Echoic and Epistemic Questions by English Teachers in the Classroom

Abstract

Question has been used as an instructional strategy and has been considered a great teaching tool. The use of questions by teachers in the teaching and learning process accounts for the majority of class time. Thus, this study was conducted in order to investigate type of questions that frequently happened in the classroom by the teachers based on Long and Sato theory. The three English teachers from MTsN 6 Agam were the participants in this research. In this descriptive qualitative study, the researcher conducted an observation for every English teacher. This research showed that comprehension checks (a sub-category of echoic question) were frequently occurred in the teaching and learning process in the classroom. These three English teachers often mentioned that comprehension check questions in order to know whether the students understand or not.