The Design and Effects of Online Contextual Student-Generated Questions for English Grammar Learning

Abstract

While academicians and practitioners both come to realize the positive effects of student-generated questions on learning and the importance of contextual learning for the teaching and learning of English grammar, the approach of combining the two is yet to be explored. In this study, a contextual student-generated question task is designed by providing a context for students to base their question-generation activities on. To examine the effect of the devised approach on student learning of English grammar and task performance, a quasi-experimental research study was conducted in two sections of a university English course (N = 95). The results of analysis of covariance showed that the group with and without a given context for question-generation activities did not differ in grammar learning performance, but the results of analysis of variance found the students in the experimental group (i.e., contextual student-generated questions) outperformed those in the comparison group (i.e., student-generated questions) in task performance in both fluency and flexibility dimensions.