Simple Questioning Techniques to Support EAL Learners: Explanation and Rationale

Teachers ask thousands of questions every week.

Learners try to provide answers.

Some research suggests that in a thirty-year career, teachers will ask, on average, 1.75 million questions.

That’s roughly one per minute, every working day.

The teacher can direct learners’ answers through how they frame their questions.

It is generally for the teacher to decide what the questions will be. It is therefore also for them to decide how the questions will be structured.

A simple example of this with which most people are familiar is the difference between open and closed questions.

Open questions invite an extended response. They give the person answering space in which to speak or write:

• What are your thoughts on this?
• How might we solve the problem?

Closed questions, on the other hand, restrict the possible answers that might be given.

They narrow down the field, usually to just a couple of options:

• Are you coming out tonight, or not?
• What is the capital of France?

When teaching learners for whom English is an additional language, we can tailor our questions to take account of their specific needs.

This means we can use questioning to support those learners, allowing them to experience success in the classroom and to share their thoughts and ideas with us.

Here are two examples to illustrate.

Simple Questioning Techniques to Support EAL Learners: Example One

Open questions tend to lead to different outcomes than closed questions.

They give learners the opportunity to share their thoughts with you rather than having to find (or guess) a specific, correct, answer.

Of course, there are times when closed questions are necessary and useful. Checking knowledge, for example.

The key is to avoid asking only closed questions, and to provide a balance that gives your EAL learners opportunities to answer in different ways.

By asking open questions you can show EAL learners that you are not searching for a ‘right’ answer.

Instead, you are seeking to find out what they think.

This helps you assess what they know, as well as the way in which they know it, because open questions generally require a more detailed response or explanation, all of which is information that gives you an insight into how your EAL learners are thinking.

In addition, open questions can help remove the anxiety that can be associated with having to find the ‘one’ right answer.

By using a mixture of open and closed questions, you signal to your EAL learners that there are times when the correct answer is required, and times when there is scope for sharing what you think the answer is, or the ideas you have about the topic.

Simple Questioning Techniques to Support EAL Learners: Example Two

EAL learners are, in many ways, just the same as other learners.

The key difference between them and their peers is simply the point on the continuum of English language development at which they find themselves.

Using these two premises – of similarity and difference – we can develop questioning that is closely tied to the needs of our EAL learners.

Differentiated questioning in this sense involves the subject of the questioning remaining the same, but the structure and the demands of the questioning being made simpler.

For example:

• ‘In what ways does the text convey emotion?’

Becomes:

• ‘How does this make you feel?’

With the follow-up question:

• ‘Why?’

We could then follow this with questions like:

• ‘Which bits make you feel like that? Can you point to them?’

Before continuing with:

• ‘What happens in those bits? Are they the same?’

and so on.

There are three points to note.

First, we can use a sequence of questions to scaffold an EAL learner’s engagement with the same content that the rest of the class are looking at.

Second, a simple way of differentiating your questioning for your EAL learners is to take a question you are using with the whole class and to break it down into a sequence of questions that are like the steps of ladder, leading your EAL learners to an answer for the original question.

It’s easier to take a series of small steps than to attempt a giant leap.

The accumulated thinking to which this gives rise helps your EAL learners get closer to what the rest of the class are doing.

It allows you and the learner to build understanding gradually. Each step comes after the thinking that has gone before. This makes the process easier and simpler.

Third, notice the use of concrete questioning as an additional scaffolding tool:

• ‘Which bits make you feel like that? Can you point to them?’

Concrete questions are nearly always easier to answer than abstract ones.

By asking the learner to point to the bits of the poem that make them feel a certain way, we are giving them a concrete focus that simplifies their engagement with the question.

Any time you want to make life easier for your EAL learners through your questioning, you can do this.