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Introduction
Observation plays a central role in practice teaching This reflection is an empirical study of
classroom observation of two general English lessons that examined the implicit theories of
language and learning that guided the class activities, the teachers’ roles and students roles.
Besides that we also look into the students’ responses in two English Language classrooms. We
found that in both classes, the teachers asked many referential questions than display questions.
Moreover, the teachers’ referential questions elicited longer and syntactically more complex
utterances from the learners. The reasons for this are discussed in the light of the objectives and
Method
The data were collected by observing two 60 minutes general English lessons in SK
Sg.Seluang. General English lessons refer to those given to non-native speakers in order to help
them develop their language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The class was
composed of 36 pupils. The English proficiency level in the class was intermediate, a level
chosen because there is likely to be more question and answer interaction between the teacher
and the pupils. The teacher was experienced non-native English speaker who had taught English
non-native speakers for over 20 years. She uses materials developed by herself and also
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The following three questions were designed to provide a focus for lesson observations and
1. What types of language are teachers using to help students negotiate meaning and
2. How are teachers modeling language and helping young learners to acquire the
target language?
3. How are teachers making learning experiences meaningful and comprehensible for
Observation Protocol
We observed in the same classroom at the different days and at different time. We took notes
and photographs, focusing on the teacher behavior related to instruction. Student responses were
recorded to analyze student behavior or learning and to reveal the teacher response in
developing concepts, modeling, and elaborating. In addition to recording the teachers' words,
notice was also made of gestures, body language, and motions. The teacher used magazine and
ii. Association
iii. Questioning
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Instruction in learning to listen, speak, read and write in English is the goal. The teacher
used Look and Say during the lesson. This is the technique of students listening to the
teacher and looking at the object or print, then repeating a word or sentence after the
teacher. Children either watch as the teacher points to the words on the chalkboard or
Association was used for presenting vocabulary items. The teacher used Association for
synonyms, antonyms, and simple definitions. For example, the following words were
Questioning is another strategy that was used in lessons. The questioning section of the
lessons appeared to be for the purpose of developing thinking processes for concept
formation. While using questions to monitor comprehension was observed in two lessons,
While these exercises that asked students to list, group, label and categorize were
deliberate attempts to increase productive thinking, teacher did not neglect other aspects
of learning that she valued. In the lesson, children were asked to repeat the pairs of
opposites or other answers to the questions. This gave students opportunity to learn
through practice.
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Discussion
Researching the forms and functions of teachers’ questions in secondary school classrooms in
the United Kingdom, Barnes (1969, 1976, cited in Ellis, 1994) distinguished four types of
questions. These were factual questions like what? and when? reasoning questions such as how?
and why? open questions not requiring any reasoning, and finally social questions influencing
During our observation, the teacher’s display and referential questions were identified and the
frequency of both types of questions and the total of questions were counted respectively. We
found that the teacher asked 36 questions in total. We also discovered that significantly more
display questions 25 than referential questions 11 were asked by the teacher in the class.
We concluded that referential questions may increase how much learners speak in the
classroom. We found that referential questions elicited longer and syntactically more complex
In both classes, there were more referential questions than display questions. In the first
classroom observation, the teacher asked a total of 13 questions, of which 10 were referential
questions and 3 were display questions. In addition, in the first classroom observation, very less
response for the teacher’s questions. Teacher’s questions function in numerous ways in the
classroom. They can be used to elicit information, to check comprehension, and also to control
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They serve the purposes of socializing, scene-setting, checking comprehension, evaluating
learning, and seeking information (Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975). It can be seen from the data that
the teacher’s referential questions can motivate more student involvement in the second
observation.
The tasks started with explanation and instruction as to what students were required to do (a
fill-in exercise and discussion questions respectively), reviewing what they had learned during
the last lesson. The teacher asked some display questions during the process to ensure
background knowledge and understanding. The students were then required to discuss
whether they had achieved the goals they had set for themselves for the past week. For this,
referential questions were used to elicit information from the learners; their responses were open
These referential questions were used in order to motivate the learners to draw on their
background knowledge to produce their own answers. For example, during the lesson although
the questions was the same, the students’ responses varied because each had different ideas about
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Conclusion
The factors such as class size, the pedagogic goals and tasks in a lesson strongly affected the
some evidence to support the idea that effective instruction for English learners does the
following:-
(1) develops proficiency in natural language or conversation through activities that are
(2) provides ample opportunity for learning, even over-learning, through recitation,
(3) scaffolds for understanding and development of thinking skills through the methods of