Promoting Learning in Undergraduate ELT Classes with Effective Questions
By Riaz Laghari, Islamabad, July 14, 2023
Introduction
"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only teach them to think," Socrates famously said. Effective questioning techniques are essential for encouraging, expanding, and deepening students' thinking in English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms at the undergraduate or college level. This essay covers numerous methods that instructors can utilize to promote active learning by posing questions.
Longer Wait Times:
By extending the time between asking a question and anticipating an answer, one effective method for promoting critical thinking. According to research, students often have just 0.9 seconds to think, and compose their responses. Students can reflect on the question and come up with more intelligent answers by extending the thinking period by around three seconds. Longer wait times improve the caliber and depth of student contributions.
Think-Pair-Share:
The widely utilized think-pair-share process enables students to respond to questions cooperatively. Think, pair and share are its three phases. First, instructors offer each student time to think about the subject alone while recording their ideas. They then talk about their concepts with a partner, exchanging points of view and deepening their comprehension. Students then present their ideas to the class as a whole and discuss them, establishing a collaborative and interactive learning environment.
See, Ponder, and Wonder
The Project Zero team at Harvard University developed the See, Think, Wonder method, which encourages students to investigate many facets of a subject, picture, object, or piece of art. The three questions are "What do you see?" "What do you think?" and "What do you wonder?" They are presented to the students. This method encourages curiosity, observation, and critical thought, allowing students to evaluate and interpret data from various angles.
Pose, pause, pounce, and bounce
An organized framework for efficient inquiry is provided by the pose, pause, pounce, and bounce technique. Pose, pause, pounce, and bounce are the four steps. The teacher starts off by asking the students a difficult, open-ended question. After that, there is a lengthy gap of at least seven seconds so that pupils can consider the question. The lecturer chooses a student at random (pounce) to react rather than relying solely on raised hands. The lecturer then passes the comment forward to more pupils, urging them to expand upon or refute the initial remark. This method encourages critical thinking among students while also encouraging active participation.
Big Questions:
Big questions are interesting, open-ended, and thought-provoking inquiries that encourage in-depth thinking. They are also referred to as fruitful or inquiry-based questions. Students must wrestle with difficult concepts in order to solve these questions, which frequently lack clear-cut answers. The relevance of big issues to students' lives comes from their connections to enduring concepts and themes. They may also cover moral, governmental, or social and emotional issues, forcing pupils to think from several angles. Big questions can be developed by teachers in ELT sessions to promote critical thinking and productive dialogues.
Socratic Questions
Based on the Socratic method, Socratic questioning is an effective strategy for encouraging critical thinking and active learning. Clarifying, testing presumptions, probing for evidence and justifications, taking into account many points of view, assessing ramifications and repercussions, and challenging the question itself are the six steps of this technique. Instructors can foster critical reflection, encourage students to question their own preconceptions and advance a deeper comprehension of the material by using Socratic questioning.
Conclusion
In undergraduate ELT courses, encouraging learning through clever questioning techniques is crucial for sharpening students' analytical skills, and encouraging participation. Increased wait times, think-pair-share, See, Think, Wonder, the Pose, Pause, Pounce, Bounce method, the use of big questions, and Socratic questioning are just a few strategies that instructors can use to foster intellectual curiosity, promote independent thought, and facilitate meaningful learning experiences for students. Through the use of these techniques, students gain the ability to think critically, evaluate data from various angles, and create their own knowledge, which results in a deeper and more thorough comprehension of the English language.
Sources:
Getting started with Effective Questioning
Cambridge Assessment International Education
Teaching and Learning Division
https://cambridge-community.org.uk/professional-development/gsweq/index.html
PROJECT ZERO
