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An investigation of teachers' questions and learners' responses during classroom interaction in Tamil secondary classes in Singapore = Singapur uyarnilaippalli Tamil vaguppugalil idaivinaiyaadalinpothu idamperum aasiriyargal vinaakkalum maanavargal vidaigalum : orr aivu
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Type
Thesis
Other titles
சிங்கப்பூர் உயர்நிலைப் பள்ளித் தமிழ் வகுப்புகளில் இடைவினையாடலின்போது இடம்பெறும் ஆசிரியர்கள் வினாக்களும் மாணவர்கள் விடைகளும் : ஓர் ஆய்வு
Author
Ramiah Kalimuthu
Supervisor
Thinnappan, S. P.
Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate teacher questions and learner responses during classroom interaction in Tamil secondary classes in Singapore. The research questions for this study are:
(1) What types of questions are frequently asked by the teachers in the Tamil classroom? Which types of questions are asked most often?
(2) What are the strategies employed by both teachers and students during questioning and responding?
(3) Do high cognitive questions help the students more than the low cognitive questions in their comprehension and writing?
(4) Do high cognitive questions help to increase the oral communication of the students?
It was hypothesised that the quality, type and frequency of teachers' questions and pupils' responses would be instrumental in determining effective oral and written communication in classroom interaction and this will promote language learning and acquisition.
Ethnographic research procedures involved a multi-step process of data collection and analysis, including participant observation, tape-recording the lessons and video-taping and transcription of classroom lessons. The sample consisted of 820 students selected from 15 secondary schools. A total of 44 Tamil lessons taught by 22 Tamil teachers were taped and transcribed.
The data were analysed using modified form of the Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) and methods employed by Long and Sato (1983), Brock (1986) Alcon, (1993) and Kam (1993).
The analysis of data revealed that 69 per cent of the questions asked by the Tamil teachers were of the lower order type, i.e display and recall questions. Further the data revealed that the middle order and higher order questions were asked only 24 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. Thus the data confirmed that most of the questions asked by the Tamil teachers were of the lower order.
Analysis of data showed that teachers use the following strategies: Rephrasing, Simplification, Repetition, Decomposition and Probing. The strategies employed by students when they responded to the teacher question were also analysed. The analysis revealed that the students employed various strategies such as chorus reply, requesting for clarification, reference to books or notes and others.
In order to find out whether the higher order questions help students more than the lower order ones in comprehension and writing an experimental sub-study was conducted in two schools. Students in the control group used their normal text books in addition to Tamil Murasu (Tamil Daily) and student magazines. Students in the training group were taught to generate high cognitive questions from their text books and the newspapers. Student in the control group did not receive any treatment on questioning, but nevertheless used group discussion in their lessons.
After three months, a post-test similar to the pre-test was conducted. The results were analysed using T Anova. The results showed that the training groups showed significant improvement over the control group in comprehension and writing. Hence the study revealed that higher order questions helped the students more than the lower order questions in comprehension and writing. In order to find out whether higher order questions also helped the students to increase their oral competence, a comparison of turn taking of both groups was carried out using Anova. the results indicate that although there was a tendency to increase participation in the training group, the difference in oral participation was not statistically significant. It seems that by using high cognitive questions students did not get more turns than those hardly making any use of this type of questions. As a result, the study indicates no relationship between use of high cognitive questions and the quantity of student participation.
On the basis of the findings, several recommendations were made. They include suggestions for seminars, workshops and courses for teachers to bring about greater awareness of the importance of classroom questioning and to disseminate skills in questioning.
(1) What types of questions are frequently asked by the teachers in the Tamil classroom? Which types of questions are asked most often?
(2) What are the strategies employed by both teachers and students during questioning and responding?
(3) Do high cognitive questions help the students more than the low cognitive questions in their comprehension and writing?
(4) Do high cognitive questions help to increase the oral communication of the students?
It was hypothesised that the quality, type and frequency of teachers' questions and pupils' responses would be instrumental in determining effective oral and written communication in classroom interaction and this will promote language learning and acquisition.
Ethnographic research procedures involved a multi-step process of data collection and analysis, including participant observation, tape-recording the lessons and video-taping and transcription of classroom lessons. The sample consisted of 820 students selected from 15 secondary schools. A total of 44 Tamil lessons taught by 22 Tamil teachers were taped and transcribed.
The data were analysed using modified form of the Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) and methods employed by Long and Sato (1983), Brock (1986) Alcon, (1993) and Kam (1993).
The analysis of data revealed that 69 per cent of the questions asked by the Tamil teachers were of the lower order type, i.e display and recall questions. Further the data revealed that the middle order and higher order questions were asked only 24 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. Thus the data confirmed that most of the questions asked by the Tamil teachers were of the lower order.
Analysis of data showed that teachers use the following strategies: Rephrasing, Simplification, Repetition, Decomposition and Probing. The strategies employed by students when they responded to the teacher question were also analysed. The analysis revealed that the students employed various strategies such as chorus reply, requesting for clarification, reference to books or notes and others.
In order to find out whether the higher order questions help students more than the lower order ones in comprehension and writing an experimental sub-study was conducted in two schools. Students in the control group used their normal text books in addition to Tamil Murasu (Tamil Daily) and student magazines. Students in the training group were taught to generate high cognitive questions from their text books and the newspapers. Student in the control group did not receive any treatment on questioning, but nevertheless used group discussion in their lessons.
After three months, a post-test similar to the pre-test was conducted. The results were analysed using T Anova. The results showed that the training groups showed significant improvement over the control group in comprehension and writing. Hence the study revealed that higher order questions helped the students more than the lower order questions in comprehension and writing. In order to find out whether higher order questions also helped the students to increase their oral competence, a comparison of turn taking of both groups was carried out using Anova. the results indicate that although there was a tendency to increase participation in the training group, the difference in oral participation was not statistically significant. It seems that by using high cognitive questions students did not get more turns than those hardly making any use of this type of questions. As a result, the study indicates no relationship between use of high cognitive questions and the quantity of student participation.
On the basis of the findings, several recommendations were made. They include suggestions for seminars, workshops and courses for teachers to bring about greater awareness of the importance of classroom questioning and to disseminate skills in questioning.
Date Issued
1996
Call Number
PL4759 Ram
Date Submitted
1996