1. Questioning Techniques of Primary CLIL
teachers
Elif Cavdar, student 3˚ Grade of Education (ELT), Huelva University
Introduction
Questions are the basic elements of the teaching and learning
process. By means of questions students can get the chance to
express their opinions about a topic and use the language freely,
so this contributes to make the education process more student-
centered. However,questions have not the same function , that’s
why they are usually divided into three categories ; namely,
authentic, test and non-classified questions. While authentic
questions can have many acceptable answers depending on So,the main purpose of this study is to examine and
students’ imagination and creativity, test questions have a limited grasp the types of the questions in different courses in a
number of acceptable answers just to evaluate students’ natural CLIL classroom setting. Besides, the study is to
knowledge. As for non-classified questions, they are asked to understand the nature of questioning processes during
keep the classroom operations moving and to emphasize a point the teaching of a content in the foreign language.
or to reinforce an idea or statement.
Bloom (1956) mentioned two types of questions : lower-level
and higher-level questions. Whereas lower-level questions,
Classes Test Authentic Non- TOTAL
referred to test and non-classified questions, are those asked at the
Questions questions classified
knowledge, comprehension, and simple application levels of
questions
Bloom's Taxonomy; higher-level ones, referred to authentic
questions, require complex application, analysis, synthesis, or
evaluation skills. Science 33 2 6 41
Physical 15 2 11 28
education
Total 48 4 17 69
Discussion
Methodology When we examine the table we can see that the
number of authentic questions is lower than the numbers
It was decided to make a research to find out what types of of the other question types. However, in previous studies
questions are asked in primary bilingual schools. In our study, we authentic questions are seen as the best questions to put
observed students at a primary bilingual school in Spain. students into the centre of the learning process and to let
We attended two classes in which the CLIL methodology was them use the language freely. The reason for this
applied , physical education and science. There were 24 students, difference in the numbers may be due to the cognitive
aged 8-9 in the science class who were in third grade. The physical and language levels of the students. They had a basic
education class consisted of 21 students at the ages 9 and 10 in background and lack of vocabulary about many topics so
forth grade. Their levels in the second language were beginner they are able to answer to mostly questions which have
and basic. Data have been gathered through the observation of one acceptable answer. For this reason, teachers often
these classes, which were video-recorded; an observation sheet asked test and non-classified questions to create the
was also used. students’background knowledge and put them into order.
For instance, the higher number of non-classified
Objectives questions in physical education class depended on the
dynamic class operation. Although aunthentic questions
The objective of this study is to show what types of questions, help student self-discovery , in our study they have a
how many questions and for which purposes CLIL teachers ask limited number. That is why teachers should find a way
during a class period.The term CLIL(Content and Language to use authentic questions step by step in the learning
Integrated Learning) refers to the teaching of content through the process, while giving them basic information.
foreign language. CLIL is sometimes referred to as dual-focused
education as lessons have two main aims, one related to a
particular subject or topic and one linked to language.
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