Outside the classroom

Reading skill   

Effective Question

Questions and answers are very common activities, it helps students to learn and teachers judge the usefulness of what they are doing.

          Display question, the answer is coming from the students will not satisfy the basic criterion of providing information. Some teachers give their students the information and then try to ask them questions. For example, 1.> This is a pen. What is this?

2.> A: These are nice pants!

      B: Can I try them on?

      A: This is a nice sweater!

      B: Can I try it on?  This example calls display questions.

          Referential question. Questions in the language classrooms should be referential or meanings based, and not focus solely on form. The example is meaning-based question: Suppose you win $50,000. What are you going to do with it?

          Display vs. referential. In reading, questions can merely test the reader’s knowledge of form or comprehension. To make reading questions referential <meaning based>.

          In conclusion, the following guidelines might be helpful in forming classroom questions. The question has a purpose to test the students’ knowledge of form, ask for information. The teaching will help teacher think about question and answer classroom activities.