EFL teacher questions in reading comprehension courses at the language center of Muhammadiyah University of Malang: a case study / Masduki - Repositori Universitas Negeri Malang

EFL teacher questions in reading comprehension courses at the language center of Muhammadiyah University of Malang: a case study / Masduki

Masduki (2009) EFL teacher questions in reading comprehension courses at the language center of Muhammadiyah University of Malang: a case study / Masduki. Doctoral thesis, Universitas Negeri Malang.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Masduki 2009. EFL Teacher Questions in Reading Comprehension Courses at the Language Center Muhammadiyah University of Malang A Case Study. Dissertation. The English Language Education Graduate Program State University of Malang. Advisors (I) Frof. E. Sadtono Ph.D. (II) Prof. Moh. Adnan Latief M.A. Ph.D. (III) Prof. Dr. Siusana Kweldju M.Pd Key Words Teacher Questions Reading Comprehension The main purpose of the study is clarifying an issue on EFL teacher questions in Reading Comprehension (RC) courses. More specifically the study was done to investigate 1) the types of questions posed by EFL teacher in RC courses and 2) the strategies employed by EFL teachers to make effective questions in RC courses. In order to effectively describe those two aspects of teacher questions the researcher analyzes them by means of question classification. With respect to effective questioning the obtained data were analyzed by relying on the concepts/criteria for effective questions. The research project was executed by employing the qualitative study as a classroom research focusing on the observation of teacher question and the students responses as the interactive effects of the questions. The data in the forms of teaches and students utterances (questions) were obtained through non-participant observation. Two teachers teaching reading comprehension classes in the Language Center at Muhammadiyah University of Malang were selected as the research subjects to be observed. As the research also required the subjects opinion and understanding of certain phenomena it needed the data that were elicited using interview. This means that the data to handle were subjectively produced by the research subjects and subjectively and qualitatively interpreted by the present researcher. Since the analysis resides within the camp of qualitative type of research in general the present study can be labeled into qualitative. The analysis reveals the obvious types of questions posed by EFL teachers in reading comprehension courses. The types include display and referential questions. Both display and referential questions that occurred in the classes were in the closed and open form. With the closed forms the teachers required the students to provide only one correct answer. Meanwhile with the open form they wanted their students to give more than one right answer. The closed and open forms were found in interrogative with yes/no questions and wh-questions commands and statements. The statements consisted of a complete sentence and were added by raising intonation to show that the teacher asked a question. The forms of referential question was also found closed and open. The closed referential was found in interrogative with yes/no questions wh-questions and statements. But the teacher employed open referential questions in the forms of wh-questions statements and commands. In classroom practices the teacher used display questions more frequently than referential questions. Then as far as the strategies are concerned three different strategies were used by the teachers in posing questions in RC courses translation repetition and pausing. The first questioning strategy employed by teachers in EFL reading classes is translation. The translation is either from the target language (English) to the student native language (Indonesian) or vice versa. The use of translation strategy indicated that the teachers wanted to emphasize and to make clearer about things they explained and described. The interviews with some student subjects touched an important issue on the use of translation to pose questions. The students acknowledged that translation also turned out to be the students preference. This indicated that they wanted the L1 (Indonesian) equivalents on their teachers English speech whenever they found it incomprehensible. This might also indicate that the students (mostly freshmen) had low proficiency in English. This finding supported the view that students preference for L1 and the language dominance in the setting may influence teachers preference for the communication strategies and the language used in the classrooms. The second strategy employed by teachers in EFL reading classes is repetition. The teacher repeated the question to ask whether the student understand about the questions posed. The repetition strategy was intended not only to increase comprehensibility but also to maximize the opportunities for students to answer. The present study also documented a point worth highlighting pertaining to the repetition. That is despite the existing debate among scholars on the use of repetition repetition strategy was capable of ensuring and improving EFL students engagement in a learning process. In the observed classes there was sufficient evidence supporting this assertion. The findings attested some previous related studies which revealed that teacher s repetition strategy was effective for improving learners engagement to find the intended response. The third questioning strategy employed by the teacher is the employment of wait-time or pausing. The present study reveals that teachers employed relatively moderate period of pause. The observed teachers posed questions with the mean of wait-time of 3 69 seconds. With this in mind in this research many students volunteered to answer each question. With regard to the wait-time the study also reveals that the wait-time pauses were very similar among question types. Regarding the ways to pose effective questions a number of modifications in the strategy of questioning were employed by the observed EFL teachers. For the purposes the teachers employed probing and rephrasing modifications. Each has its own pattern. For the probing there were two types of modification employed by the teachers. Those are sequencing the questions by 1) focusing on subordinate category and 2) focusing on an exemplification. In addition to probing the other modification of the question is rephrasing. In the present study rephrasing was found to have more than one modification namely the modification of rephrased questions by 1) using a clue that describes the attribute of the expected answer 2) comparing or contrasting of the expected answer to something and 3) rephrasing with alternative or choice questions. Finally as observed there appears to be a direct relationship between the question modification made by teachers with the quantity and quality of the student s responses. With the question modifications the study found relatively ample evidence that the students could be helped to elicit the intended responses in the process of comprehending a reading text. Thus it is recommended that teachers achieve a high degree of sensitivity and awareness to use questions in the most effective manner.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects: L Education > L Education (General)
Divisions: Fakultas Sastra (FS) > Departemen Sastra Inggris (ING) > S3 Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris
Depositing User: Users 2 not found.
Date Deposited: 15 Sep 2009 04:29
Last Modified: 09 Sep 2009 03:00
URI: http://repository.um.ac.id/id/eprint/64392

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