The main aim of this chapter is to analyse uses and purposes of various types and structures of questions being used in social circumstances. Some things that are discussed include, what questions are, describing questions used in context and, power of questions and responses.
One claim of this chapter is that children ask a lot of questions because they are learning and trying to make sense of things. “This stage, questions play a crucial role in their learning and maturing process.”
One argument presented in this chapter is that questions are one of the most important things concerning communication. “Questions are the heart of social interaction.” They give us power and potential.
I agree with most of the ideas and arguments presented presented in this chapter i.e. questions being the centre of communication. However I disagree with the study about children being at ease with answering/asking questions being “males, whites, higher-income…” This may be the case in some classes but not all and shouldn’t be used as a factor.
There were a few words I didn’t know the meaning of so I looked up the definitions, i.e. “cognitive” being the mental processes of perception, memory, judgement and reasoning.
Some concepts in this chapter include responses, probes and pausing. Pausing is a silent probe that can encourage thought, questioning or even getting the pupils to fully concentrate.
overall i think this chapter was very insightful into the way we use questions and the reasoning behind it.
References
Hargie, O. (2011) Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory and Practice, 5th ed. London: Routledge.
