students are rather shy from participating in building lessons 5.1.2.How students respond verbally to the questions their teachers asked Through 16 speaking lesson,it was clear for the observer to find out that there were various reasons to affect the students’responses.Thanks to teachers’s clear instruction,logical teaching steps along with good behaviour such as friendliness, enthusiasm, tolerance or sense of humour,it would encourage them to respond to 55 teachers’questions without being afraid of giving not correct answers or losing face To make students response actively,teacher need to be functioned as controller, organizer,promter,counselor, informants, assessor, participant, observer, tutor,performer, and as a resource Harmer(2001).Besides,teachers need to try their best to create great atmosphere for the students responding their questions naturally The participant of the student to give response become an important aspect of classroom interaction When their teacher ask a question, students can either response, ask a question, or give no response.Through classroom observation, some students can give exact answers with along sentences.Whereas,some students give the answer in a short form with enough information required.On the other hand,some keep silent or give different way to indicate that they can not answer this question.Therefore,it is necessary for the teacher to follow some strategies when students response.They should reinforce student responses and questions ina positive way in order to encourage future participation by making positive statements and using positive nonverbal communication The findings of this study support Lynch’s (1991) argument that teachers and learners may be comfortable with their traditional roles, but that does not mean that these roles are necessarily helpful in providing effective language practice The conventional demarcation of teacher/questioner and learner/responder as revealed in this survey is a case in point 5.2.Limitations of the study Although the study has investigated some useful finding, it has also shown some unavoidable mistakes due to the author’s limitation of knowledge and experience The study has some limitations ranging from sample details, data gathering methodology, and analysis approach Firstly, the sample consists of just eight teachers and students at Nguyen Duc Mau high school and thus the implications of the findings may be limited to just the 56 school.The participants of the survey were limited.Therefore, the result of study may not reflect the whole situation of the issue In addition,the classroom observation was also employed but it was uneven and frequent among teachers and students at Nguyen Duc Mau high school.As the matter of fact , the data based on questionaire and classroom observations may not reflect all the aspect of questioning pattern observed in their teaching of speaking and the way students response verbally to their teacher’s questions After all, participants in other regions may have different backgrounds and have different perspectives and responses Further research is necessary to investigate the students’ proficiency level and to determine the extent the effects of teachers’ proficiency and teaching experience in teachers’ questioning patterns Secondly, the data gathering methods were rather short which consists of only 16 classes and teachers Given a larger scope and time period, the findings may become more applicable Lastly, the analysis approach was merely data discussion Thus, from these limitations, it should be recommended that further research using larger sample data with backgrounds in different regions would be advisable 5.3.Recommendations for further research With above limitations, further rearch on the topic might include all the students at Nguyen Duc Mau high school.Thefuture reseach should be conducted in a larger scope and time period.The researcher hopes that further studies will overcome all the existing limitation of this study, and have a total view about questioning pattern observed in their teaching of speaking and the way students response verbally to their teacher’s questions The thesis does not satisfy the writer, but thanks to the time of doing research , the author would like to give some suggestions with the hope they will be dealt with the near future: 57 -Using questions to teach is an age-old practice and has been a cornerstone of education for centery, so how often teacher gives questions in speaking class is a good topic to exploit - How to reinforce student responses and questions in a positive way in order to encourage future participation is both a difficult matter and interesting topic to study 58 REFERENCES 1.Baker, J., & Westrup, H (2003) Essential speaking skills London: Continuum and Voluntary Service Overseas 2.Brock, C.A (1986) The Effects of Referential Questions on ESL Classroom Discourse TESOL Quarterly 20:47 – 59 3.Doff.A(1988) Teach English Cambridge University Press 4.Döş*, B., Bay, E., Aslansoy, C., Tiryaki, B., Çetin, N., & Duman, C (2016, November 23) An analysis of teachers’ questioning strategies Educational Research and Reviews , 11 (22), pp 2065 - 2078 5.Farooq, M U (1998) Analysing teacher's questioning strategies, feedback, and learners' outcomes Aichi Women’s Junior College 6.Graesser, A., & Olde (2003) How does one know whether a person understands a device? The quality of the questions the person asks when the device breaks down Journal of Educational Psychology , 95, pp 524 - 536 7.Graesser, A., & Person, N K (1994) Question asking during tutoring American Educational Research Journal, 31, 104-137 8.Jeffrey,D.(2014,May-Jun).Learning tolove the question:How essential questions promote creativity and deeplearning.Journal Articles; Reports – Descriptive,36-41 Long, M H and C J Sato 1983 Classroom foreigner talk discourse: forms and functions of teacher's questions In H W Seliger and M H Long (eds.) Classroomoriented research in second language acquisition (pp 268-285) Rowley, M.A: Newbury House 10.Long, M H 1984 Process and product in ESL program evaluation TESOL Quarterly 18(3), 409-25 59 11 Lynch, T.(1991) Questioning Roles in the classroom ELT Journal 45 (3): 201 – 210 12.Nunan, D (1992), Methods in language learning, Cambridge University Press 13.Thornbury, S (2005) How to teach speaking Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited 14.Ur, P (1996) A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory.Cambridge,NewYork and Melbourne:Cambridge University Press 15.White, J., & Lightbown, P M (1984) Asking and answering in ESL classes Canadian Modern Language Review, 40, 228-244 60 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHER This questionnaire is designed for research purposes only and is done on an anonymous basis All the information will be kept confidential Your assistance in completing the survey is appreciated Work as quickly as you can without being careless Thank you very much for your cooperation! PERSONAL INFORMATION Full name: (optional)…………………………………………………… Age: …… How long have you been teaching English? …………………… APPENDIX A: TEACHER BASELINE QUESTIONNAIRE Please spare a few minutes of your valuable time to answer this simple questionnaire How many years have you been teaching How often you ask questions targeting individuals? How often you ask questions targeting certain group? a 1-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 >20 ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Usually Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ 61 How often you ask questions expecting an exact answer? How often you ask probing questions? How often you ask questions to promote high level of thinking Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ from students? How often you ask questions certain to remind facts and information? How often you ask questions to constract and redirect learning? How often you ask questions to control the class? 62 APPENDIX B: OBSERVATION SHEET Teacher’s name: Group: Date of observation: Teacher’s questions and students’ Question Type responses Display Exploratory Rhetorical questions questions Questions Specific Examples 63 64 ...MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY HO THI LAN HUONG AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING STRATEGIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS Code: 8140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION... learning more effective and communicative Teaching and learning Englishmean training student’s four language skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing.These skills are equal in the level of. .. VĂN CANH, Ph.D Nghệ An, 2018 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis entitled: ? ?An exploratory study of teachers’ questioning strategies in speaking lessons? ?? is the result of