We aimed to find out the types of questions the teachers asked frequently in speaking classes. The findings of our study are presented in table 3. Generally, the question types and functions vary across teachers and lessons.
Table 3: Types of questions asked by the three teachers
Types of questions
Teacher A Teacher B Teacher C Total
questions of 3 teachers Unit 13 Unit 14 Unit 14 Unit 16 Unit 13 Unit 16
Yes/No questions
4
(30,8%) 0 8
(36,4%) 17 (56,6%)
1 (11,1%)
3 (50%)
33 (36,7%) Display
questions
2 (15,4%)
8 (89%)
12 (54,6%)
12 (40,1%)
3 (33,3%)
3 (50%)
40 (44,4%) Referential
questions
7 (53,8%)
1 (11%)
2 (9%)
1 (3,3%)
5
(55,6%) 0 17
(18,9%) Total of 3
types of questions
13 (100%)
9 (100%)
22 (100%)
30 (100%)
9 (100%)
6 (100%)
90 (100%)
Indeed, the three teachers used display questions the most often (44,4%). The yes/no questions ranked second with 36,7% while the referential ones accounted for only 18,9%. In addition, the number of questions varied among lessons. The questions were asked the most often in unit 16 of teacher B (30 questions) while only 6 questions were used in unit 16 of teacher C. The table indicates that some teachers asked more questions than others. Teacher B asked the most questions (52 questions), followed by teacher A (22 questions ) and teacher C asked the fewest questions (15 questions).
It can be found from the table that each teacher had their own way of using types of questions as well as determining the purposes of their questions. This seems to be natural since not all teachers think alike, and not all of them teach in the
same way (Shomoossi, 1997). For example, teacher B asked much more questions than the two other teachers. On average, she asked 26 questions per class while the average number of questions of the others was 11 and 7,5 questions per class. It can be seen from the table that teacher B asked the majority of display questions in unit 14 (54,6%), 8 (36,4%) yes/no questions and only 2(9%) referential questions. In unit 16, she asked 30 questions; however, more than half of the questions asked were yes/no questions (17 questions), followed by 12 display questions and 1 referential question. Contrary to teacher B, teacher C asked the fewest questions in 2 units (15 questions). Her distribution of types of questions in unit 13 was different from that of unit 16. The difference of distribution of types of questions in two units resulted from the topics of these units. Unit 13 is about Films and Cinema, which is familiar to students, but topic of unit 16 is Historical Places, which does not interest students. The students also lacked background of Historical Places. She asked 5 referential questions (55,6%) in unit 13 but no referential questions were used in unit 16. 33,3% of questions belonged to display questions and only 11,1% of questions were yes/no questions in unit 13. However, the number of display questions was the same as that of yes/no questions in unit 16. The similarity of teacher A with the two other teachers is that she asked the number of questions in each unit differently; moreover, the distribution of types of questions in each unit was different. In unit 13, referential questions were asked most frequently (53,8%), followed by yes/no questions (30,8%) . Only 2 questions asked in unit 13 belonged to display questions whereas display questions were asked most frequently in unit 14 ( 89%). In unit 14, there was 1 referential question and no yes/no questions.
Regarding the purposes of questions, yes/no questions were used for various purposes. They aimed to ask students‟ knowledge and their experience. For example, “Have you ever seen “the war between stars”?” (Teacher A – Unit 13);
“Have you ever been to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum?”(Teacher B – Unit 16) and
“President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Have you ever been there? Do you know about it?” (Teacher C – Unit 16). This type of questions was also asked to check the
students‟ knowledge of the vocabulary items and to teach the vocabulary items. For example, “Look at the example and the table. Do you know the “runner-up”? Do you know the “winner”? The “winner” is the first rank and the “runner up” is the second rank” ?” (Teacher B – Unit 14) and “Have you got any questions about vocabulary?” (Teacher C – Unit 16). The next purpose of yes/no questions was to check students‟ understanding of the information in the textbook. For instance,
“Can we take photos inside?” (Teacher C – Unit 16). In brief, yes/no questions were used as motivational and diagnostic tools.
Display questions were asked for a number of purposes. First, the teachers aimed to check students‟ knowledge. For example, “Who can tell me which football team in picture 1?” (Teacher B – Unit 14); “What teams are there?” (Teacher A – Unit 14). Second, they asked display questions to check the students‟ knowledge of the vocabulary items. For example, “Citadel, what does this mean?” (Teacher B – Unit 16). Another example is “what does “tournament” mean?” (Teacher A – Unit 14). The next purpose of display questions was to check students‟ understanding of information in the text book, then guide them to do the task. The examples are
“How long did it take to build this construction?” (Teacher B – Unit 16); “Where is President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum situated/ located?” and “What is the first floor used for?” (Teacher C – Unit 16). Next, display questions were asked to analyze the model in the textbook such as “Study the model in the book. Look at the model.
How many people take part in the dialogue?” (Teacher C – Unit 13). Final, the display questions aimed to provide the model. Teacher C in unit 13 was reading and writing the model on the board “which do you prefer: war films or detective films?”. To sum up, display questions were mainly asked with diagnostic and instructional functions.
Referential questions were asked for the following purposes. Firstly, the referential questions were used to ask students‟ opinion and get information from students‟ experience. For example, “What is your favourite football team?”
(Teacher B – Unit 14); “When did you last visit Ho Chi Minh mausoleum?”
(Teacher B – Unit 16) and “What do you know about these football teams?”
(Teacher A – Unit 14); “What kinds of films do you know?”, “What kinds of films do you watch in your free time?” (Teacher C – Unit 13). Secondly, the teachers used the referential questions to ask about students‟ feeling with such questions as
“How do you feel when you watch these kinds of films?” (Teacher A – Unit 13);
“How much do you like it?”, “What do you think of cartoon films?” (Teacher C – Unit 13). Another purpose of asking referential questions was to expand the student‟s answer by requiring him to explain the reason for his answer. For example, the teacher asked “why?” (Teacher C – Unit 13). In general, the teachers asked referential questions to ask information about students themselves. Thus, these questions functioned as a motivational tool.
In summary, in the whole class teaching portion of the six investigated lessons, the display questions were asked most frequently with diagnostic and instructional functions. Yes/no questions ranking second in the frequency of appearance aimed to function as diagnostic and motivational tools. On the contrary, except for the lesson of teacher C, referential questions were rarely asked. The purpose of referential questions was to motivate students by asking information about students themselves.
4.1.2. Effects of the types of questions teachers asked on the students’