Teacher Questions in Linguistically Constrained Situation: Lessons from to Primary Schools in rural Tanzania

Abstract

This article investigates the functions of teacher questions in Standard I lessons in two primary schools in Songea Rural District, Tanzania.  The data was collected through observation, using a camcorder.  In the communities where the schools are located Kiswahili is a second language, and the community uses mainly Kingoni which is an ethnic community language.  Using the Initiation-Response-Feedback framework of analysis, it has been possible to provide an account of what teacher questions as a teaching strategy achieve, and why sometimes teachers necessarily have to use them.  The article is critical of national language policies that provide statements with generalised assumptions, which often fail to address local linguistic realities.  The Tanzania’s national policy on the medium of instruction in public primary schools designates Kiswahili an exclusive role of the medium of instruction, ignoring the fact that Kiswahili is a second language to many people and particularly in remote rural areas of Tanzania.  The main finding is that most of the teacher questions in linguistically constrained situation are meant to cover-up silence which is otherwise undesirable in talk.  In such situations the immediate pedagogical and practical constraints force teachers to opt for strategies that will conceal silence in the classrooms.