The Role of Chapter-Final Interrogatives in Lao Primary Textbooks: A Syntactic and Discourse Analysis

This qualitative document analysis aims to analyze the linguistic features of end-of-chapter questions in the newly revised Lao language textbooks for primary education. The sample for analysis comprised 98 end-of-chapter questions selected through purposive sampling from the grade 3, grade 4, and grade 5 textbooks in Lao. The research instrument was a linguistic feature analysis form developed by the researchers based on Lao grammatical theory and linguistic principles, designed to classify word types (e.g., interrogative words, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs) and sentence structures. The findings indicate that the linguistic features of the questions exhibit a systematic progression across grade levels. In Grade 3, the questions predominantly use foundational language, featuring concrete vocabulary and simple sentence structures to solicit basic information (“Nyang” (what), “Sai” (where), “Phai” (who), “Nyon Nyang” (why), “Naeo Dai” (how)). In grade 4, there is an initial introduction of abstract language and more formal imperative language. By grade 5, there is a clear use of analytical and formal language, employing terms such as "main concept," "objective," and "relate," along with more complex sentence structures designed to stimulate higher-order thinking skills. This variation in vocabulary and sentence structure reflects a curriculum design strategy that aims to progressively develop students' linguistic and cognitive skills in a scaffolded manner, moving from a foundational to a more complex level.