The Questions Teachers Ask

Teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organisation
and management of the classroom, but also for second language
acquisition. It is important for the organisation and management
of the classroom, because it is through language that teachers
either succeed for fail to implement their teaching plans. In terms
of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the
major source of comprehensible target language input that the
learner is likely to receive. Aspects ofteacher talk which have been
empirically investigated include the amount and type of teacher
language, teacher explanations, error correction and feedback and
questions. In this paper, I should like to focus on the research which
has been carried out into teacher questions, and indicate how this
work can inform and guide our understanding of classroom practices.
Research findings are illustrated by classroom transcripts.