English Teaching skills- Questioning
English teaching is an innovative, creative way of teaching. Various skills are important for an English teacher. An English teacher should be resourceful, proficient, active. NEP 2020 recommends some changes in English teaching of India.
English teaching and NEP 2020:
• NEP 2020 emphasizes learning of English so as to give exposure to international culture and world heritage.
• It encourages constructivist approach. Children build their knowledge on their own.
• It emphasises on activity-based learning and learning-by-doing.
• It promotes conversational skills.
• Integrating grammar in practical contexts.
• It recommends technology like apps, games, virtual platforms, e-resources
One of them is Questioning. It is the important skill in classrooms. Questioning is a must skill for teacher. Asking questions while teaching in a classroom is a valuable tool of a teacher. It is a tool of formative evaluation. It helps teacher in many ways. It helps to evaluate students. It tells you whether the student have understood the content properly or not. It helps for skill development like listening, speaking, reading and writing. It helps teacher to check the effectiveness of teaching method.
There are various types of questions.
Questions:
• Closed questions: It has specific answer. Example- Does lack of exercise is reason of illness?
• Open ended questions: It is asked when in depth, qualitative information is required.
Example- What is your opinion about climate change?
• Multiple choice questions: The answer of questions must be selected from options given.
Example- India won — gold medals in Asian Games 2026.
a) 20 b) 15 c) 21 d) 19
• Probing questions: The question is inquiry to check critical thinking, gather deep, detail information.
Example- Can you suggest solution to this problem?
In everyday classroom situation a teacher has to ask many questions.
Let’s see few practical examples of questioning skill:
1) Teacher can ask questions as follows:
Example– Std 6 textbook, Unit 1.3 Secret plan of vegetables, deals with the importance of vegetables.
• Which is your favourite vegetable?
• Do you eat bitter gourd vegetable?
• What is the taste of bitter gourd?
• Why should we eat bitter gourd vegetable?
2) Questioning helps teacher to test previous knowledge of students.
Example– Std 6: Unit 2.1 Brother
The poem deals with the loving relation of brother.
Teacher can ask questions as follows:
• Do you have brother?
• How does your brother take care of you?
• How does your brother support you?
By these questions teacher connects the poem with the life of the students. They identify
brother mentioned in poem as their own brother. Students compare their own brother with the
brother in poem.
3) The lesson describes impact of Dhanraj’s leadership quality in hockey match.
Example- Std 4: Unit 1.4 Dhanraj Pillay
Teacher can ask questions like
• What is the quality of a leader?
• If you are a team leader, your team is under pressure then how would you support
your team?
Benefits of questioning skill:
• Students pay attention
• Develops listening skill of students
• Develops speaking skill of students
• Develops grammatical awareness in students
• Develops critical thinking skill
• Know understanding of students
• Develop creativity of students
• Develop confidence of students
Thus, we have learnt that questioning is an important skill for an English teacher. It is a valuable tool to bring effectiveness in learning of English.
Dr. Ashvini Madhav Palwankar
English Syllabus Committee Member, SCERT, Pune.