Aspects we may consider when asking questions in the classroom (Classroom Pedagogics)

In this post we are going to deal with some aspects that need to be considered when asking questions in the classroom. Some have called this part the ‘interactive’ phase of the teaching process, the phase when the teacher has to interact on the classroom with pupils. Then, asking questions involves the trainees skills in asking the right kind of questions and asking them in a effective way. Then, the right kind of questions can be divided into two types:

• -  Referential: The teacher asks a questions which he or she do not know the answer. This is the one which must be increased by students. For example, have you visited London?
• -  Display: The teacher ask a question and he or she knows the answer. This one is more used than referential ones. For example, what is this? (when showing a pen).

Another way of classifying these questions are:

• -  Open: They have an unlimited number of answers. What kind of tricks would you teach a dog?
• -  Closed: They have a limited number of possible answers. Where are you from?

Basically, the right kind of questions are those that make learners think and allow the teacher to extend the interaction by further questioning, beacuse learning happens here. Students need to keep in mind that it is not wrong to answer yes or no, becuase some types of questions require this kind of responses.

On the other hand, the teacher should realize the importance of ‘thin air’ questions (questions that are asked to the whole class but they appear directed to noone, because no volunteers appear). Then, as a solution, it is important not just use volunteers, sometimes these questions should be directed, so choose a respondent to answer it.

When responding to learners’ responses we should take into account withholding feedback, so not immediately saying that a response it right or wrong, but asking other learners for agreement or disagreement, enhancing communication. In order to do so it is useful to answer to leraners’ responses, control paralinguistic sings, have a wait-time, rephrasing for simplicity or rephrasing a learners’ error.

In order to repair breakdowns, teachers may overcome breakdowns or states of confucion by using pedagogic goals (the syllabus aims of the unit of work), language learning aims (reasons to do some thing at a given point) or social aims (the social climate in the classroom, especially when introducing more learner participation and group work).

It is also useful to vary the input, it means that planning for varieties of activities in the lesson, maybe using movement in the classroom space and different tone (not using the same tone for the whole lesson). Also, setting challenge is very useful because teachers should ensure the level of difficulty. So the learners can do activities correctly and so the degree of challenge can be increased or decreased depending on their reaction to the activities. A way to change the difficulty, teachers should notice changes in the fluency of speaking, uses of complex language, etc .

Moreover, aking these questions are a way to get the attention of students, they may be used at the beginning of the lesson, when moving from group to whole class activity and when changing the type of activity in the lesson. It is very important to provide feedback or follow up if we want to guarantee learning, it is very important that the student realized how good or effective their utterances are. Feedback must be geniuine and personal to establish a relationship with their pupils, maybe being aware of their efforts. Then, they allow learners to experience the effect of what they produce as a guide to them in their future efforts.