How to Design Text-based Questions
Abstract
In recent years, with the development of Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, especially Applied linguistics, our English teaching has undergone great changes. The research achievements of modern linguistics show that in the classroom teaching process: questioning is a basical form in the bilateral activity of the teacher and student, which arouse lots of experts and English teacher‘s attention. Questions can be classified from
different perspectives: grammatical form, communicative value, content orientation and cognitive level. In language pedagogy, text-based questioning as both an attention drawing device and a form of learning tasks serves text instruction. Therefore, language teachers preparing text-based questioning should take into consideration all dimensions of questions, especially cognitive requirement and communicative character. In addition, interaction between learner, text and the outsidetext can be achieved by the adoption of both about-the-text and beyond-the-text questions in teachers‘ text-based question construction.
Key words: text-based questions, grammatical form, communicative value,
content orientation, cognitive level
摘 要
近年来？由于社会语言学？心理学？尤其是应用语言学研究的迅速发展,我国的
英语教学发生了很大的变化。现代语言学研究成果充分显示？在课堂教学过程中？“提
问”是英语课堂教学师生双边活动最基本的也是最重要的形式？正引起无数专家和教
师的关注。提问可以从不同的角度进行分类。例如，从语法形式？从交流价值？以内
容为导向和从认知水平进行分类。在语言教学中？教师以课文为基础进行提问是引起
1
学生注意的一种方法也是一种完成学习任务的形式。因此？教师在准备以课文为基础的提问时必须从提问的各个角度来考虑？尤其是认知需求和交际特点。另外？学习者与课文知识三者之间是相互作用的？通过它们能够实现教师进行以课文为基础的课内和课外提问。
关键词，以课文为基础的提问！语法形式！交际价值！以内容为导向！
认知水平
Contents
Abstract……………………………………………………………………… Contents…………………………………………………………………… Introduction………………………………………………………………… 1. Study of Question Classification: Dimensions of Criteria………………… 1.1 Grammatical form …………………………………………………… 1.2 Communicative value………………………………………………… 1.3 Content orientation…………………………………………………… 1.4 Cognitive level………………………………………………………
2. The Design of Text-based Questions…………………………………… 2.1 Questioning in text instruction………………………………………… 2.2 Considerations in text-driven question design……………………… 3. Importance of Text-based Questions…………………………………… 3.1 Utilize questioning to set off the students‘ interesting for the learning
text…………………………………………………………………………
2
3.2 Questioning can run through the principle of teaching………………
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………
Bibliography…………………………………………………………………
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………
Introduction
At present, the notion about the student –centred pedagogy has been
widely accepted. But how to set up this pedagogical thought and then explore practical methods of real significance? How to transfer the learner‘s
enthusiasm and stimulate them to think in order to require information as much as possible. The author attempts to start from classroom questioning and explore how to design text-based questions. Classroom questioning has a long history and has been of great importance in teaching and learning. The study of classroom questioning in both general education and language pedagogy has been stressed by experts and practical teachers and there are prolific research studies in this regard. Of the existing abundant studies done so far, the establishment of various question taxonomies has always been focused on by researchers. So Part II reviews the literature of question classification from the perspective of dimensions of criteria by which questions are grouped; Part III explores design of text-based questions based on Part II; Part IV explain importance of text-based questions in classroom teaching and Part V gives a summary of the present paper.
3
1. Study of Question Classification: Dimensions of Criteria
According to Richards & Lockhart, questions can be classified in many different ways？and as researchers have observed, it is sometimes difficult to arrive at discrete and directly observable categories . Just as Ellis makes the point, whereas there are few problems in assigning teachers‘ questions to formal categories, difficulties do arise with functional/communicative or cognitive categories, which are ―high inference‖ and often call for substantial interpretative work on the part of the analyst on the basis of the familiarity
[1]with the context where questioning occurs. Even in the same context,
different people may have different approaches to the same question. Nevertheless, it is found that much of the research work on questions has centered on developing taxonomies to describe different genres. Thus far, researchers have attained many systems of question classification according to different criteria. To put all the thoughts together, those standards cover four aspects: grammatical form, communicative value, content orientation and cognitive level.
1.1 Grammatical form
In terms of the linguistic resources which a student needs in order to give the shortest possible correct and natural answer, just in traditional grammar, questions are usually classified into general questions, such as: can you retell
4
this story? Special questions, such as: what do you think of this article? Alternative questions, such as: would you like coffee or tea? And disjunctive/tag questions, Such as: This is your office, isn‘t? Of course, most
scholars do not mention all the four interrogative sentences when addressing types of questions in terms of syntactic features.
Some researchers emphasize in their classifications of questions only two types of questions: wh-questions and yes/no questions .
However, a taxonomy consisting of three types is also available. Doff discusses three groups of questions: 1) yes/no questions or nexus questions, which expect affirmation or negation; For example ,T: Do you think this method is right in the article ? S: Yes .I think so. 2) ―or‖/alternative/choice
questions, to which students can reply by merely echoing one of two options supplied within the question itself; For example, T: which do you think is right, the first one or the second one? S: The first one. 3)wh-/ x-s/ information questions, to which students must reply by coming up with some information which is not contained within the questions. For example: T:What is your
[2]attitude towards this article ? S:I think this article is very objective.
1.2 Communicative value
In the teaching process, the Classroom questioning often run through it and plays various roles. Some researchers pay more attention to the communication in language classrooms, so a further distinction between procedural, referential and display questions has been made.
5
As to procedural questions, which are also termed ―social questions‖,
―managerial questions‖, or ―instruction questions‖, they refer to lesson-
oriented questions that have to do with classroom procedures and routines, and classroom management, as opposed to those concerning the content of learning but necessary complements to the text-oriented questions. The features of such questions consist in their purpose in directing, propelling and managing classroom activities. Zhoulin Yang holds that those questions can develop learners‘ pronunciation, intonation, sense of language and the use of language, which is considered in terms of teachers‘ provision of
comprehensible input and samples of English actual use in the context of
[3] language classrooms.
According to the simple fact of whether the teacher already knows the answer or not, teacher questions can be distinguished into ―display‖ and ―referential‖ questions. If she/he does, the question is merely intended to prompt the learners to display their text comprehension and/or command of accurate English; if s/he does not, the purpose of the question will normally be to gain new information. The category is based on communicative value of teacher questions.
Display questions, sometimes called ―pseudo questions‖ or ―factual questions‖ or ―known-information questions‖, are those used as a means of measuring knowledge students have acquired, which serve the function of feedback both to teachers and students. Therefore, display questions are
6
form-oriented or known-information-based. In contrast, referential questions, sometimes called ―real/genuine questions‖, are those used as a means of acquiring unknown messages. So referential questions are meaning-driven. Language is a combination of form and meaning. In language lessons where the focus is on form, display questions are likely to predominate whereas in lessons taking a content-based approach to teaching referential questions may be overwhelmingly used. The use of either of two types of questions may have a bearing on learners‘ L2 level. Nevertheless, some researchers advocate
the use of referential questions in language classrooms, which are more likely to than display questions to contribute to an acquisition-rich environment and conform to the recommendation of the communicative use of the target language.
1.3 Content orientation
The dimension of content orientation of a question is an area that has long been ignored in question/questioning studies. So far, much attention has been given to the analysis of the cognitive level and recently of the communicative value of questions, but there are still some researchers who show their concern over the content aspect of questions notwithstanding. One category of Hakansson in an analysis of question types about language/meaning distinctions according to whether the question is focused on the language itself (medium) or on the message (content). In language classes, the focus may be on the content—the information of a given text and
7
sometimes the focus may be shifted to the form— the language itself.
Therefore, questions in language lessons are likely to be either language- oriented or message-oriented.
Jensen et al. and Hu & Dai classify questions occurring in the teaching context into text questions about the material and learner questions about learners‘ mind. The former type is text-based questions which are related to
the text information while the latter is schemata-based questions that are closely concerned with learners themselves.
Thompson categorizes questions into facts and opinions genres: fact- oriented questions, according to the origin of the information they carry, are subdivided into questions about outside/non-personal facts (information in the text; information in the situation on which the teaching is based; information about the world outside the classroom) and questions about personal facts; opinion-oriented questions refer to those which require the learner‘s personal investment in perspectives and judgments. Thompson‘s classification of classroom questions includes both subjective questions regarding learners‘
thoughts and objective ones concerning facts about the text, people and the world. The taxonomy shows that the content of teacher questions goes beyond the text and the classroom into learners‘ inner world as well as the outside
world. Therefore, Thompson‘s taxonomy of questions in terms of content orientation can be said to be so far the most comprehensive one that can be exploited to guide practicing teachers in designing and distributing classroom
8
questions at the content level.
1.4 Cognitive level
Questions should ―serve to propel the individual along a cognitive
[4] developmental trajectory, leading to new knowledge and understanding‖ .
The existing diversified systems of question classification can fall into two categories: those from general education and those from language pedagogy and based on the achievements from the former.
1.4.1 Taxonomies of questions in general education
In general education, most representative and influential hierarchies of questions are Bloom et al. Sanders and Guilford.
Besides those pioneering taxonomies, there are still others: Taba, Laiser & Smith , Herber , Hyman , etc. which are all built on the basis of those early classifications.
Other researchers e.g. Cunningham, Redfield & Rousseau, Good & Brophy, Moore, etc. distinguish high-/low-level questions, narrow/broad questions, or content/process questions: questions of the first kind are usually convergent, simple, factual, which are information questions that require mental recalling of previously acquired knowledge or recognition of specific correct information; the second type of questions tend to be thought- provoking, divergent, open, conceptual, abstract, complex, which are opinion/judgment-oriented ones that involve mental processes in creativity, analysis, synthesis and valuing/evaluation, problem-solving. Questions of
9
these two kinds are both important in learning. Factual questions establish students‘ an information base that will be used in higher-order mental
operations. Thought-provoking questions are the extension and elaboration of lower-order questions. Hence, both types of questions are mutually dependent on each other.
1.4.2 Taxonomies of questions in language teaching
Barnes, on a basis of his observation in secondary school classrooms in Britain, makes a distinction between ‗closed reasoning questions‘ that are framed with only one acceptable answer which is convergent in character, and ‗open reasoning questions‘ which permit a number of different acceptable
[4]answers which are divergent in nature. Such two types of questions are
often called close-ended/open-ended or in short close/open questions. A similar contrast is made by some L2 researchers between ‗specific‘ and ‗general‘ information questions: specific questions expect a particular, usually
brief, closed set of responses while general questions are those which leave open the nature and length of the expected responses.
Koivukari classifies questions from the perspective of depth of cognitive processing into: rote questions refer to those calling for the reproduction of content, which are considered to operate at the surface level. For example: When teaching in Lesson 2 Unit 1in JEFC Book 3, the teacher can ask the student such questions : Where does she often borrow books ? How could they get the lost books back so quickly? These questions can easily answer or
10