A question-answer sequence

This post is mainly for teachers in training, but may interest others thinking about their everyday practice. 

I'm going to return to a topic I have blogged about before and one which I have referenced in videos and books for language teachers. It's about how to develop a teacher-led question-answer sequence in the classroom. This is similar to what TPRS teachers would call circling. This sort of practice no doubt goes back centuries, but becasse a central part of Direct Method from, roughly, the turn of the 20th century and was widely used in British schools from the late 1960s through into the 70s as a central plank in the Oral Approach (aka Oral-Situational approach). Many teachers would still use QA sequences today, but I suspect the craft of questioning has been neglected. Hence this post!

Firstly, a simple rationale informedd by research, then an example with some tips thrown in.

1. During a teacher-led QA session students are receiving comprehensible input, interacting with it when answering questions and getting multiple repetitons of chunked language. There is a focus on both input and output. That pretty much covers it! We have the essential ingredients for some acquisition to occur. 

2. If the focus is on vocabulary development, students hear vocabulary in context, so develop not just breadth of lexical knowledge, but depth (e.g. knowing which words commonly accompany other words - so-called collocations). Note also that students are hearing and repeating new and known words, giving them a stronger phonological memory of lexis which will also help them with listening comprehension. QA sequences involve a lot of interpersonal listening ('two-way listening').

3. If you want the focus of a QA sequence to be on a grammatical pattern, say a new tense, the interaction provides repetitions of patterns which can prime students to use them themelves, either immediately or at a later stage. Grammar is acquired more slowly than vocabulary and is somewhat 'immune' to teaching, but the input you provide will help students understand and produce useful constructions.

Let's have a look at a sequence. I used Chat GPT to produce a first run at this, with the prompt asking for something at Level A1 on the topic of sport. I've then edited this using my experience and added some tips in brackets. Assume that some responses will be repeated chorally to keep everyome involved, and there can be a mixture of cold-calling (no hands up) and hands up questioning. (Using both approaches allows keen ones to excel and ensures everyone is included and learning. Mini-whiteboards could also be used to keep all engaged. By cold calling I don't mean random questioning, but using your skills to ask questions at the right level to students who do not raise a hand.)

I prompted Chat GPT to produce a range of question types - yes/no, either/or, multi-choice and question word questions ('whatt', 'when' etc). I've used English for the benefit of all MFL teachers. The focus is largely lexical and would involce a good number of cognate words. I have a Year 8 class in mind.

Teacher: Good morning, everyone! Today we’re talking about sport. Let’s start with a simple question.
Do you like sport? Hands up.

Student 1 (Fred): Yes.

Teacher: Great! What sport do you like?

Fred: (I like) football.

Teacher: Football! I like football too. I love football! Maria, do you like football?

Student 2 (Maria): No.

Teacher: Okay Do you like tennis or swimming?

Maria: I like swimming.

Teacher: Good. So, you don’t like football, but you like swimming. I like swimming. Sanjit, do you like swimming?

Student 3 (Sanjit) Yes, I like swimming.

Teacher: Do you prefer swimming or football, Sanjit?

Sanjit: Football.

Teacher: Everyone,,, which sport is played with a racket? Football, swimming or tennis? (Maybe exaggerate the 'tennis' for humorous effect.)

Student 3 (Theo) : B: Tennis.

Teacher: Correct! Football is played with a racket.

Whole class: No!

Teacher: OK, tennis. I'm stupid. Tom, what sport do you like?

Student 4 (Tom): I like basketball.

Teacher: Nice! Do you play basketball with a racket?

Tom: No!

Teacher: Okay, I'm being silly again. Who likes basketball? Hands up. Ellie, do like sport? Which sport?

Student 5 (Ellie): Tennis.

Teacher: Great. Ellie, say 'I like tennis'.

Ellie: I like tennis.

Teacher: Great! (In English) Everyone - on your whiteboard, write a sport you like. If you don't like sport, write 'I don't like sport'.

Then ask around the class, mixing in some choral repetition. You could mention some sports you like and the class writes them down in L1 or L2.

You've got the idea by now. With most classes about 10 minutes of this sort of interchange should be enough. Classes with very good concentration and high aptitude might go longer. Of course, you can improvise a lot, depending on what students say, trying to create a semi-authentic exchange. Try maintain a good pace, eye contact, enthusiasm, accept all answers, no need to explicitly correct at this stage (just remodel the correct version - this is called a recast). Gesture can be used to reinforce meaning. Acting skills can help, for example feigning disbelief, showing exgaggerated praise, pretend disapproval, amusing facial expressions.

A QA sequence like the above is going to be part of a longer sequence of activities on the theme. You can imagine other activities/resources, such as a sentence builder, PowerPoint slides to present key vocabulary, dialogue to read aloud and adapt, short aural or written text, gap-fill, easy translation, reading aloud games in the EPI tradition, written QA. The longer sequence of activities ends up recycling a repertoire of easy constructions, some of which will stay in long-term memory. These constructions would be reused on later occasions (retrieval practice/spaced repetition).

Questions you could reflect on:

• What are the pros and cons of teacher-led questioning?
• How communicative is it?
• How inclusive is it? Is everyone involved?
• Is this mainly abut listening, speaking, or is it equally about both?
• How manageable is it from the teacher's point of view? Is it easy to prepare? is it tiring? Is it enjoyable?
• Is it engaging from the students' perspective?
• How demanding is it from the students' point of view? Is the level of challenge right?
• How does it align with general principles of L2 acquisition?

Things that could go wrong:

• The pace is too slow so students switch off
• The language is not comprehensible enough - for example the teacher uses phrases the class does not understand
• The teacher jumps too rapidly from one construction to another, failing to build in enough repetitions of a limited number of constructions
• The teacher focuses on a small number of students who put up their hands
• The teacher over-corrects or disapproves of answers
• The dialogue lacks authentic feel - it's too much like a mechanical drill
• The teacher fails to notice students who are not engaged
• The teacher lacks enthusiasm!
• The teacher doesn't really listen and respond perssonally to students' answers

My experience was that questioning of this type worked best with beginners (Y7 and Y8 in England), but, at a more sophisticated level, with advanced learners. With Y9-Y11 I used it more judiciously since students are more wary about joining in in front of the whole class. With these classes I would use pair work to a much greater extent.

To conclude, to run QA well requires a good deal of 'cognitive empathy' with the class - that ability to sense the right level, to gauge how much students understand and how they are feeling about the task at hand, when they may be flagging. It requires effective use of formative assessment ('responsive teaching') techniques such as checking for understanding, being clear with the class about the goals and reacting in the moment to student responses. I think it's also worth sharing with the class at some point why you are doing the task, or asking them what they think the value of the activity is.