An Analysis of Two Language Teachers' Display Questions: A Pilot Study

試論語文教師的展示性問題

梁中行(Jong-Shing Liang)

《Hwa Kang Journal of TEFL》 2期 (1996/05) Pp. 125-142

https://doi.org/10.6362/HKJTEFL.199605.0125

摘要

在語言教學文獻中，教師在課堂內所提之問題約分為展示性(display)及引申性(referential)兩類。前者指疑問者業已知曉答案而提之問題；後者指疑問者真正想獲得解答所提之問題。部份學者指出，二者間以引伸性問題較能引發學生反應，故教師宜多運用該類問題以助學生提升其學習效果。
不同於上述論點，本文將探討展示性問題在語言教室中可發揮之功能。在比較兩位閱讀教師之授課情形後，本文作者觀察到展示性問題可幫助教師達到下列三項教學功能：將學生之注意力集中在新教之字彙上；幫助學生將讀本內容與其現實生活相結合；讓學生在其熟悉之情境中練習使用新字彙。

並列摘要

The language teacher's questions (those asked of students) have captured the interest of many second or foreign-language acquisition researchers. Two general types of questions have been distinguished. ”Referential questions” refer to those whose answers are unknown to the person who asks the questions. ”Display questions,” by contrast, are those whose answers are already known by the questioner. Some researchers find that display questions result in fewer student responses and less language acquisition. It is therefore suggested that language teachers ask more referential questions than display questions in the classroom. However, in applying this recommendation in our classroom, we must consider factors that may affect the ways we ask questions, e.g., the students' proficiency level, the objectives of the course, etc.
This paper compared the questions asked by two reading teachers, one in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) class and the other in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. From analyzing the ways the ESL teacher asked questions, it was found that the teacher seemed to effectively use display questions: (1) to focus her students' attention on specific vocabulary words; (2) to relate the messages of the assigned reading to the students' real-world experiences; and (3) to provide the students with familiar contexts in which they practiced using the taught items.