A case study of grades 7 and 8 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ practices of questioning

Questioning is a strategy that can be traced back to approximately 2000 years ago with the Greek Philosophers. The philosophers used to encourage their students to explore and get deep understanding by asking questions. Questioning has been considered as one of the influential strategies and tools of teaching and learning process for centuries. It has been thought that effective questions stimulate the thinking skills of learner. In this regard, there is a strong relationship between effective questions and effective teaching. Also, good questions lead to productive and healthy classroom discussion. In order to analyze EFL teachers’ practices from various aspect, this study was conducted with the two EFL teachers of grades 7 and 8 in the private school located in Karachi in the Province of Sindh. The data were collected through classroom observations during EFL lessons, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that 89% of the teachers’ questions were based on knowledge and comprehension. These questions helped learners only to provoke their lower order thinking skills. The teachers’ questions showed that the purpose of their questions was only to remember, recall and memorize knowledge. Moreover, 31% questions were repeated questions throughout the classroom observations. The data indicated that the wait time given in 98% questions was between 2 to 3 seconds. It only helped learners to recall their prior knowledge rather than stimulating their thinking skills. Also, the findings of the data showed that the teachers’ perceptions were contradictory to their practices. The teachers need continuous professional development regarding teaching EFL at secondary level because they had good and relevant vocabulary to define the things but the teachers were facing challenges to implement their perception into practice. The teachers need help and guidance to practice their perception in classroom context to understand the philosophy behind teaching and learning process