AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHERS’ QUESTIONING IN THE ENGLISH READING CLASSROOMS – A CASE STUDY

Questions are a crucial part of classroom life and so questioning is one of the strongest tools at a teacher’s disposal as it engages students in the learning process and challenges levels of thinking. Many of the questions teachers ask in each lesson are concerned with the recall of textbook information. The question then is how classroom questioning strategies can become more effective; therefore, help teachers fulfill their mission of language instructions and development of students’ language competence. The study aims at exploring the questioning strategies used by teachers in the reading classes, through a case study where 3 classes of Reading (by one teacher who voluntarily joined in the study) was audio-recorded and observed. Teacher’s questions (and classroom interaction) were transcribed and categorized. Findings revealed that there are two main categories of questions, audience-oriented questions and content-oriented questions. Audience-oriented questions were found to be used three times more frequently than content-oriented questions. The triangulation of the data sources revealed that Eliciting response, Focusing information and Checking comprehension are three functions that made up the biggest percent in the seven functions of questions proposed by Chang’s (2012) through the reading activities. There is also a mapping relationship between question functions and question forms used by the teacher to facilitate her Reading classroom. The consolidations of question functions the teacher employed to support students responses proposed that the teacher attempted to involve students in the interaction and guide them to a higher level of cognitive competence.