Questioning to elicit inferential responses: a study of teacher-child linguistic interactions during block play activities in Chinese kindergartens

Research Findings: This study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine how kindergarten teachers in China stimulate literal and inferential responses during block play. The quantitative study analyzed interactions in 17 randomly sampled classrooms from Guangzhou, observing one teacher per classroom. Using visual recording and non-participatory observation, we found four key results from ANOVA analyses: (1) teachers produced more utterances (n= 4,629) than children (n= 1,798), with 61.55% being comments and 38.45% questions; (2) teachers predominantly asked literal questions (78.77%), mirrored by children’s responses (75.71% literal); (3) a significant alignment existed between teachers’ inferential questions and children’s responses, termed “responsive interaction”; and (4) degree-holding teachers asked more questions, fostering more interaction and child responses. The qualitative study examined four successful and three unsuccessful cases to understand how teachers’ questions either scaffolded or failed to scaffold children’s inferential responses. These findings suggest that teachers’ inferential questioning elicits more inferential responses, with degree-holding teachers facilitating more responsive interactions. Practice or Policy: Degree-holding teachers’ inferential questioning enhances children’s inferential responses, emphasizing the importance of teacher education in fostering responsive interactions.