Abstract

Teacher questions can help students in the learning process, as well as aid in the development of higher-order thinking skills. In language classrooms, teacher questions are a major way of initiating interaction. The general aim of this research was to investigate the types of questions used by language teachers in English as a foreign language classrooms. The data collection method included classroom observations which is commonly used in second language classroom research. The results showed that in both elementary and high schools, there was greater frequency in the use of lower-order questions compared to higher-order questions, while more complex questions and answers sets yielded higher frequency of higher-order questions. Furthermore, the complexity of students’ responses depended on the type of questions posed by the teacher. The analysis also showed that although there were more questions that stimulated thinking and encouraged self-expression in high schools than in elementary schools; nevertheless, the large number of lower-order questions suggests the need for greater use of high-order thinking questions.