The Purposes of Language Teachers' Questions

This article illustrates a three-level analysis of classroom discourse as a means of examining in detail the implications of characterizing language teachers' questions as display questions. In particular, it attempts to demonstrate that the characterization of teachers' questions as display questions because they are non-referential is only relevant on one level of analysis. By using a three-level analysis, it has been possible to challenge a negative characterization of the exchanges initiated by teachers' questions, which were said to be purposeless in one pedagogical setting.