How Teacher Questions Facilitate Student Learning in EFL Class

Abstract Questioning is considered as one of the most dominant features in virtually every classroom discourse. This study aims at examining the types and functions of teacher questions that facilitate student learning in an EFL class in Vietnam. The classification of questions employed in the study follows the work proposed by Richards and Lockhart in 2007. Participants in the research were one teacher and 25 students in an English university class in Vietnam. The data was collected through classroom observation and audio recording. Both qualitative and quantitative content analysis were utilized to analyze the data. The findings of the study indicate that the most frequently used question types were convergent and divergent questions, and procedural questions only accounted for a small proportion. Furthermore, it was found that convergent questions were employed to check and guide students’ understanding of the lesson’s target lexical items, while divergent ones were used to promote students’ further analysis and their own evaluation of the knowledge provided in the study material. Finally, procedural questions were chiefly posed when the teacher monitored students in class activities. Keywords: classroom discourse, classroom interaction, teacher questions