Types of questions
There have been a number of typologies and taxonomies of questions. Socratic questioning, exemplified by Paul’s taxonomy, forms the basis of eliciting, while Bloom’s taxonomy identifies six types of questions by which thinking skills may be developed and tested. In the context of language teaching and learning, Bloom himself maintained that;"The major purpose in constructing a taxonomy of educational objectives is to facilitate communication..." Classroom questions tend to fall into two broad categories:
Display questions. These are designed to elicit learners’ prior knowledge and to check comprehension. They often focus on the form or meaning of language structures and items, and the teacher already knows the answer.
What does ..... mean?
When do we use .....?
What comes after .....?
What’s the opposite of .....?
Where’s the stress in .....?
Referential questions. These require the learner to provide information, give an opinion, explain or clarify. They often focus on content rather than language, require ‘follow-up’ or ‘probe’ questions, and the answer is not necessarily known by the teacher.
What do you think about .....?
Have you ever....when/where .....?
If you had .....what.....?
What kind of .....?
How do you .....?
The best referential questions are those that are ‘divergent’ or ‘open-ended’ in that they are broad, may have multiple answers, and require a higher level of thinking from the learners.
Open-ended questions are ideal for developing skills such as inferring, predicting, verifying and summarizing, as well as eliciting more language. ‘Convergent’ or ‘closed’ questions have more narrowly defined correct answers which can be recalled from memory and require little reflection or originality. Closed questions are common in conventional tests.
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