60 one or two words. Then, the teacher could not measure whether or not they
grasped the language points, because overall the students’ responses toward every question consisted only of one or two words. They did not produce longer answers
as what was expected because the teacher asked too many display rather than referential questions.
3. Students’ Responses toward Teachers’ Questions
Students’ responses were analyzed based on the number of words they produced, the way they responded, and the correctness of their answers.
a. Number of Words Students Produced
Previous research done by Brock 1986 and Ernest 1994 showed a positive correlation between asking referential questions and students’ production
of the target language but a negative correlation between asking display questions and the length of students’ responses. The results from the study about students’
responses toward teachers’ questionswere based on the number of words they produced to answer the teachers’ questions. They were also seen from whether
they gave the expected answer or not. It is presented in the table below.
Table 4.15: The Length of Students’ Responses for Different Types of Questions
Length of students’
responses One word
Two words Three words
Four words No. of
questions No. of
questions No. of
questions No. of
questions Display
Referential 55
1 41.9
14.2 10
2 7.6
28.6 7
- 5.3
3 -
2.3
61 From Table 4.15, it can be found that for one-word responses, there were 55
41.9 display questions asked, and 1 14.2 referential question. For two- word responses, there were 10 7.6 display questions asked by the teacher, and
2 28.6 referential questions. Furthermore, for three-word responses, there were 75.3 display questions asked by the teacher. There were no referential
questions asked by the teacher that produced three-word responses. For four-word responses, there were 3 2.3 display questions asked. There were no referential
questions asked that produced four-word responses from the students. Thus, this study reveals that when teachers asked both display and
referential questions, the students gave only short answers. They produced four words at the most. It happened sometimes as in Can you mention the name of an
animal?It was followed by the answer Elephant, tiger, lion. Or,Can you give me an example of a wild animal?It was answered with Lion, tiger, elephant. Another
example is Can you mention the name of a job that you know?It was answered withPoliceman, nurse, doctor, singer. Or, Give me an example of a part of your
body. It was followed by the students’ answeringHead, nose, ears, shoulder. Another long response given by the students was in What is the name of a
part of the body that is used for holding something?It was followed by a student’s long response Nose, ears, shoulder, hand. This happened because he did not know
the exact answer of that question. He kept on guessing until the teacher said yes to his answer. Another long response was in Indonesian words, so it does not count
in this study. When students produced long responses using Indonesian, they knew the correct answers of the teachers’ questions but they did not know the
English words of the answers, or they did not know how to answer it using
62 English. The teacher herself sometimes had difficulty in asking such questions to
make her students understand what she meant. At that time, she asked them a question by using Indonesian as in Pet disebut juga binatang?It was followed by
the students’ answering Binatang peliharaan. Or in Itis like a human being, seperti? It was answered Manusia, biasa memanjat pohon.
b. Ways of Responding
