An Experimental Study On The Effects Of Asking Referential Questions On The Lower Level Language Learners

This study aims at investigating the effect of asking referential questions on the oral participation and production of lower level language learners in reading classes. The main purpose of the study is to inquire whether the reticence of lower level language learners to participate in lessons due to their poor language ability could be overcome by asking questions that require their opinions and comments, rather than solely answering questions to display their comprehension.The most important factor within any effective language learning environment is that students are enabled to do most of the talking. However, in many language classrooms it is the teacher who does most of the talking whilst students remain silent. An ideal classroom situation is one in which students are actively involved and are willing to participate in the lesson. Student participation is more beneficial if the students are productive rather than purely receptive. Nevertheless, in order for the students to participate actively, they need to be stimulated. This stimulation can arise as a result of the implementation of appealing activities or through the use of thought provoking questions. One popular method of involving students in a lesson and facilitating student participation used by many language teachers is asking questions.The majority of the questions that teachers ask in these exchanges are display questions. Those questions seem to be favored by most teachers. Although students seem to be active participants in the classroom interaction, this type of exchange is insufficient, resulting in minimal communicative intercourse and student productivity, since the students only repeat what the text has already provided as an answer.One effective way to increase oral participation in reading classes is to ask referential questions, creating propitious circumstances enabling students to be more productive. Referential questions have no one specific answer, and are therefore used to instigate genuine communication. The purpose behind asking this type of question is to allow students to express opinions and exchange information.This research is designed to investigate whether low level language learners will participate more in lessons where they are not solely asked to display comprehension of the text, but are involved in question-answer exchanges where referential questions are dominantly asked and they can comment on the text and express their opinions; therefore, becoming more communicative and productive.For this purpose an action research was conducted in a lower level preparatory class over a4-week period. This action research included a preliminary investigation stage to discover the reasons for low level of participation in these classes and to come up with a hypothesis to solve the problem, and3reading lessons to test the hypothesis. During those3lessons students were exposed to both display and referential questions and the number of students and responses were calculated for both question types to collect quantitative data. In addition, the mean lengths (in words) of students’ responses to display and referential questions were calculated to find out the differences of students’ responses in terms of length between display and referential questions. In order to ascertain students(?) and teachers(?) opinions of display and referential questions, questionnaires were submitted to both students and teachers.The analysis of quantitative data indicates that lower level language learners participate more when asked a referential question. Additionally, referential questions engender longer responses compared to the responses given to the display questions.