Nature of questioning in english classroom using communicative language teaching approach at junior secondary level

Abstract

Questioning is an inseparable part of a classroom teaching-learning process. Realizing the importance of questioning, the educationists worldwide had shown their continuous interest in research on questioning. However, in the context of Bangladesh, researchers rarely have explored this significant area of teaching-learning. Comprehending this gap of researching, the current mixed method approach study had been designed. The aim of the study was to understand the questioning nature in English language classrooms. The following three research questions guided the study: 1) What are the questioning patterns in English classes? 2) In which process the teachers progress questioning? and 3) How do the learners perceive classroom questioning? Randomly selected 300 students, purposively selected 40 students and 10 English language teachers of junior secondary level participated in the study. Thirty English language classrooms were observed. To collect data, the researcher used classroom observation schedule, opinionnaire for students, focused group discussion schedule and teacher interview schedule. The study used classroom observation protocol to explore the actual status of questioning pattern and process happening in the classroom. The post lesson observation interview protocol helped to explore teachers’ opinion and explanation regarding the patterns and process of classroom questioning. Like the teachers, the learners have also been treated with importance to conduct this study. In previous researches on questioning, learners had always been neglected which is a shortcoming of the researches on questioning. To overcome this limitation, the study used an opinionnaire for investigating learners’ perception about questioning patterns and process. Beside the opinionnaire, a focused group discussion schedule was also administered with the learners to have in-depth understanding of their view, opinion and perception regarding questioning of English classes. To analyze the data, the researcher adopted thematic analysis approach where descriptive statistics like percentage, direct quotations from the respondents and the critical aspects of classroom discourse had been used. The findings derived from data triangulation and methodological triangulation revealed that in English classes, teachers asked questions mainly for three purposes such as warm up, assessment and motivational purposes. However, most of the questions were asked to assess the students’ learning. Findings showed that questioning pattern and process had not been changed significantly over the years. Still teachers asked most of the questions (90%) from the knowledge sub-domain of cognitive domain which is the lowest level of knowledge. Almost 55% of the classroom questions were closed in nature and 40% of the questions were yes-no questions. Hence, learners did not get scope for higher order thinking within the classroom or beyond. Another result of the study was that most of the questions were asked either from the exercise of the textbook or from the contents. Students’ life related questions were almost absent in classroom teaching-learning process. So, it was difficult for the students to link between classroom and real life situation through questioning. Moreover, it is suggested in communicative language teaching approach that students should participate in classroom talk especially in questioning but the study findings showed a different scenario regarding questioning practice. 98% of the questions were asked by the teachers and among the questions 63% of them were asked in English. Teachers asked 90% of the questions to individual learners; as a result, the whole classes were not engaged in questioning for most of the time. Though it is expected all the learners should be treated equally in the classroom, in real situation, it was seen teachers asked almost 65% questions to the front bench students and about 78% responses came from the front side students. Basically, the front bench students were the best learners of the classroom and they dominated in the classrooms teaching-learning. Inspite of the dominance of the bright learners the teachers gave most attention to them. Data showed that only 12% of the total number of questions was asked to the back bench students and they could reply to only 6% of the questions. Though there were discrimination and less participation in questioning, still the learners liked questioning very much and they perceived classroom questioning as the most favorite instructional strategy. 98% of the learners believed that questioning helped their learning by promoting their critical thinking skill and keeping their concentration in teaching-learning. Learners opined that question-answer practice helped them to pass the exam and 94% of the learners thought that questioning was really helpful for developing speaking skill. Realizing the importance of questioning, almost 97% of the learners mentioned that they could learn more when their teachers questioned more. Based on the findings, the study recommended to arrange proper and adequate training on classroom questioning for the English teachers; and also suggested to conduct further studies on why learners did not participate in questioning and what kinds of questioning practices are going on in the primary and pre-primary schools.