44 In class D, there was only one question using pure Indonesian. It was used
to check whether the students got a sufficient explanation about the topic as in Ok, jelas ya?
Thus, in the whole lesson, the teacher asked a lot of questions which served many different purposes by using pure English, mixed English and Indonesian,
and then pure Indonesian. However, in general, whether the teacher mixed the language or used full English when asking the students, the goal was to check
students’ understanding and knowledge of the subject matter and to elicit already known information acquired by the students.
b. Referential Questions
It has been stated before that a referential question is one which has no right or wrong answer because it invites students to draw answers from their
experiences and viewpoints. Teachers use referential questions because they do not know the answers and let the students provide the information Tsui, 1995, as
cited in Yang, 2010. Ellis 1994 also adds that referential questions are “genuinely information-seeking”.
The results from the eight classroom observations and eight videotaping sessions in class A,B,D, and E show that display questionswere the most
frequently asked in the classroom. There were too few referential questions asked by the teacher during the lesson. Here, an analysis of referential questions is
presented in the table below.
Table 4.2. Referential Questions Asked in Class A No.
Question
Type of Question
Students’ Responses
1. Ok, can you mention an example of a
pet in your house?
Complete verbal
… 2.
What is your pet in your house?
Complete
Cat, dog.
45
pronominal
3. What else?
Complete pronominal
Goat. Sapi. 4.
Do you have a puppy in your house?
Complete verbal
Yes.
5. What is its name?
Complete pronominal
… 6.
Can you give a description of your puppy?
Complete verbal …
The results of this study show that in class A, from a total of 60 questions asked in the whole lesson, there were only 10 of referential questions asked by
the teacher. From the six questions asked, there were 3 complete verbal questions and 3 complete pronominal questions. The first question was asked to find out
whether the students had their own pets in their houses. For example, Ok, can you mention the example of a pet in your house? The second referential question was a
repeated question of the first question, as in, What is your pet in your house? The third question was asked to check whether the students had any pet other than
what had been mentioned before as in What else? The fourth question was asked to gain information about whether the students had their own puppies at home as
in Do you have a puppy in your house? The fifth question was asked to know the names of their puppies as in What is its name? The last referential question asked
in this class was to find out a description of the puppies that the students owned at home as in Can you give a description of your puppy?
However, even though six referential questions were asked in the lesson, the responses that the students gave were only short answers. For example, when they
were asked about the kinds of pets in their houses, the responses were cat, dog. Or other responses were goat, sapi. Thus, the students did not give long answers to
the three referential questions asked by the teacher.
46 In class B, no referential questions were asked by the teacher during the
whole lesson. Different from class B, in class D, there was 1 referential question asked by the teacher to find out a student’s father’s job as in Bertho, what is your
father’s job? The question was a complete pronominal question. In class E, all the questions asked were display questions. There was no referential question asked.
2. Functions of the Questions
