Asking questions is a natural feature of communication, but also one of the

most important tools which teachers have at their disposal. Questioning is

crucial to the way teachers manage the class, engage students with content,
encourage participation and increase understanding.

Typically, teachers ask between 300-400 questions per day, however the quality and
value of questions varies. While questioning can be an effective tool, there is both an
art and science to asking questions.

Every question demands a response (except in the case of requests and suggestions),
so that questions inevitably generate communication. However the quantity of
questions asked needs to be considered in relation to general time constraints and the
need to keep teacher talking time to a minimum while maximising learner
contributions.

 Types of questions

 Purposes of questions

 Effective questioning

 Conclusion

Types of questions
There have been a number of typologies and taxonomies of questions. Socratic
questioning, exemplified by Paul’s taxonomy, forms the basis of eliciting, while Bloom’s
taxonomy identifies six types of questions by which thinking skills may be developed
and tested. In the context of language teaching and learning, Bloom himself maintained
that;"The major purpose in constructing a taxonomy of educational objectives
is to facilitate communication..." Classroom questions tend to fall into two broad
categories:

Display questions. These are designed to elicit learners’ prior knowledge and to check
comprehension. They often focus on the form or meaning of language structures and
items, and the teacher already knows the answer.

 What does ..... mean?

 When do we use .....?

 What comes after .....?

 What’s the opposite of .....?

 Where’s the stress in .....?

Referential questions. These require the learner to provide information, give an opinion,
explain or clarify. They often focus on content rather than language, require ‘follow-up’
or ‘probe’ questions, and the answer is not necessarily known by the teacher.

 What do you think about .....?

 Have you ever....when/where .....?
 If you had .....what.....?
 What kind of .....?
 How do you .....?

The best referential questions are those that are ‘divergent’ or ‘open-ended’ in that

they are broad, may have multiple answers, and require a higher level of thinking from
the learners.

Open-ended questions are ideal for developing skills such as inferring, predicting,
verifying and summarising, as well as eliciting more
language. ‘Convergent’ or ‘closed’ questions have more narrowly defined correct
answers which can be recalled from memory and require little reflection or originality.
Closed questions are common in conventional tests.

Purposes of questions
Questions have a variety of purposes often related to the type and stage of a lesson.

 During the lead-in to a lesson, referential questions form the basis of brainstorming a
topic, generating interest and topic-related vocabulary. Student’s responses may be
recorded as a mind-map on the board, or as the first phase of a ‘what we know / what
we would like to know/ what we know now’ framework, particularly in receptive skills
based lessons where predicting content is a useful pre-reading / listening activity.

 When language is being presented, questions are used to elicit students’ prior
knowledge, and guide them into recognising patterns and forming hypotheses about
how the language is used. ‘Noticing’ questions are used to help learners identify
language in context (‘What language does he use to talk about his plans?’, ‘How does
she make a promise?’)

 Meaning and understanding need to be checked before language is practised. Concept-

checking questions (CCQs) should demand short answers, be simple and asked often
(‘Is he talking about the past, present or future?’, has the action finished?’, ‘Is time
 important?’, ‘ıs the meaning positive or negative?’ (Checking meaning and
understanding is the subject of another article on this site.)

 Question-response is a common form of guided oral practice. Nomination is often

essential in this stage, but the traditional ‘lockstep’ pattern of interaction should be
minimised by asking students to ask and answer questions in open pairs across the
class and in closed pairs. Student involvement nay be increased by asking students to
nominate the person to ask the next question (student nomination).

 Globally designed materials often suggest form-based questions for language practice
which are too general, outside the learners’ experience, or which produce obvious
answers. Form-based questions may also be personalised and divergent in that they
require elaboration. Thus ‘How often do you brush your teeth?’ is unlikely to either
stimulate interest or generate language, whereas ‘How often do you argue with your
parents?’ offers the opportunity for follow-up questions as well as producing the target
structure.

 In skills lessons, questions may focus on strategies as well as language (‘Do you have
to read everything to get the information?’, ‘Do you need to understand every word?’.
‘What do you think will happen next?’ Questions may also focus on process rather than
product (‘How did you guess the meaning of that word?’, ‘Where in the passage did you
find the information?’, ‘What helped you to understand what the speaker’s opinion
was?’)

 Student nomination may also be used for obtaining the answers to exercises and
comprehension tasks, but feedback on the tasks themselves is equally important and
can be dealt with by questions such as ‘What was difficult about that question?’. ‘Did
you have enough information?’ and ‘Did you enjoy that activity?’

 The success of many fluency activities depends on the use of open-ended referential
questions, but the teacher can also increase motivation by expressing interest through
questions. Some of the best discussions take the form of ‘chats’, often outside the
classroom, when paraphrasing and clarification can take place more naturally.

Questions focusing on form, function, meaning, concept and strategies may all be
termed ’guidance questions’, and differ from comprehension questions in that learners
are not necessarily required to provide correct answers. The overall aim of these
questions is to gradually raise awareness of language and skills and to help learners
develop strategies for learning in a focused way.

Throughout the lesson, questions play an important role in classroom management,

including general questions (‘Can you all see the board?’, ‘Have you got your
dictionaries ready?’) and questions for checking progress ‘Ready?’, Have you finished?’.
Questions designed to check instructions are vital in order to avoid interrupting a task
in order to reinstruct or clarify the task. These questions should be kept simple (‘Are
you working alone or in pairs?’, ‘Who’s in group B?’, ‘Are you going to write anything?')
and spread around the class.
 Many teachers find it difficult to estimate the amount of time needed for a student to
respond to a question, often due to pressure of time, impatience or fear of silence.
Rushing learners may result in mistakes and frustration. Sufficient ‘wait-time’ is needed
for learners to comprehend the question, formulate an answer, process language and
respond. Wait-time before nominating and after the initial response encourages longer
answers, questions from the learners, self-correction and level of student involvement.

Effective questioning
As with all aspects of teacher talking time, it is not the quantity but the quality and
value of questions that is important. When thinking about their questioning technique,
teachers might use the following as a check-list:

 Decide on the purpose of questions.

 Minimise the use of "yes / no" questions except when checking meaning and
understanding or encouraging weaker students.

 Ask a balance of referential and display questions.

 Use open-ended (divergent) questions to encourage opinions, elaboration and

discussion.

 Ask questions about important rather than trivial content.

 Grade language in questions and try not to over-paraphrase.

 Personalise questions where possible.

 Avoid questions that contain the answer.

 Make sure that students clearly understand questions.

 Spread questions randomly around the class.

 Balance questions to the whole class with individual student nomination.

 Give enough time for students to answer.

 Anticipate students' responses.

 Give appropriate responses to questions, particularly where correction is required. and

in order to extend the dialogue.

Conclusion 
Clearly there is more to asking questions than the common division into ‘information’ or
‘wh’, ‘yes/no’, direct and indirect questions, though this is often how they are taught
and how learners categorise them. Good questioning provides a model which hopefully
will promote correct and intelligent questions from learners.
There are pitfalls such as over-eliciting when the learners have little collective
knowledge, and bombarding students with questions of little relevance or importance.
The questions ‘Do you understand?’, ‘Is that clear?’ and ‘OK?’ are unlikely to provoke a
helpful response. It is also wise to avoid questions which may cause embarrassment or
which may offend through sarcasm (‘Are you awake?’).

Given that little training is given in asking questions, and it is rarely mentioned in
general ELT texts, teachers are left to develop the technique themselves, and are often
unaware of how effective their questions are. The teacher’s questions are therefore a
useful focus for peer observation and feedback on a lesson – an awareness-raising
exercise for teachers themselves.

Further reading
Bloom, B.S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Addison Wesley, 1956
Gabrielatos, C. A Question of Function: Teacher Questions in the EFL Classroom.
1997.http://www.gabrielatos.com 
Thompson, G. Teaching Teachers to Ask Questions. ELT Journal 51/2, April 1997
Ur, P. A Course in Language Teaching. CUP, 1996
 

Written by Steve Darn, Freelance Trainer & Funda Çetin, Izmir University of Economics,
Turkey