Chapter 11 Questioning Nowe have considered how to organize reading lessons (Chapter 9) and choose texts (Chapter 10), it is time to look in more detail at the activities to be used, and at ways of using them not to test understanding, but to bring it about. (We shall see in Chapter 13 that it is primarily the way activities are used that distinguishes teaching from testing.) We shall consider two broad categories of classroom activity: 1 ‘Types of question, and techniques for using them, that are primarily intended to Iearning. r techniques for helping students to develop their own strategies for making ense of text. ‘phis chapter looks at the first of these. The second is considered in Chapter 12. Can questions help readers? ‘The focus on what and how students learn is particularly problematic in the case of comprehension, given the invisibility of the comprehension process. Getting students to answer questions is one way for the teacher to get some access to what is goingon in their minds, Wrong answers are often particularly illuminating, because they can suggest where the misunderstanding arises. And right answers may be right by accident, which is why we need to probe into the reasons for them. So questions are helpful to the teacher; what about the student? First, let us consider the traditional approach: reading the text and then answering questions to check that you have understood. We want to improve on it, but we should be cautious of dismissing it outright. Has it anything to offer us? Probably you, like me, were trained by such means, and have had this experience: you read a difficult text; you cannot understand it; you struggle to answer the questions. Finally you read it again, and find that you understand it much better. Between the first reading and the last, what happened? Is there a connection between answering questions and developing (not just demonstrating) understanding? Ifso, what kind of connection is it? Perhaps the clue is in the word struggle. The questions that help are those that make you work at the text. Well planned questions make you realize you do not understand, and focus attention on the difficult bits of the text. Dealing with answers: the key role of the teacher Ifthe key word is struggle, then not just the type of questions, but the way they are used, is crucial. Even a challenging question is useless to most of the class if the teacher simply accepts the first correct answer and moves on; it can only help ifevery student tries hard to answer it. We have to make sure this happens, partly by the way we devise and handle questions, partly by showing the learners that reading tasks are opportunities for learning, not tests to be escaped if possible. 181 Escaneado con CamScannerChamer UL Questionpny: SS UW istorribly easy foran inexperienced teacher to do things the wrong way: to accept ananswer without even asking for the reasons why it is acceptable, let alone eyntoring other answers to see why they are not appropriate. Yet in the reading class, the process by which the student arrived at an answer is, critical, If} gives the right answer by accident, itis valueless. Or he may give an answer you dismiss, but which he could defend if given the opportunity; his interpretation may be valid even though it is different from yours. Every teacher of railing haste be prepared for this; it may not happen often, but we have to acknowledge it and even welcome it when it does. ‘That is why itis important to have a classroom climate that encourages people to: say what they really think. Neither you nor the students must be afraid to be wrong, You must help them to see questions not as attempts to expose their ignorance, but as aids. to successfull exploration of the text (This is difficult if you have to award marks for everything, so try to limit the mark-earning exercises.) Interesting questions explored in a supportive classroom atmosphere give you the opportunity to provide the’scaffolding’ discussed in Chapter 3. One key factor is to make sure the students can look at the text when answering. The sortof questions we are interested in are not tests of memory, but the means of ‘directing attention to the text. So students should refer to the text when they reply ‘Your attitude to wrong answers is crucial. A perfect answer teaches little, but each imperfect answer is an opportunity for learning - not just for the answerer but for the \whole class. It must be investigated to see why it was unacceptable, and how far. It 's partly acceptable, you can praise the student for what he has understood, and help him (and his classmates) to find clues that will lead to a completely satisfactory interpretation, This approach mirrors in the classroom the thoughtful searching that 00d readers undertake whenever they are not satisfied that they understand. Itis probably the nearest you can get to ‘teaching’ anybody to read. Exploring meaning through discussion an exemplify this thoughtful searching by looking at one way of using a resource which is very easy to use badly: multiple choice questions (MCQs). Used skilfully, they can be highly effective for training interpretive skills. Moreover, many teachers ‘are obliged to use them. Hence a technique for using them effectively is important. ‘The procedure J will describe turns MCQs from shallow tests into the pointers needed for text exploration. Briefly, it is as follows: a Individually the students read the text silently. b Individually or in groups/pairs, students attempt the questions, Groupwork is preferred, because it forces students to defend their choice of option and produces instructive discussion: © Asaclass, each group's choice of answer to cach question in turn is recorded on the blackboard and, without disclosing which is the best, the teacher promotes discussion about the reasons for their choices. This often enables the students themselves to recognize their misinterpretations, ‘The approach can be used with any MCQs, but itis most successful when. the distractors Ge the incorrect options) are constructed to take account of possible 182 Escaneado con CamScannerThe purpose of questioning misinterpretations of the text. An ideal question setter, therefore, is sensitive to potential difficulties and capable of devising plausible options that students will choose if they misunderstand in the predicted way. This is not easy, and many MCQs in textbooks have not been constructed with this in mind; nevertheless, many produce worthwhile discussion if used in the suggested way. Discussion is the key Similar approaches can be used with questions of any kind, and with cloze exercises {as described on p208), The value lies not so much in the questions themselves, but in the way they are used. Even if there is no groupwork in the second stage, the third stage essentially includes discussion of alternative answers, and each is defended or criticized by the students themselves. The teacher does no more than keep the discussion on track and offer occasional prompts if the class misses an important ‘luc, She also makes sure that everyone is involved, by directing suitable questions ie ones they can probably answer) to students who are not contributing, and helping them (by probes and prompts) to respond. ‘This promotes the active struggle with the text, and the text talk, that we identified as a key to developing interpretive skills. Through discussion, the students learn the processes of critical thinking that good readers use. Groupwork is ideal, because in small groups (maximum five members), even the weaker students should be active and learning. The procedure works at almost any level, and discussion can be in the Li ifstudents cannot manage it in the FL. (For this purpose, quality of discussion overrides quantity of language practice.) And most classes enjoy it. Your skill in using the questions is critical. The key ingredients are initial individual study and subsequent active participation in discussion. The purpose of questioning Poor questions defeat even the ablest teacher, so you may need to devise your own to supplement or even replace those in the textbook. How do you set about it? First, let me stress again that the questions we are discussing here are not intended to test. Their purpose is to make students aware of the way language is used to convey meaning, and of the strategies readers can use to interpret texts. The questions themselves are not necessarily different from questions in tests, but their purpose and the way they are used is quite different. It is useful to recall the aims of the reading class (discussed in Chapter 3 and the introduction to Part Three). Work on a text should always include time spent on some ofthese aims, even if later the text has to be used for language practice of other kinds. 1 Theaim ofa reading lesson is not primarily to investigate the language used in the text, nor to give practice in that language. However, it may be necessary to draw attention toa grammatical feature if it plays a part in the interpretation of the text. For example: a Emma lived here for ten years. b Emma has lived here for ten years. ‘The verb tenses imply that ina Emma no longer lives here, while in b she Probably still does. If the difference in meaning is not important, it is not worth 183 Escaneado con CamScannerChapter 11 Questioning mentioning. If it is, you could ask, for example, Where does Emma live now? and comment on the grammar only in connection with the response. 2. Itisequally not our aim just to investigate the content. One sometimes finds questions that require general knowledge rather than an understanding of the text. These are only useful (if at all) for establishing the context for the students; they are not comprehension questions. Some straightforward content questions need to beasked at the start of work on a text, but paradoxically it is only when there isa chance the students will give wrong answers (based on a misreading of the text, not on ignorance) that the real work of developing understanding begins, Having excluded pure language and pure content questions, we can identify the kinds of question that are relevant to our purpose. These are questions that show students how to interpret language in order to understand content. Good questioning supports the approach outlined in earlier chapters. Some simple initial questions may result in scanning or skimming activities. Others may direct readers’ attention to diagrams or other non-linear features that will help them to interpret the text. Some may promote the use of word attack skills (eg Which meaning of this word is the one intended here?). But the focus of most questions is the text attack skills, which lead to the ultimate goal, understanding the text as a whole. This doesn't mean asking questions ‘about’, for example, cohesion. It means spotting a potential difficulty - involving cohesion, for instance — and asking questions which students will be able to answer if they have coped with the difficulty. If they cannot answer, that is the opportunity for ‘scaffolding’: helping the class to find the reasons. for the problem, perhaps even giving some formal instruction about cohesion, or whatever has caused the difficulty. ‘The best questions make students aware of their difficulties. Recognizing that you do not understand, and then identifying the source of the problem, are essential reading skills. You cannot deal with a difficulty if you are not aware of it. Questions which are worth asking contribute to this awareness. We will look more closely at four aspects of questions to see how they relate to the purpose just outlined: 1 Forms of question: their grammatical patterns 2 Presentation of questions: Spoken or written? Open-ended, multiple choice or true/false? What language for questions and responses? 3 Types of question: What are we to ask about? 4 The questioner: Teacher or student? Forms of question Questions can be classified according to their grammatical form, and it is sometimes suggested that each form in turn should be used in reading lessons, as each is progressively more difficult to handle. We will return to this suggestion shortly. However, it is often the grammatical form of the answer that makes a question difficult for students, as these examples show: 1 yes/no questions Isatrouta fish? Yes (itis). Did the man catch the trout? No (he didn’t) Escaneado con CamScannerPresentation of questions 2 Alternative questions Isatrouta fish or a bird? _ It's a fish Was the trout caught or did it escape? It escaped woh-questions (who, what, which, when, where) What isa trout? It's fish. Where did the trout hide? Under a black stone. 4 how/why questions How did the trout escape? It managed to hide under a black stone. Why did the fisherman go away? He thought the trout had escaped. Answers to yes/no questions are short, and the student need not compose a sentence unless he wishes (or is asked) to. At the other extreme, how/why questions often equite full sentence answers which are quite different from the question in structure and content, and are thus quite challenging. ‘This classification is useful when you are focusing on graded language practice, but, not for the teaching of reading. We need to keep the aims distinct. We choose reading questions not for their form, but to suit our reason for focusing ona particular aspect of the text. We are also not interested in the form of the student's reply, as long as it is intelligible. In reading classes, we can find a use for all the forms of question, but we shall from now on pay no further attention to this aspect of questioning. Presentation of questions Written or spoken? Should you present questions in writing (eg in a book, on the blackboard, on a worksheet) or orally? There is something to be said for each. Some kinds of question (notably multiple choice) are unsuitable for oral presentation, and written questions may provide the backbone of the lesson, if they cover all the important aspects of the text. But you cannot assume that all you need to do is get through the questions in the textbook. Sometimes they can be used after most of the work on the text has been completed, asa way of summing up; or they can be worked through one at a time, focusing on successive parts of the text. In either case, most of the work needs to be done orally. ‘There are two main reasons for this. First, for texts that you want to study y, the written questions are never enough. To write down all you need would be very off-putting: there would be so many. Secondly, many questions depend on the way the class responds; if they have difficultios you did not predlet, vou will want to prompt them (ey by further questions) to work out an answer, or probe to make surea correct answer was not iglven for the Wrong reason, Such questions cannot be written down in advance of the lesson. Written questions do not nece rily have to be answered in weiting, Oral responses are often enough. 1 is the work of analysing and discussing the text that matters. the process ofarriving.al the answer, as much as the answer itself, Hy Uhis means the students learn how to set about the business of Interpretation, They learn by sharing in the discussion and beginning to think analytically in the way you model for them and impel them to use themselves. This can be satisfactorily aetteved only orally 185, Escaneado con CamScannerChapter 11 Questioning Open-ended, multiple choice or true/false? ‘There is no reason to exclude any of these types of question. Open-ended questions are those to which the student can give any response that he considers suitable; the examples on p185 are open-ended, but the term is applied particularly to the wh- and how/why forms, since they offer the greatest scope for the responder. In multiple choice questions (MCQs), the student has to choose from a set of possible responses, For example: What happened to the trout? a Itwas caught. b Itescaped down the stream. ¢ Thefisherman had it for supper. d Ithid under a black stone. True/false questions present a statement; the student has to decide if it is true or false according to the text. For example: ‘The trout was caught by the fisherman. T/F Of these types, the T/F question is in some respects the most limited, but it can be useful and is not necessarily trivial. T/F questions can promote discussion, like MCQs (see p182-3); more choices make discussion more interesting, but T/F questions are preferable if there is only one likely misinterpretation of the text, MCQs can be very effective, but they are the most difficult type to devise. The need for three or four options leads to some very implausible items (see examples on p191); but if they are not plausible, the number of genuine alternatives is reduced, so the choice is not really ‘multiple’ at all; in such cases, the T/F format is more satisfactory. Open-ended questions may, as we saw, require very short answer demand rather more; their disadvantages are thus’ but typically they 1 The answers cannot be assessed objectivel ‘This is important for testing, but not when we are trying to teach people. As we have seen, a correct answer is not enough. 2. They require students to produce responses in the target language. Itis possible to understand target language texts without being able to express yourself adequately in that language. But if questions demand subtle or complicated answers, this is a problem; the student may understand both the text and the questions, but be unable to express the answers he would like to give. One solution is to accept answers in the L1 (as discussed in the next section). However, open-ended questions have some important advantages: 1 They are relatively easy to devise. Devising good questions always requires skill, but at least with open-ended ones you do not have to worry about supplying good distractors (as for MCQs) but can goto the point directly. They can be used for virtually any purpose. Socan MCQs, but they are sometimes clumsy. If the point to be clarified by the question is straightforward, it may be uneconomical to use the MCQ format. Ifthe point is very complex, the MCQ itself may have to be complex, so that understanding it is more difficult than understanding the text, In such cases, open-ended questions are preferred. Escaneado con CamScannerTypes of question: what are we to ask about? iphey force the student to think things out for himself. ven the best MCQs have to include the correct answer as one of the options {unless you include ‘None of the above"), This can be an advantage: it guides the Studentsand yet, ifthe distractors are well chosen, it makes them think. But you jnay want advanced students to come to terms directly with the text, without an indication of Your own view of the correct answer, even in company with less suitable choices. In this case, open-ended questions are the: ‘only possibility. phe language of responses nability to express themselves in the target language needlessly limits both the kind and. the quality of the responses students give. It is quite possible that students who re permitted to use their L1 in responding will explore the text more accurately and thoroughly than those who are restricted to target language responses. Whether this is acceptable depends on your local situation, but it is important not to aismiss the use of the mother tongue out ofhand. Some students may never need to express themselves in the target language. Why should they not respond in the janguage that most clearly enables them to show that they understand, or to explain where their problems lie? Inmany circumstances this would be unacceptable; and it is right to be cautious, lest there isa flood of L1 in the classroom. A good compromise is to accept Li responses only when to insist on the target language would produce undue delay or result in poor quality answers. The language of questions Itisnot always possible to express the question you want to ask in straightforward language, especially if the text is itself difficult. People sometimes maintain that reading the questions is part of the reading task, but this is only partly valid. It is certainly a reading task, but zhe reading task is making sense ofthe text itself, and we could argue that anything that distracts from this is unhelpful. ‘The language used for questions (especially written ones, where your voice and, if necessary, extra explanation, are not available), should be as clear as you can make it. At the very least, it ought not to be more difficult than the language of the text itself. If you find this impossible, there are two other solutions to explore. ‘The first of these is to ask some questions in the L1. You should consider this only if the alternative is to ask questions you do not want to ask, simply because they are ‘within the linguistic competence of the students. This is not a decision to take lightly, but it could certainly improve the quality of questions asked. ‘The se ‘ond solution to the problem of difficult language in questions is to explore completely different approaches, which we discuss in the next chapter. Types of question: what are we to ask about? is also possible to classify questions according. to the skills they require trom the reader; for the reading teacher, this Is much more Important than their grammatical form. The classification presented here 1s hitended asa checklist; by checking your questions against 11, you ean fnd oul whether you are omitting any important types of ques on, and thus failing to give practice mie Important skills, 17 Escaneado con CamScannerChapter 1 Questioning: Type 1 Questions of literal comprehension ‘These are questions whose answers are directly and explicitly expressed in the text ‘They ean often be answered in the words af the text (though most teachers would not wish this fo happen). Such questions are often a preliminary to serous work on a text, because more: sophisticated exercises tend (o depend on the students having first understood the plain sense, Literal questions on Appendix A Text 2 might include these: 1 When did Leila have an accident? 2 What was Yusof doing when the 3 Why didn’t Yusof help his mother ‘dent happened? Type2 Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation Slightly more difficult than Type 1 are questions which require the student either to reinterpret literal information or to obtain it from various parts of the text and put it together in a new way, perhaps using elementary inferencing. Often both skills are needed: the distinction between them is not worth labouring, Such questions 1 ake the student consider the text as a whole, rather than sentence by sentence; and/or make him process the information in the text for fuller understanding. Examples for Appendix A Text 2: 1 How old was Yusof? (Reinterpret third birthday, the week before) 2 How many children had Rahman? (Reorganize: 1 (Yusof) + 2 (both the other children) = 3) a Was Yusof playing in the kitchen? (Reinterpret ran fo the kitchen) Type3 Questions of inference These questions oblige the students to consider what is implied but not explicitly stated. Like Type 2, they may require the reader to put together pieces of information that are scattered throughout the text; the two types are not always distinct, but the inferences demanded in Type 3 are more sophisticated. ‘Typed questions are more difficult (intellectually rather than linguistically) than ‘Types 1 or 2, because the reader has to understand the text well enough to work out i's implications. Examples for Appendix A Tex 1 Which people were in Rahm 2 Why was Rahn ’an's house when the aeeident happened? proud of his son? mples for Appendix A Text 3 1 What ditfere Hiring 2 What wees would you find between trees in Dorset and trees near am’? ypothesis Is confirmed by Dr Kettlowell’s experiment in Dorset? ‘yped Questions of evaluation Evaluative questions ask for a.considered judgement the writer Js trying to do and how far she his aehley Judge, for example, the wr Hter’s honesty or bhas cog ty newspaper reportiny et advertisements), the foree of her argument (op quality aFevidenee), or eflectiveness of her narrative power (oy hia novel), what abut the text in cormsel 8 nt HL Phe reader nay be ashe! m0 148 Escaneado con CamScanner‘The questioner Such questions can often be tackled by fairly elementary students (using a largely top: down approach), but they can also demand advanced skills, since they ask the reader toanalyse his response to the text and discover objective reasons to justify it, as well as measuring it against the presumed intention of the writer. Questions of literary appreciation are the most sophisticated representatives of this type. Type 5 Questions of personal response fall the types, the answers to these depend least on the writer. The reader is not asked to assess the techniques by means of which the writer influences him (that is ‘Type 4), but simply to record his reaction to the text. This might range from ‘I'm convinced’ or ‘I'm not interested’ to 'I'm moved’ or ‘I'm not prepared to accept the position the writer expects me to adopt.” Nevertheless, such responses cannot ignore the textual evidence; they do not rely only on the reader, but involve him with the writer. So the response must at least be based on adequate understanding of the text and ideally students are able to explain why it makes them feel as they do. These questions thus overlap with Type 4. ‘The category includes questions such as ‘What is your opinion of X's behaviour?” “Would you like to live in Y?' ‘How would you have felt if you were Z?" Personal response is naturally most often invoked by creative writing, but can be appropriate to other kinds of writing too, for example: ‘What does the writer contribute to our understanding of this field?" ‘Do you sympathize with the writer's arguments?" ‘How far does your own experience agree with that described?” Type 6 Questions concerned with how writers say what they mean ‘The types of question we have looked at so far all have as their main concern what the writer says (or, in the case of Type 5, how the reader reacts). Another type of question, much in use now, has as its main concern how the writer says what she means. This kind of question (even more than the others) is intended to give students strategies for handling texts in general, rather than simply helping them to understand one particular text. It is aimed at making students aware of word-attack and text-attack skills, ie making them conscious of what they do when they interpret text, As we have seen in previous chapters, these questions need not be particularly difficult to answer, but they are sometimes difficult to devise if the text is not reasonably authentic. Plenty of examples were offered in Chapters 6 and 7. Categorizing questions in this way may be helpful for evaluating questions in textbooks, and for developing your own, Questions in older textbooks tend to be of ‘Type 1, with perhaps a few Types 2.and 5, Ofcourse literal comprehension and ersonal response are important, but it is‘Types 23,4 and 6 that ought to concern us, is these that force readers to think not just about what the writer has written, but how and why she has written it, thus equipping themselves to tackle further and more difficult texts, The questioner ditionally, it is the teacher who asks the questions and the student who replies, rat is one reason why many students are not very good at forming questions.) But ‘we have seen that readers have to learn (o ‘interrogate the text’, The toacher's 189) Escaneado con CamScannerChapter 11 Questioning is, but they ought also to try doing it for i ourse force them to do this, bu ) / Stns ou now from your own experience, having to ask questions ona text ji t is a very good way to ensure that you read it carefully! It is not necessary to wait for the class to reach an Eel ae f questions, % students are able to ask some kinds 0} n intelligence is gres than their language proficiency, they may ask very challenging ones. (They ight need your help in formulating them, or you could allow them to use the L1.) You can give guidelines (eg asking for particular types of | question, or questions to ifficulty) and the activity can lead to groups or individuals etter acompetition, and to evaluation of putting their questions to one another, perhaps as the questions by the other students. Assessing questions Here is a check list to use when you assess questions. 1 Can the questions be answered without reading the text? The answer should be ‘No’! It is surprising how often it turns out to be ‘Yes’, especially when MCQs are concerned. Have a look at the examples of unsatisfactory questions in Activity 11.1 below: why is it possible to answer them without having seen the text? 2 Are there several questions on every part of the text? ‘This is nota principle to be maintained at all costs, but it is unusual to find part of atext that is not worth any attention 3 Are there enough questions? We have seen that textbooks rarely offer anything like enough questions, but that many of the extra ones should be dealt with orally and geared to the difficulties that arise in class. 4 Are the questions varied in type? Often we ask a lot of Type 1 questions first, followed by questions of Types 2 and 3, perhaps Types 4 and 6 and finally Type 5. But this sequence can be varied: for instance, you might start with Type 5 and then go back to the text to find out what has produced the response. Do some questions try to make students aware of the strategies a reader needs? 5 paee to pena you to include some Type 6 questions even at elementary levels. questions attempt to help students to understand? See ese see to eu This is to remind you that more of our time lesson procedures thai ng than to testing; however, this is more a matter of n question design. Are the questions written in lan, i i guage that is more dij ? We hope for the answer ‘No’. Meal than heer Do the answers require langua, h 1ge that is beyond the st * profi ? Again, we hope for theanswer‘No’. alae Escaneado con CamScannerTEACHING READING SkiILLs in a foreign language = ws New edition MUESTRA SN eee Christine Nuttall with a chapter on testing reading by J. Charles Alderson Escaneado con CamScanner