Teacher Questioning in English Speaking Classroom Interaction at Grade Eight

Abstract

This research aims to examine the types of teacher questioning and how those questions are realized in English speaking classroom interaction at grade eight ofSMPN 37 Medan. It employs a descriptive qualitative method. Data collection involved classroom observation and interview, The data consisted of teacher questions used throughou the teaching and learning process across four meeting,totaling 200 teacher questions from those sessions. The analysis followed the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldana, which includes data condensation, data display, and drawing and verifying conclusion. The findings show that the teacher used three types of questions based on Richard and Lockhart (1994), namely procedural, convergent, and divergent questions. Convergent questions were the most dominant (137 questions or 68,5 %), followed by procedural questions (56 questions or 28%), and divergent questions (7 questions or 3.5 %). This indicates that the teacher focused more on guiding students produce correct answers. Furthermore, the realization of teacher questioning was categorized into participation, accuracy, and fluency. Procedural question realized in participation, as they encourage students initial readiness to engage in speaking. Convergent questions realized in accuracy, as they guided students to produced correct responses based on the material. and divergent questions realized in fluency. However, the limited used of divergent questions reduced students’ opportunities to develop speaking fluency. In conclusion, the teacher’s questioning strategy emphasized accuracy more than fluency in classroom interaction.