The Importance of Questions For non-native speakers o

Non-native speakers of English, like their native counterparts, usually find that the opportunity to participate in group discussions is one of the most valuable aspects in their whole academic programme. But in order to obtain full value from this type of activity the student must be proficient in asking questions. If he isn’t, then any attempt to resolve his difficulties may lead to further confusion, if not considerable embarrassment.
   Some students who are not fluent in the language find that in the early stages of their course there are frequent breakdowns in communication. There are? of course, many possible explanations for this. The student may not have a sufficient command over the grammar and vocabulary of English to enable him to express himself clearly. He may, on the other hand, have a poor pronunciation. Factors such as these, of course, require urgent and persistent attention on the part of the student. But a very frequent cause of misunderstanding in discussion sessions and one which can much more easily be put right, is the teacher’s uncertainty whether his student has, in fact, asked a question at all. What often happens is as follows. The student, puzzled about a particular point, decides to ask a question. As so often happens when under pressure, he tends to concentrate most of his attention on the subject matter and he pays practical[y no attention to the language. Consequently he fails to employ the correct question form. For example, he may use a statement form instead. The result is predictable. The teacher interprets the intended question as a comment. He then either agrees or disagrees with it, or he continues with what he was saying before.
   However, even when the student does employ an appropriate question form, difficulties may still arise. The teacher may not know, for example, what the source of the student’s difficulty is. The basic difficulty may, in fact, be one of the several different types. It may lie in the student’s limited aural perception, in other words, the student may not have clearly heard what was said; or it may lie in his insufficient linguistic knowledge, that is to say, he may not have understood the English that his teacher employed; or alternatively, it may lie in his lack of knowledge of the subject matter itself, i.e. he may not have worked out the meaning of a point in relation to the special subject. Each type of difficulty requires a different kind of question If the student, for example, does not clearly specify that his difficulty is that he did not quite catch what was said, then the teacher is quite likely to give an explanation in terms of the subject matter. All what is really necessary in such cases is a simple repetition of the original statement.
   Next, a student must ensure that his teacher is clear about exactly which point he is referring to. To put it in another way, the question must be specific. In order to be absolutely precise, it is a good idea if students preface their questions with an introductory statement. They might say, for example, something like the following: "I don’t understand the point you made at the beginning of the discussion about cost inflation. Could you explain it again please?" The teacher is always in a position to give a satisfactory answer to this form of question without any waste of time. He knows what type of difficulty the student has--one of subject matter. He knows where the difficulty occurs--at the beginning of the discussion. And he knows precisely what point the student refers to--cost inflation.
   Perhaps, before concluding, one further example may be helpful. When a student is given the opportunity to ask questions on a text, he must be particularly careful to locate the exact point. Thus, "Page 3, three lines from the top, the word ’straightforward’. Would you explain it to me please?" is clearly a better question than the utterance and the nature of the difficulty. All this is, of course, common sense, but it is surprising how often students ignore it.
   Finally, one point should be mentioned before we leave this subject. The correct use of the question form is important for another reason than basic communication. It is often necessary to employ it because not to do so would be rude. The non-native speaker is normally well aware of this, but when he is nervous and is struggling with new subject matter in a foreign language, he may sometimes find himself using the imperative instead of the interrogative form. Learners of English have, for example, said to me such things as "See me here tomorrow" or "Explain this". Fortunately, as I dealt with non-native speakers and as I understand their language problems, I interpret this as inadequacy in the language rather than rudeness. Other teachers, however, may feel angry at receiving such orders. It is important, therefore, to practice the necessary question forms in order to avoid such problems.