TEACHERS' QUESTIONING BEHAVIOR IN GRADE 9 ENGLISH CLASSES AT GOH AND METSER SIDA SECONDARY SCHOOLS.

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to identify teachers’ questioning behavior in English classes at Goh and Metser Sida secondary schools. To this end investigating teachers’ questioning behavior in English classes at grade nine was the objective of the study. To gather the necessary data 260 students were taken from the total 756 students using systematic random sampling technique and all 12 EFL teachers were taken as participants of the study since their number was few. In attaining the above objectives data were collected using three instruments: questionnaire, semi-structured interview and classroom observation. The questionnaire data were collected from student respondents respectively. Whereas, interview data was collected from teachers respondents. Two times observation was made in gathering the observations data from teachers. The collected data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings reveled that showing good questioning behaviors facilitate students’ language learning. Similarly, asking open type of questions frequently in English classroom develops students’ communicative skills and so on. However, in the context of Goh and Metser Sida Secondary Schools, the actual practice of asking question in EFL class seems ineffective. This is due to the knowledge and skill gap on teachers’ questioning. Teachers were ask questions without using questioning strategies such as asking unclearly phrased questions, do not modifying questions when it is not clear for students, do not encouraging students after giving answer, do not giving enough wait time to think for answers, do not choosing appropriate type of questions for communicative language learning EFL etc. In the light of these findings it was concluded that this type of questioning behavior can harm students’ English learning. For instance can decrease students’ classroom interaction, do not help students communicative language learning, decrease students critical thinking ability etc. Finally, the following recommendations forwarded: teachers should use various strategies of asking questions, teachers should show good questioning behaviors which attract students’ attention toward the lesson and teachers should use different type of questions for different language learning purposes.