ABSTRACT
Questions is perhaps the most thoroughly researched area of classroom learning. This is probably because it is the most distinctive feature of classroom discourse. A lesson is a speech event where people come together and engage in an activity referred to as “learning.” Lessons are organized in such a way that there is at least one person in the classroom who is the “primary knower” (Berry, 1987) and who is responsible for disseminating knowledge to the others. 1 The knowledge gap between the “primary knower”—that is, the teacher—and the “secondary knower”—that is, the students—vests authority in the former in determining the direction that the lesson will take, the activities that will be conducted, the questions that will be asked, and what constitutes appropriate answers to these questions. When a teacher asks a question, the purpose is not to obtain information that the teacher does not have, but to check whether the students have the missing information indicated in the question. When a teacher asks, “What time is it, Johnny?” Johnny knows that he is supposed to tell the teacher the time even though there is a big clock on the wall that everybody can see. If Johnny says, “Well, look at the clock on the wall,” or if he puts the question back to the teacher, “What does the clock say?” the class knows that Johnny is heading for trouble.
