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can be grouped in different ways. Questions can, for instance, be: (1)  ‘closed’, with only one acceptable answer (‘What's 2 plus 2?’) or ‘open-ended’, with various possible answers (most ‘Why?’ questions); (2)  ‘echoic’, confirming/checking comprehension (‘Pardon?’) or ‘epistemic’, leading to knowledge acquisition (as in 3 below); (3)  ‘display’ (‘How do you spell “film”?’) or ‘referential’ (‘Why are you late?’); (4)  form-focus ed or message-focus ed. The questions asked are important in communicative language teaching as they affect student production and motivation. Research suggests (see Ellis, 1994 ) that EFL teachers use more closed, display questions than are asked in ‘real-life’ contexts. ( 1988 ). Second Language Classrooms . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press . ( 1994 ). The Study of Second Language Acquisition . Oxford : Oxford University Press 586 – 92 . * ( 1983 ). Classroom foreigner talk discourse: forms and functions of teachers' questions . In ), Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition . Rowley , MA : Newbury House , 268 – 86 . ... log in or subscribe to read full text