Why Do Teachers Ask the Questions They Ask?

Although teacher questioning has received much attention in the past few years, studies on teacher questions in the ESL classroom have so far revolved around the 'closed'/'open' or 'display'/'referential' distinction. Findings from classroom observations show excessive use of closed questions by teachers in the classroom. The argument that has been more or less accepted is that such questions seek to elicit short, restricted student responses and are therefore purposeless in the classroom setting. This paper attempts to conduct an analytical discussion of the argument. The questions of three non-native ESL teachers during reading comprehension in the upper secondary school in Brunei are analysed using a three-level question construct. Through this three-level question analysis, it is possible to challenge the argument concerning question types and purposes. Particularly, it illustrates (i) the problem of assigning teacher questions into narrowly defined categories and (ii) that questions asked by teachers in the language classroom are purposeful when reflected against the goals and agenda of the educational institution.