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Question Time: Reclaiming a Lost Art in Language Teaching?

Introduction

Back in the day, I was trained to teach French using the British Oral Approach, which was a well established, strongly orally-based way to teach a modern language. It was associated at the time with former teachers, teacher trainers and writers such as Alan Hornsey (who would later be my MA tutor), David Harris and Jack Stephenson. Central to the approach was the use of questioning to provide input, generate communication and develop long-term acquisition of vocabulary and grammar. We'll return to the Oral Approach below.

In this post, I want look at some historical background to questioning, support for using questions from cognitive science, types of question, how questioning can be incorporated in lesson planning and how questioning (aka circling) is used in the TPRS approach. My principal aims are (1) to help teachers understand more about questioning and (2) make a tentative plea for questioning to be given a greater priority in language teacher education.

1. Background and Historical Perspectives

Questioning has long played a central role in language teaching. In instructed second language acquisition (ISLA), it can be seen not primarily as a tool for checking comprehension but as a strategy or technique to deliver comprehensible input, promote interaction, scaffold output, and build linguistic competence. Historically, questioning was used predominantly in direct methods of language teaching (e.g. the Berlitz method), as part of grammar-translation methodology and within audiolingual methods as a means of presenting and eliciting structures. However, with the shift toward more communicative approaches in the 1970s and 1980s, questioning evolved from a technique to generate constrctions into a means of encouraging authentic communication and learner autonomy (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). Indeed, traditional 'question-answer technique' fell out of favour in the 1970s.

The roots of structured oral questioning in language pedagogy can be traced back to the Reform Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which sought to move beyond the grammar-translation tradition. Advocates such as Wilhelm Viëtor and Henry Sweet emphasised the primacy of spoken language, phonetics, and meaningful interaction over writing and translation. Within this context, Harold E. Palmer, a pioneer of applied linguistics, played a significant role in promoting systematic oral practice through dialogue and questioning techniques. Palmer’s work at the Institute for Research in English Teaching in Tokyo (1920s–30s) laid the foundation for a more scientific and structured approach to language teaching, including the use of graded questions to build automaticity and fluency. 'Graded' meant selected by degree of challenge for the learner. So when I trained 'selection and grading' of questions was integral to my lesson plans.

One particularly influential model to emerge from this historical lineage was the British oral-situational language teaching approach mentioned in my introduction (alos known as the Oral Approach), developed in the mid-20th century. This method relied heavily on controlled (selected and graded) question-and-answer exchanges in situational contexts to promote oral fluency. Teachers used carefully structured sequences of questions to introduce, reinforce, and recycle language in meaningful ways (Hornby, 1950). Before the arrival of communicative language teaching, the Oral Approach had been seen as quite modern and progressive, given its focus on speaking and listening, rather than grammar and translation. It may not have been a 'target language only' approach, but it was not far off. The legacy of the Oral Approach remains in many classrooms today, but training in questioning technique and its theoretical basis have become neglected.

2. A cogsci justification for questioning

Given what we know about learning from the field of cognitive psychology, there are good reasons to support the use of questioning in language lessons. Questioning promotes retrieval (the importance of retrieval practice for building long-term memory is well established), repetition (including spaced repetition - spaced out encounters with language items helps them stick), deep processing (hearing and seeing language in different contexts, within different question and answer forms - including in writing - builds stronger memory traces).

Selecting and grading questions helps manage cognitive load. Questions promote rehearsal in working memory. As students hear and processing language, they mentally repeat it and formulate answers before speaking out loud. Using 'delayed answering' or 'wait time' generates even more mental rehearsal. mental rehearsal in the phonological loop is said to develop long-term memory.

In addition, as students listen and speak, recycling the same chunks of language repeatedly, they are picking up language through implicit (unconscious) learning, as well as via explicit means, for example where the teacher draws attention to specific language forms, inlcuding sounds. In other words, question-answer allows for multiple repetitions of useful language chunks, some of which will stick for later comprehension and use. Importantly, when question and answer is going on, the language is in connected form, not in the form of isolated words. It is easier to transfer language used in question-answer to real language use than to attempt to learn from lists of words and grammar rules. Question-amswer may be an artificial, classroom form of communication, but it is communication. To become a good communicator in a new language you need to practise communicating. (For much more on the cognitive scince, see Smith and Conti, 2021).

3.  Types of Questions in the Language Classroom

Language teachers can use a variety of question types. These include:

  • Display questions: Where the teacher knows the answer and uses the question to check understanding (e.g. "What colour is the apple?"; "Where is the book?")

  • Referential questions: Open-ended, where the answer is not known by the teacher, promoting real communication (e.g. "What do you usually eat for breakfast?")

  • Yes/no questions: Often used to practise auxiliary verbs and polarity (e.g. "Do you like pizza?"). These are usually easy since they require comprehension, but almost no output. In that semse they are limited and may just be a precursor to other, more challenging questions.

  • Choice questions: Provide options and promote decision-making (e.g. "Do you prefer tea or coffee?"). Thye may be either-or questions, or in multiple choice format ("Do you prefer tea, coffee or milk?"

  • Question word questions: (in English they may be called 'Wh-' questions). These encourage learners to produce more extended responses (e.g. "Where did you go on holiday?")

  • Echo questions: Repeating learners' statements as a question to encourage clarification or extension (e.g. Learner: "I go park." Teacher: "You go to the park?")

Other interactions can be used which are not strictly speaking questions, but which play the same role in providing input and generating responses. A good example I am fond of is just giving students false statements to correct. The fact that the stimulus in not in a question form usually males these easier to respond to than questions, since the learner does not have have to process the question construction before formulating the answer. Instead, thye just re-use the prompt, slotting in a change of some type. (For example: Prompt "Karim is playing tennis." Reponse: "Karim is playing football." This is easier to proces for leaners than "Is Karim playing tennis?". Or harder: "What is Karim playing?" Or harder still: "What is Karim doing?". These differences are important in lessons, since you want students to be able to respond at a level they can manage.

4. Criticisms?

Among the above question types, display questions have been the subject of some debate. Critics argue that because the teacher already knows the answer, these questions do not promote genuine communication. However, you can argue that they serve a clear pedagogical function, particularly in beginner and intermediate classrooms. They provide input, promote listening skill, help assess comprehension, reinforce newly taught structures, and provide learners with a safe opportunity to produce language. When used strategically, display questions can be valuable tools for scaffolding and building learner confidence before moving on to more open-ended or communicative tasks. Beginners are usually happy to play the game of answering questions, the answer to which the teacher already knows. (Interestingly, in teacher training sessions, I find teachers enjoy responding to display questions.) If you use them with classes, why not explain why you are doing so?

I think the objections to display questions were somewhat overdone and had a lot to do with the new-found enthusiasm for communicative approaches. It's easy to become doctrinaire when a new approach is all the rage.

Another criticism which can be levelled at display questions (and questioning in general) is that it risks becoming too teacher dominated, with only a few students responding, and the rest not necessarily listening carefully. On the one hand, listening to the teacher use the target language is important, but on the other it quickly becomes tiring and potentially boring. As we shall see below, the skilled teacher needs to know when to stop and how to mitigate any negative effects of questioning.

Lastly, the Oral Approach was largely developed for students in selective schools in the UK (grammar schools and private schools), and when language teaching - mainly French - became more prevalent in all schools, it becamse clear that teacher-led question-answer work was too demanding for many students. This was clear to me during teacher training and helped me see the limitations of the approach in mixed attainment classes. I would soon move towards using question-answer most often with beginners, and balanced with other forms of communicative work, notably pair work, games and information gap tasks. I laos came to see that classes in the 14-16 age range were less likeley to respjdn keenly to questioning.

5. Planning Question Sequences in Lessons

Effective questioning may be spontaneous, but is usually the result of careful planning. Teachers can design question sequences that move from simple to complex, from controlled to freer use of language. For example, when introducing a new tense, you might begin with yes/no questions and either-or questions before progressing to question word (wh-) questions. This is what is meant by slection and grading of questions. It takes care and preparation, but becomes second nature with experience.

Sequencing thus is a form of scaffolding (known in the USA as sheltering), allowing learners to build confidence before producing more elaborate language. A well-planned lesson might start with a range of display questions, comprehension questions, then move to personalisation (e.g. "Do you...?"), and finally encourage peer questioning (e.g. learners asking each other in pairs). Questions may be done orally, before then being written down. 

Within communicative and task-based language teaching (TBLT) questioning can also enhance learner engagement, provide scaffolding and generate input and output. Remember, questioning is as much about listening as speaking. In the TBLT setting, questioning is not only about eliciting language but about stimulating thinking, encouraging interaction, and promoting communicative competence (Long & Sato, 1983). Questioning also helps students develop their intercultural competence and can help them explore ideas.

Questions can also be highly effective when used with visual stimuli such as pictures, picture sequences, and written texts. When working with a single image, teachers might ask learners to describe what they see, predict what is happening, or imagine what might come next. Picture sequences are useful for prompting narrative language: learners can be asked to sequence events, explain cause and effect, or use time markers to describe a process. Written texts, such as short stories or articles, offer further scope for questioning—ranging from literal comprehension checks (e.g. "What happened after...?"), to inferential or personalisation questions (e.g. "Why do you think she did that?" or "What would you have done?"). The written text can therefore be the basis of much questioning and recycling of useful chunked language. 

6. Circling in the TPRS Approach

In the Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) method, developed by Blaine Ray in the 1990s, questioning plays a central role through a technique known as circling. Circling involves asking a series of repetitive but slightly varied questions about a statement to reinforce vocabulary and grammar in context while maintaining comprehensibility. You will see strong similarities with the selected and graded questions described above. (I imagine Blaine Ray, who developed this technique was unaware of the work which had been done decades earlier in Europe.)

For example, if the target structure is "va au parc" (goes to the park), a teacher might use circling as follows:

  • Statement: "Marie va au parc." (Marie is going to the park.)

  • Yes/No question: "Est-ce que Marie va au parc ?"

  • Either/or question: "Marie va au parc ou au cinéma ?"

  • Q-word-question: "Où va Marie ?"

  • Confirmation: "Est-ce qu’elle va au parc ?"

  • Q-word question: "Qu'est-ce qu'elle fait?"

Circling provides repeated exposure in an engaging way, while also checking comprehension. It supports acquisition through input rather than output, aligning with Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis which is a strong influence in TPRS. Teachers are encouraged to use gestures, visuals, and dramatic intonation to help students stay focused and understand without translation. As we have already seen, this exemplifies how structured questioning can serve as both a comprehension check and an acquisition tool, particularly at beginner levels.

7. The art of questioning

Skilled teachers know how to use questioning in many ways. Some will concentrate on hands-up questioning, others on 'cold-calling' (hands down) questioning (to encourage greater participation form ALL students). Many will use a balance of hands up and hands down questioning, depending on the class and the context. Mini-whiteboards can be used to ensure that all students show you their answers, but you need to be aware that this may slow down the lesson too much. Good teacher questioning often happens at pace to keep things snappy and students engaged.

Smart teachers know when the class has had enough too. A teacher-led question sequence demands a lot of attention and some clases may quickly flag. In TPRS lessons there is a danger of circling too much. The 'turn and talk' idea is useful here - after a burst of whole class question-answer pairs of students can work orally.

A frustrating thing for teachers can be when classes fail to respond to questions. Perhaps the question was too hard, perhaps it was too obvious, perhaps the class is just shy. With reticent classes, good technique can come to the rescue - a simple yes/no question might be just the stimulus which leads to further respones to more interesting questions.

A good teacher knows how to judge the mood and level ('cognitive empathy'), so after some teacher-led questioning, there is often a right moment for students to start questioning each other in pairs, or to write down answers rather than speak them.

Teacher charisma can be useful when using questioning. Amusing facial expressions, feigning disbelief, exaggerated gestures, looking at one student while responding to another, deliberately repeating student answers wrongly - all of these can make question sequences more fun for both the teacher and the class. As can varying who responds - individuals, pairs, rows, the whole class. Getting the whole class to repeat an answer chorally keeps everyone involved and on their toes.


Conclusion: The Overlooked Power of Questioning

Despite its foundational role in language instruction, questioning has become a somewhat neglected skill in teacher education. Yet, questioning lies at the heart of interactive teaching, especially in language classrooms where talk is both the medium and goal of instruction. What is more natural in human interaction than asking and answering questions?

We have seen that the benefits of effective questioning are far-reaching. It encourages learner participation, scaffolds language production, provides comprehensible input and and promotes critical thinking. It can be supported by findings from cognitive science, promoting implicit and explicit learning. Moreover, it creates opportunities for differentiation, as teachers can adjust the complexity of their questions to suit learners' levels. And it can be fun! 

I sometimes say that language learning is both simple and very complex. It's simple in the sense that the basic ingredients are comprehensible input, interaction, repetition and some focus on form. In that sense questioning can clearly play a useful role.  As such, reviving the art of the question in both pre-service and in-service training could significantly enrich language pedagogy, helping learners to develop both fluency and autonomy through meaningful interaction.

References

  • Hornby, A.S. (1950). The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns. London: Oxford University Press.

  • Palmer, H.E. (1921). The Principles of Language Study. London: Harrap.

  • Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

  • Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. New York: Longman.

  • Long, M. & Sato, C. (1983). Classroom foreigner talk discourse: Forms and functions of teachers' questions. In H. Seliger & M. Long (Eds.), Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

  • Ray, B. (1998). Fluency through TPR Storytelling: Achieving Real Language Acquisition in School. Command Performance Language Institute.

  • Smith, S.& Conti, G. (2021). Memory: What Every Language Teacher Should Know. Independently published.

  • Viëtor, W. (1882). Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren! Heilbronn: Henninger.


Full disclosure: I used Chat GPT to provide some the bones of this blog, but then ended up rewriting most of it.

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