The Types of Frequently Asked Questions and The Purposes: a Study at Satya Wacana Children Center Kindergarten

Abstract

There are many teaching techniques proposed by experts as the best. Moreover, the teaching techniques for teaching young learners still remain debatable for years. Lots of research claimed using questions as a part of teacher talk is one of the most essential ones. Teachers‟ effective questioning is also underlain on its question types and function. This glimpse inspired this present study to investigate the types and purposes of teachers‟ frequently asked questions at Bilingual Kindergarten classes of Satya Wacana Children Center (SWCC), Salatiga. The participants of this study were two teachers of Kindergarten level of SWCC. Ten observations were conducted during semester II/2012-2013 for this descriptive statistic study. Yang‟s categorization of question types (2010) was used to identify the teachers‟ question types. The number of questions in each question type was calculated and the purposes of questions were analyzed. The results showed that Display and Close-Ended Questions were more frequently used by SWCC Kindergarten teachers rather than Referential, Open-Ended and Yes/No Questions. The results also found out that the purposes of their questions were to elicit information from students, check students‟ understanding, engage students to the lesson given, encourage students‟ participation, stimulate and/or maintain students‟ interest, and manage and/or control the classroom. These findings suggested that it is important for teachers to take into account their skill in questioning and vary their purposeful questions effectively to gain the successful teaching.