| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 應用外語學系 === 96 === A number of studies have identified that, along with actual lecture time itself, the time used for teacher questions dominates actual class time. Studies also highlight the significance of “question use” in pedagogical contexts. Appropriate questions accelerate student learning (Brock, 1986; Borg, Kelley, Langer & Gall, 1970; Winne, 1979).
Nevertheless, few studies have examined “question use” by native English-speaking teachers (NESTs, term from Medgyesyes 1992) and nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs, term from Medgyesyes 1992) in Taiwan. Chen’s (2004) study is one of the few; however, only one foreign and one local teacher were investigated. Also, the research setting was limited to reading classes in a private cram school.
The objective of this thesis study is to build upon the existing research and detect whether there are differences among NESTs and NNESTs in the use of question forms, question functions, serial questions, and code-switching. Two qualified native and nonnative English teachers working at public elementary schools participated in this study. The analysis framework of English question forms and question functions was mainly adapted from Long and Sato (1983), McTear (1975) and Tseng (1992). In-depth, audio-recorded interviews were conducted to avoid false interpretations.
The results show that both groups of teachers preferred Wh-, intonation and Yes/no question forms. In terms of question functions, both groups of teachers mainly asked display, instruction-facilitating and referential questions. However, differences in the use of different functions and forms can be still observed between these two groups. In addition, in order to make questions more comprehensible and answerable, teachers in these two groups employed different serial question strategies. Repeating and simplifying were found to be the two most preferred strategies for NESTs’ serial questions, while NNESTs tended to employ repeating, rephrasing, paraphrasing and scope-narrowing strategies. Pedagogically, well-designed questions undoubtedly benefit student learning. Therefore, this study provides teacher training programs useful information which could be used to raise teachers’ awareness of their question uses in the classrooms
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