Original scientific paper
The Use of Questions in Classroom Language
Yvonne Vrhovac
Abstract
The question is the most frequently used move in classroom discourse. Its role is more for checking knowledge than seeking information. The teachet-'s role status gives him the right to choose both the topic of conversation and the person to be questioned - the learner, so in classroom dialogue we find a close correlation between role-relationship and verbal behaviour. The leamer is not only obliged
to answer the question but he must give the answer the teacher expects from him. Questions in classroom dialogue therefore carrya large part of command force in themselves. In the paper the classroom questions are analysed on a corpus of French lessons carried out in a number of Zagreb primary and secondary schools. It is shown that the classroom questions have various functions: they can ask for information but they can also transmit information; on the other hand, assertions can also contain interrogation. The role relations also reveal some psychological components, such as irony as the manifestation of the teacheľs subjective attitude towards a message or a leamer. In comparison with natural dialogue, the classroom dialogue mostly shows didactic goals i.e. the focus on the correct form of the utterance more than on its content, as well as the absence of the learnefs personal opinion in the utterance.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
121474
URI
Publication date:
24.9.1990.
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