Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

English Today gives some idea of what is possible.
The third point is that it is important that all the aspects of
reading, all the various kinds of relationship, between words
in the text, between grammatical constructions, between
logical and rhetorical elements, between the author and the
reader and the text should be covered by the questioning.
Clearly for some texts one aspect may be more important
than another but there is something to be said for

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Reading
103
maintaining a kind of check list to ensure that at some point
every aspect receives due attention. On Page 104 you will
find a summary list which may be used in this way.
The fourth point the teacher needs to bear in mind when
using questions to help pupils to understand what they read
is that the form in which the question is put may have a
bearing on how easy or difficult it is for the pupil. For
example there are those structural patterns of question
which lead to the answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The first of these are
the ordinary ‘general questions’ (Did the man beat the dog?
Did the aircraft arrive on time?). Then there are those which
have the word order of a statement but have a rising
intonation which gives them question value (The aircraft
arrived on time?), and there are also a range of different
kinds of ‘tag question’ (The aircraft arrived on time, didn’t
it? The aircraft didn’t arrive on time, did it?) The structure of
such questions is closely related to, often paralleled by the
structure of the sentences of the text, and the one-word
answers ‘Yes’, ‘No’ are about as simple structurally as it is
possible to get in English so that from a purely structural
point of view such questions are very easy.
The second formal pattern is that which requires as minimal
response a short phrase or word group, not just ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
A great many Wh—questions belong to this category. (When
did the aircraft arrive?—at 3.46. Who were issued with
weapons?—The men.) Similarly alternative questions with or
are often of this kind. (Were the men soldiers or civilians?—
Soldiers.) However alternative questions may also require full
sentence or clausal answers—see page 104. Questions which
require short phrase answers are slightly more demanding in
structural terms, but even these have a structure which is
related in a clear and regular way with the structure of the
sentences of the text. The structure of the replies can usually
be taken ready made from the text.
The third formal pattern is that which requires as minimal
response a clause or full sentence. Questions beginning with
‘Why?’ or ‘How?’ are frequently of this kind, and one of the
most insidious is ‘What does…mean?’ (Why were the men
issued with weapons? Because they were going on a raid.
How does an ammunition clip work? The clip consists of…
Perhaps almost a whole paragraph of explanation may be

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Reading
104
required. What does wave mean? In this passage wave means
the body of men who move into position against the enemy.
And an alternative question with or might be Did the men get
into position first or did the aircraft arrive first? The men got
into position first.) Here the relationship between the
structure of the question and the structure of the passage—
except in the case of alternative questions—is rarely clear cut
THE DIMENSIONS OF QUESTIONS USED TO HELP PUPILS
TO UNDERSTAND WRITTEN TEXTS BETTER
I
DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING
1 of plain sense within the text
2 grammatical relationships within the text
3 lexical relationships within the text
4 logical relationships within the text
5 rhetorical relationships within the text
6 relationships between the author and the text—attitude,
purpose, etc.
7 relationships between the reader and the text—reactions,
prejudices, projections, etc.
8 evaluation and acceptance
II STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY