1. Teachers are concerned about how to prepare junior form students for school-based assessment taking place in S4. Teachers understand that besides preparing students to use different types of print and non-print materials, students are required to get used to an open culture for discussion and presentation. To encourage students to express their feelings and opinions, teachers’ questioning and feedback techniques are very important to stimulate students’ probing investigation and reasoned interpretation. However, teachers often ask closed-ended questions that don’t allow students to demonstrate their level of knowledge or lack of knowledge. The quality of response is also affected by the question’s content and how the question is asked. Feedback is also too general or not specific to assessment criteria.
   
   “Engaging learners in this inquiry mode of learning will enable them to explore their own feelings, develop their own responses and make their own judgements – crucial skills which they can apply to the understanding and appreciation of a wider range of imaginative texts.” (p.99, English Language Curriculum and Assessment Guide, Secondary 4-6). According to Callahan and Clarke (1988), the use of questions is one of the most important of all teaching techniques. Questions can be used to stimulate thinking, assess student progress, check on teacher clarity, motivate students and emphasise key points, etc. With the same importance, feedback is the most effective way to help students improve their performance.
   
   
2. Strategies used
   It is suggested that teachers use different levels of questions in lessons to develop students’ thinking skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy is used to categorise levels of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings.

Open-ended questions are used to help teachers understand students’ thinking process and promote discussion or student interaction. Higher level questions like questions requiring students to apply, analyse, synthesize or evaluate can stimulate students to think more deeply and critically.

Besides well-planned questions, how the teacher handles student responses is crucial to motivate students to develop, elaborate, clarify or justify one’s answers. The teacher can use the following recommended questioning techniques:

• Wait time: giving more time for thought or discussion before students answer
• Probing: getting students to think about a question in greater depth
• Redirecting: involving other students to comment on or correct the first students’ answer to encourage participation and peer learning
• Rephrasing: providing some information to help students come up with the answer or breaking the question down into more management parts

Formative assessment with quality feedback can enhance learning and teaching. It is important that teachers provide students with timely and constructive feedback on how to improve and work towards the learning objectives. Students can also be involved in self and peer assessment. Students feel responsible for their own learning and actively engage in the learning process.