A tanári kérdések vizsgálata az egyéni hangszeres órákon

Abstract

Teacher questions play a particularly important role in classroom interactions, and their functions
and types are well documented in the literature. However, previous research has mostly focused
on classroom discourse, while the characteristics of teacher-student communication in one-toone instructional settings remain less explored. The study presented in this paper investigates
teacher questions asked during individual instrumental music lessons. The research corpus
consists of audio recordings of six music lessons and their annotated transcripts prepared
using the Praat software. The study examined the duration of student talk, teacher talk and the
time spent playing the instrument, calculated the proportions of those durations, and identified
and categorized the questions. The quantitative analysis, similarly to findings from classroom
interaction research, confirmed the dominance of teacher talk: in each lesson, teachers spoke
for approximately 85% of the total speaking time. The questions were classified into five main
categories: personal questions, pedagogical questions, lesson-management questions, pseudoquestions and questions supporting self-assessment. While the frequency of these categories
varied across lessons, a notably higher number of questions was observed in the case of the
two youngest pupils. In line with the specific features of the instructional setting, a considerable
number of personal questions were identified. Pedagogical questions were mainly aimed at
recalling knowledge or facilitating recognition, while there were only few questions requiring
higher-order cognitive operations or supporting self-reflection. The results, in line with the
findings of previous classroom communication research, indicate the dominance of teachercentered communication. At the same time, one-to-one instructional settings offer even greater opportunities for open communication that promotes higher-order thinking and self-reflection
than group instruction. The findings of this study may contribute to further research and to the
development of communication practices in music pedagogy.