VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

PHẠM THANH XUÂN MỪNG

EXPLORING THE USE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONING
AND STUDENTS’ INTERACTION IN SPEAKING
CLASSES AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL
(NGHIÊN CỨU TÌM HIỂU VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CÂU HỎI CỦA GIÁO VIÊN
VÀ TƯƠNG TÁC CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG GIỜ DẠY NÓI
TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT TRẦN HƯNG ĐẠO)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi – 2015


VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

PHẠM THANH XUÂN MỪNG

EXPLORING THE USE OF TEACHER’S QUESTIONING
AND STUDENTS’ INTERACTION IN SPEAKING
CLASSES AT TRAN HUNG DAO HIGH SCHOOL

National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures, which laid the foundation for
this study.
My thanks also go to the teachers and students at Tran Hung Dao High School
where my study was carried out.
Last but not least, my heartfelt thanks go to my family for their support and
encouragement throughout my study in Nam Dinh.

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ABSTRACT
This study was conducted with 3 teachers and 132 students of grade 10 at Tran
Hung Dao High School with the data collected from the class observations in the
classroom settings. The study focused on finding out the types of questions the
teachers used in English speaking lessons and exploring students' interaction to the
teachers' questions.
The findings of the study showed that the three teachers used three main types
of questions, namely display questions, referential questions and yes/no questions in
which the display questions were most frequently asked, followed by yes/no questions
and referential questions were rarely asked. Regarding the purposes of questions,
display questions were mainly asked with diagnostic and instructional functions.
Yes/no questions aimed to function as diagnostic and motivational tools. The
purpose of referential questions was to motivate students by asking information
about students themselves. Also, the findings indicated that most of the students‟
responses were very brief, with one to three words and many questions were not
answered. Longer responses up to nine words could be found in a few instances.
However, these longer responses accounted for a small percentage. Besides, the use
of referential questions in the investigated lessons did not seem to be successful and
effective. The findings revealed that there were not many longer responses when
referential questions were asked. Next, the way that the teacher asked the students

Page
Table 1: The summary of the class observation data

20

Table 2: Examples of different types of teacher questions

22

Table 3: Types of questions asked by the three teachers

24

Table 4: The length of students’ responses for different types

28

of questions asked by the three teachers

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION .............................................................................................. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................ ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... v
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale of the study ............................................................................ 1

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 23
4.1. Findings ................................................................................................ 23
4.1.1. Types of questions the teachers asked frequently in the
investigated lessons ................................................................................. 24
4.1.2. Effects of the types of questions teachers asked on the students‟
interaction ................................................................................................ 27
4.2. Discussion ............................................................................................ 33
4.2.1. Types of questions the teachers asked frequently in the whole class
teaching portion of the lessons ................................................................ 33
4.2.2. Effects of the types of questions teachers asked on the students‟
interaction ................................................................................................ 34
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS............................ 38
5.1. Conclusion............................................................................................ 38
5.2. Implications .......................................................................................... 39
5.3. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ................................... 41
REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 43
APPENDIX : OBSERVATION SHEET ........................................................ I

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale of the study
English has been seen as the most important foreign language in Vietnam
since the 6th National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986
initiated an overall economic reform known as “Doi moi”. Young people realize the
need of learning English for a plenty of reasons such as getting jobs in foreign
companies, studying abroad, and travelling. Nevertheless, according to Van (2006),
the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages at both general and tertiary
levels in Vietnam is still very low, which is far from meeting the present country‟s

most of teacher talk and it has been proved to have a great influence on classroom
interaction”( Xiaoyan, 2008, p.93). Obviously, many studies (Long & Sato, 1983;
Brock, 1986; Shomooshi, 1997; Camak, 2009)

have focused on the use of

questioning as a universal pedagogical approach. Despite these studies and their
findings, how teachers ask effective questions to create students‟ interaction is an
under-researched issue in my context. My big concern is whether teachers at Tran
Hung Dao High School effectively use teacher‟s questioning in speaking classes or
not. My interest in finding out teacher‟s questioning and students‟ interaction in
speaking classes has inspired me to do a study titled “Exploring the Use of
Teacher’s Questioning and Students' Interaction in Speaking classes at Tran
Hung Dao High School”.
1.2. Significance of the study
Theoretical significance of the study: The study synthesized the
understanding of teacher questioning in terms of the types of question, functions of
questions and the effects of teacher‟s questioning on students‟ interaction in
speaking. Moreover, the study suggested how to effectively use teacher‟s
questioning in speaking classes in English 10 to stimulate students‟ interaction.
Practical significance of the study: The study was conducted with the
expectation that its results would be useful for myself, for my students and for my
colleagues at Tran Hung Dao (THD) High School. Based on the findings,
conclusion can be made on what types of questions should be applied and how to
use them in speaking classes in English 10 to enhance students‟ interaction. Hence,

2


it can be a considerable contribution to teaching and learning speaking skill


1.4. Scope of the study
There are a variety of techniques to stimulate students' interaction in class
activities. However, because of the time and length constraint of the study we only
focused on teacher questioning, which is considered to occur in almost every lesson
and to be teachers‟ important technique.
Among performance indicators for language skills, reading, speaking,
writing, and listening, speaking was chosen for our study. We chose this skill
because of the following reasons. Firstly, it is the skill that my students need
improving and do not pay enough attention to. Secondly, it is the best in expressing
the students' verbal interaction. Lastly, it is easy to observe and record.
The study focused on the student-instructor interaction only.

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The study was conducted with 3 teachers and 3 classes of grade 10 in 6
periods. Each period lasted 45 minutes.
1.5. Method of the research
The study was conducted in the following procedures:
First, class observation was designed to study teacher questioning including
the types of questions, functions of questions and students‟ interaction to teacher
questioning in speaking lessons.
Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and
qualitatively to obtain realistic results.
Finally, pedagogical implications for the use of teacher questioning to raise
teacher‟s effective questions were proposed based on the results found from the data
collection instrument.
1. 6. Organization of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters, appendices, and references.

interaction. The second section looks into teacher‟s questions as an aspect of
classroom interaction in EFL context. This section consists of definition of
questions, functions of teacher‟ questions, types of questions and effects of
questions on students‟ interaction.
2.1. Interaction in class
2.1.1.What is classroom interaction?
In the era of communicative language teaching (CLT), students learn to
communicate through interaction in the target language. Interaction is the heart of
communication and it is what communication is all about (Brown, 1994). So far, it
has been defined in a number of different ways.
First of all, Ellis (1994, p.11) defines interaction as "when the participants of
equal status that share similar need, make an effort to understand each other".
Interaction, based on Brown's (2007) definition, is the collaborative exchange of
thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people resulting in a reciprocal
effect on each other. Sharing the same view, Wells (1981) believes that interaction is a
collaborative activity involving a triangular relationship between the sender, the
receiver and the context of situation. In brief, interaction relates to a collaborative effect
between two or more participants in a specific context.
Applying the understanding about interaction in a language classroom
context, Hall (2000) claims that classroom interaction is simple. It is the talk that
occurs in the classrooms between teachers and students and among students. Long
(1980, p.47) gives a clearer definition: "Interaction is used in general sense, referring

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to any sort of classroom interaction, student-student or teacher-student interaction,
group discussions, and any type of classroom participation" .
While the above views of classroom interactions were considered, we take
Brown's (2007) view because it is salient in our classroom context when speaking skill


Our study is conducted in the classroom and the focus is teacher questioning;
therefore, the focused interaction in this project is teacher-student oral interaction or
teacher-student verbal interaction.
2.2. Teacher’s questioning in interaction
Questioning has been, for thousands of years, one of the most popular
techniques of teaching and serves as the principal way in which teachers control the
classroom interaction and much class time has been devoted to it. In order to make
teacher‟s questioning understood clearly, we are going to present definition of
questions, functions of teachers‟ questions, types of teacher‟s questions and effects
of teacher‟s questions herein.
2.2.1. Definition of questions
Questions have been given different ways of definition. Questions are
generally concerned with information-seeking and stimulate some kind of mental
activity or thinking (Hunkins, 1989). A question is broadly defined as any sentence
having either an interrogative form or function (Riegle, 1974). Questions are
instructional cues or stimuli that convey the content elements to be learned and
directions for what they [students] are to do and how they are to do it ( Levin&
Long,1981). In summary, we support Hunkins‟s (1989) view on the definition of
questions because it is suitable for our teaching context.
2.2.2. Functions of teachers’ questions
There are many distinct functions for the various questions that are used in
classrooms. It is important to actively consider the functions for the questions
asked.
According to Ur (1996), teachers can use questions to attract students in the
lesson and make them participate actively through speech. By using questioning
techniques, teachers can get students to be active in their learning and they not only
provide poor students with a chance to take part in but also encourage students to be
self-confident.


instructional materials.

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5. Analysis: the ability to breakdown material into its elements so that its
organizational structure may be understood. This may involve the classification of
parts, exploration of the association between them, and identification of
organizational principles
6. Synthesis: the ability to collect different parts and put them together to
create a new whole. Synthesis encourages learners to form something new and rely
on innovative and creative thinking.
7. Evaluation: the ability to assess the value of materials, the explanation to
problems or the details about particular cultures.
From another perspective, Barnes (1976, cited in Ellis, 2008, p.797), for
instance, distinguishes four types of questions: (1) factual questions (e.g. What?),
(2) reasoning questions (e.g. How?, Why?), (3) open questions, which require no
reasoning, (4) social questions, that are questions that affect learner behavior
through controlling or appealing. Barnes (1976) also makes a distinction between
closed questions (i.e. questions that are structured with just one acceptable answer
in mind) and open questions (i.e. questions that permit a number of different
acceptable answers).
The next category of questions, display/referential questions, relates to the
nature of interaction generated (Tsui, 1995). For display questions, the teacher
already knows the answers. They are asked in order to check if the students know
the answers. On the contrary, for referential questions, the teacher does not know
the answers and the students answer the questions in order to give the teacher
information (Tsui, 1995). It is believed that closed or display questions elicit “short,
mechanical responses” while open or referential questions elicit “lengthy, often
complex responses” (Ho, 2005, p.298). Another type of questions, the yes/no

information, to display or test knowledge or as rhetoric (Thompson, 1997).
Although answering to yes/no questions is quick and efficient, the posing of such
questions does not allow students to become initiators of communication. However,
there is a tendency to commonly use this type of questions. The tendency to rely on
such questions will affect students‟ performance in other areas of skill development
(Chi, 2010). In our study, we investigated students‟ interaction in speaking classes;
therefore, we intended to explore how the three types of questions asked by the

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investigated teachers would influence students‟ interaction and whether these
questions could stimulate long conversations in speaking classes.
2.2.4. Effects of teacher questions
The effects of display questions on students‟ discourse patterns were
generally considered to be negative but positive for referential questions (Chi,
2010). Brock (1986) conducted a research study in which the effects of referential
questions on adult ESL classroom discourse were investigated. In this study, four
experienced ESL teachers and twenty-four non-native speakers (NNSs) enrolled in
classes in the University of Hawaii‟s English Language Institute were involved.
Two of the teachers were trained to use referential questions in classroom activities
while the other two teachers were not provided with any training. The findings
showed that the treatment-group teachers asked more referential questions than did
the control-group teachers. Each teacher was randomly assigned to teach six
students for a period of forty minutes. The findings also indicated that the students‟
responses in the treatment-group classes were significantly longer and syntactically
more complex than those in the control-group classes. This suggests a positive
correlation between asking referential questions and students‟ production of target
language. In Ernst‟s (1994) research, it was found out that when the teacher asked
display questions, students‟ responses were brief, with little elaboration. Lastly,

instruments, participants, data analysis procedures, and methods of data analysis.
3.1. The setting of the study
3.1.1. An overview of the research site
Tran Hung Dao High School, where the study was conducted, is a public
school situated in Nam Dinh city in Nam Dinh province. It has 35 classes with 1460
students in the school year of 2014-2015. The average number of students in each
class is 45. Being one of the best schools in Nam Dinh province, it is cared and
invested by both Nam Dinh Department of Education and Training and the
Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training. The school is equipped with
modern facilities supporting for learning and teaching English effectively such as
computers, projectors, cassette players and language teaching labs. The classrooms
are separated from the road; therefore, the students are not disturbed by noise. The
principal of the school always pays attention to English subject; therefore, she
organizes English competitions such as English public speaking contest, and
Olympic contest. Moreover, English is a compulsory subject in any exam of the
school. Students also have opportunities to communicate with native speakers
thanks to native volunteers coming to work at school. The above information partly
reflects the administrators‟ attitude to English teaching and learning at the school.
In general, students have good studying condition.
3.1.2. English teachers in Tran Hung Dao High School
In school year 2014-2015, there are nine English teachers at Tran Hung Dao
high school, all of whom have graduated from pedagogic universities and have
English teaching experience for years, aged from 31 to 52. Among nine teachers of

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English, two had chances to go to Singapore for improvement in Methodology.
Eight out of nine teachers have a C1 certificate. On average, one teacher gives
fifteen to seventeen lessons per week along with a great deal of such work as