Confirming Instructional Comprehension in Mass Teaching Lessons:

Focusing on Negative-Inducing Questions Used in Kindergarten

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of instructional comprehension in simultaneous instruction by clarifying the use of negative-inducing questions, which are often observed in kindergartens.

In simultaneous instruction, it is necessary for the teacher to grasp whether or not the learner correctly understands the instruction that is being given. “Confirmation of instructional comprehension” is a known method of checking whether the learner “understands” through “daring to make a mistake on the teacher's side” as a method of practical knowledge. This paper focuses on negative-inducing questions as an actual mutual action that corresponds to such practical knowledge and analyzes how it is used in a production scene in a young kindergarten class.

The findings of the analysis are as follows. First, the negative-inducing question is designed to prompt a response of negation by presenting a situation in which the difference from the prior instruction is made visible. The utterance asserting the difference from the correct state itself indicates a certain understanding of the teaching, and the response of negation makes it possible to further question the core of the teaching. Second, the confirmation of instructional under- standing through negative-inducing questions publicizes the knowledge being taught, thereby confirming the understanding of the group of preschoolers rather than the understanding of individual preschoolers. Third, negative-inducing questions can be used not only to confirm teaching comprehension, but also to encourage preschoolers’ participation in the teaching activity. Through the above analysis, we have shown that negative-inducing questions are used adaptively in the context of the teaching activity of production at the kindergarten level.