The previous research of Brock (1986) and Ernst (1994) have generally shown a positive correlation between asking referential questions and students‟
production of target language but a negative correlation between asking display questions and the length of students‟ responses (Chi, 2010). The results of the present study showed a different pattern. The effects of different types of questions asked by the three teachers in the whole class teaching portion on the length of students‟ responses are summarized in Table 4 below:
28
Yes/No questions Display questions Referential questions
No of Qs
No of Rs
Length of students’ responses No of Qs
No of Rs
Length of students’ responses No
of Qs
No of Rs
Length of students’ responses
Quiet 1 2 3 6 Quiet 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 Quiet 1 2 3 4 5 8 9
Teacher A
4 4 3 1 10 11 2 5 2 1 1 8 12 3 3 3 2 1
Teacher B
25 25 12 10 2 1 24 24 3 8 5 3 3 1 1 4 4 3 1
Teacher C
4 5 1 2 2 6 6 2 1 1 1 1 5 13 5 3 1 2 1 1
Total (No)
33 34 16 12 2 3 1 40 41 5 15 7 4 5 1 1 2 1 17 29 3 11 7 3 1 2 1 1
Total (%)
100 47,1 35,3 5,9 8,8 2,9 100 12,2 36,6 17,1 9,8 12,2 2,4 2,4 4,9 2,4 100 10,3 37,9 24,1 10,3 3,5 6,9 3,5 3,5
TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com
As can be seen table 4 that there were more responses from students than the number of questions asked by the teachers. The reason is that the teachers required different students to answer the same questions, especially referential questions. This is good since different students had opportunities to express their own ideas.
It is noticed from table 4 that the questions asked by the teachers did not stimulate students to produce long responses. The majority of students‟ responses were short. Many yes/no questions were even not answered. The details of the students‟ responses are going to be presented by question type.
It seemed that yes/no questions did not stipulate responses from the students.
As seen in table 4, students‟ responses were generally quiet or brief when the teachers asked yes/no questions. Quietness occurred most frequently with 47,1 % of the responses. The one-word responses ranked second with 35,3%, followed by the three-word responses (8,8%) and the two-word responses ( 5,9%). Only 1 response (2,9%) was of six words which were actually the translation of the film asked by the teacher. Here are the typical examples of yes/no questions and their responses:
Extract 1:
T: Do you know” take turns”?
Ss: (quiet).
(Teacher B – Unit 16) Extract 2:
T: Have you got any questions about vocabulary?
S: Terrifying.
T: Terrifying: sợ hãi S: Thriller
T: Thriller: giật gân (Teacher C – Unit 13)
Extract 3:
T:Do you know “ score”?
Ss: tỷ số
(Teacher B – Unit 14) Extract 4:
T: President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Have you ever been there?
S: No, I haven‟t (Teacher C – Unit 16) Extract 5:
T: Have you ever seen “the war between stars?”
S: Chiến tranh giữa các vì sao.
(Teacher A – Unit 13)
Similarly to yes/no questions, display questions asked by the three teachers in the whole class teaching portion of this study also elicited brief responses. The one-word responses accounted for the largest percentage of responses (36,6%), followed by two-word responses (17,1%). The four-word responses equaled quietness (12,2%). The smallest percentage of responses belonged to the five-word response, the six-word response and the nine-word response (2,4%). Here are the typical examples of display questions and their responses:
Extract 6:
T: What does “tournament” mean?
Ss:( quiet) T: vòng đấu loại (Teacher A – Unit 14) Extract 7:
T: Who can tell me which football team in picture 1?
S1: England.
T: England, so you can say English football team . Picture 2? Uyen, please S2: French
(Teacher B – Unit 14) Extract 8:
T: Have you ever seen “the war between stars?”
S: Chiến tranh giữa các vì sao.
T: Ok: What kind of film is it? You, Đức Anh.
S1: Action film
T: I don‟t think so. Yes, you please.
S2: Science fiction film.
(Teacher A – Unit 13) Extract 9:
T: Where is President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum situated/ located? Short answer. Who can? You, please. ( Teacher was reading and writing on the board)
S1: In Ba Dinh district (Teacher C – Unit 16) Extract 10:
T: What is the first floor used for?
S: It is used for important meetings.
(Teacher C – Unit 16) Extract 11:
T: Look at Task 3. Who can tell me the difference between the dialogue of Task 2 and that of Task 3? Who can? Chính.
S: The question is about 2 kinds of films
T: Yes. The question of preferences for films is used.
(Teacher C – Unit 13)
It is obvious that the students‟ responses to the referential questions in the investigated lessons were not as long as expected. Although there were 29 responses to the referential questions, most of the responses were of one to three words. The one-word responses ranked first with 37,9%, followed by two-word responses (24,1%). There was 1 four-word response, 1 eight-word response and 1 one-word
response. Here are the typical examples of the referential questions and their responses:
Extract 12:
T: What kinds of films do you like most? Who can answer my question?
Raise your hand.
S1: Cartoon
T: Cartoon. Exactly, what is its name?
S1: Tom & Jerry
T: Ok. A famous cartoon film. Anything else? Other people, What are your opinions?
S2: Horror films
T: Horror film. How do you feel? It is very….
S: ( silent)
T: Oh. This kind of film is very terrifying (Teacher A – Unit 13)
Extract 13:
T: What is your favourite football team?
S: Chelsea.
(Teacher B – Unit 14) Extract 14:
T: When did you last visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum?
S1: Last vacation.
(Teacher B – Unit 16) Extract 15:
T: What do you think of cartoon films?
S1: I find them very funny.
T: Go on.
S2: I agree with you. I find them very interesting.
(Teacher C – Unit 13)
Extract 16:
S1: which do you prefer: love story films or cartoon films?
S2: It‟s difficult to say. I suppose I prefer cartoon films to love story ones.
T: Why?
S2: Because cartoons are very good fun and interesting.
T: Good. Anything else?
S2: Love story films are boring.
(Teacher C – Unit 13)
In general, for the effects of the types of questions asked on students‟
responses, in all the six investigated lessons, most of the students‟ responses were very brief, with one to three words when display questions were asked, and with only one word or with quietness when yes/no questions were asked. The use of referential questions in the investigated lessons did not seem to be effective. There were not many longer responses when referential questions were asked. The majority of the responses were of one to three words. Longer responses of four to nine words could be found in a few instances when display and referential questions were asked. However, these longer responses accounted for a small percentage.