Questioning Levels and Techniques in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

Questioning is a commonly employed method to assist students in their ‎learning processes. Numerous studies have revealed that the level of the ‎questions posed by instructors significantly influences students` ‎cognitive engagement and thinking skills. However, most of the ‎questions instructors ask are lower-order questions, which have less ‎impact compared to higher-order questions in fostering advanced ‎cognitive abilities in students. Therefore, this article aims to increase ‎instructors´ awareness on the effectiveness of appropriately using ‎questioning in the classroom and to denote the levels of questions asked ‎by instructors in an ESL context. Furthermore, this article outlines ‎several effective questioning methods that instructors ought to master, ‎including the use of waiting time, equitable distribution of questions, ‎prompting techniques, redirecting inquiries, repeating and tailoring ‎questions to align with text content and students.