The Use of Questions in EFL Writing Tutorial Discourse

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper examines the use of the tutor's questions in EFL writing tutorial. The data for the study include six one-on-one writing tutorial sessions in Korean. The analysis conducted within the framework of conversation analysis shows that the tutor's questions play various roles both in openings/closings and the main body of the tutorial: In openings, questions are mainly to estimate the tutee's writing difficulties, writing procedures, and previous writing experiences. In closings, questions are used for preclosings or reminding the remaining procedures. In the main part, questions are closely related to the pedagogical nature of the tutorial. The main functions include locating issues to be dealt with, clarifying unclear parts, confirming what is mentioned and suggested, and expressing doubts. In sum, questions in writing tutorial play a critical role for the tutor to accomplish interactional and pedagogical goals. The findings of this study can be useful for tutor training and also for a better understanding of college EFL writing tutorials as institutional discourse.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Previous Literature
• 3. Data and Methodology
• 4. Analysis
• 5. Conclusion
• References
• Appendix