| Summary: | Oral ability is a fundamental part of children’s literacy development, as is observed in the Swedish curriculum with its requirement that teaching should help pupils to develop a multifaceted oral ability. The teacher is responsible for supporting this development in various ways. The aim of the study is therefore to ascertain how teachers use questions in their interaction with pupils and how the subsequent conversation creates the conditions for developing oral skills. Systematic observation combined with transcriptions of audio recordings was applied to analyse question types and dialogue as used by two teachers in compulsory school. The observations were made in grade 5 and 6 during lessons in civics, geography and Swedish. The results of the study show that closed questions with open, guiding questions occurred most frequently. The ensuing dialogue was usually short, but when support was given it created conditions for the development of oral skills in the pupils. The results underline the importance of teachers reflecting on which questions to ask in the classroom and how the interaction regarding questions supports the development of pupils’ oral abilities.
|
|---|
