Teachers’ Perceptions of the Effect of Question-Asking Behaviour on EFL Classroom Interaction

Abstract

Promoting the learning environment and the enhancement of the teaching and learning process has always been the concern of researchers, teachers and course designers. In this respect, a considerable body of research has been concerned with the linguistic aspects of classroom interaction, many of which dealt with questioning strategies and the type of questions being employed in the EFL classroom. The main goal of this study is to explore the effect of teachers’ questions in enhancing interaction among high school students in EFL classrooms. It also pinpoints the features and types of questions that can foster interaction and make the learning process more promising. Data of this research were collected using a questionnaire, which was administered to Moroccan EFL teachers, and were analysed by Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings indicated that teachers’ perceptions are positive towards questioning- asking as a teaching strategy, and questions’ features and types on the creation of classroom interaction and improvement of discourse. In other words, some question types significantly promoted classroom interaction while others failed to do so.