The language teacher's questions (those asked of students) have captured the interest of many second or foreign-language acquisition researchers. Two general types of questions have been distinguished. "Referential questions" refer to those whose answers are unknown to the person who asks the questions. "Display questions," by contrast, are those whose answers are already known by the questioner. Some researchers find that display questions result in fewer student responses and less language acquisition. It is therefore suggested that language teachers ask more referential questions than display questions in the classroom. However, in applying this recommendation in our classroom, we must consider factors that may affect the ways we ask questions, e.g., the students' proficiency level, the objectives of the course, etc.
This paper compared the questions asked by two reading teachers, one in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) class and the other in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class. From analyzing the ways the ESL teacher asked questions, it was found that the teacher seemed to effectively use display questions: (1) to focus her students' attention on specific vocabulary words; (2) to relate the messages of the assigned reading to the students' real-world experiences; and (3) to provide the students with familiar contexts in which they practiced using the taught items.
