A Study On Questioning Strategies In English Class Of Senior High School

Questioning strategies, the necessary skills every teacher should acquire andevery effective class should possess, are becoming increasingly important. With thenew curriculum carried out, teachers’ role has turned from guidance to conductor inthe class. Questioning strategy acts as a thread running through the class, for there isno class without questions. Therefore, what to ask, when to ask, how to ask, who toask, how to give feedback and so on, these questioning strategies are to be taken intoconsideration, because the effectiveness of English class depends on the proper use ofquestioning strategies to a large degree.Questioning strategy is regarded as a kind of teaching art in English classrooms,for questions play such a significant role. They can stimulate the students’ learningdesire, check their revision, practice their English skills, and improve their way ofthinking. In reality, however, there are so many problems in employing questioningstrategies. The questions are not fully prepared, either too easy or out of reach;questions are asked at random, not functioning as they should have been, the waittime is either too long or too short; the feedback is not enough, etc. Thus, in order toimprove the effectiveness of English class, we have to get a clear idea of questioningstrategies and apply them to practice.Based on the previous studies, which are related to question types, wait time,teachers’ feedback, this essay intends to study what kind of questionsthat teachers usually ask, what kind of feedbacks the students will have on each kindof questions, and how shall teachers give feedbacks to students’ answer in Englishclass. This thesis attempts to answer the following research questions:(1) What types of questions teachers usually ask?(2) What are the learners’ responses to each type of question?(3) How shall teachers give feedback to students’ answer? To answer these questions mentioned above, three methods are adopted. They arequestionnaire, interview and class observation. In order to ensure the objectivenessof the research, both qualitative inquiry and quantitative study are employed.Meanwhile, there are four theories to support the research: constructivism, zone ofproximal development, Krashen’s Input Hypothesis and Swain’s Output Hypothesis.These theories are of great help in carrying on the research.After four weeks of class observation and interviewing teachers as well asstudents, analyzing the data collected from the questionnaires and notes from theinterviews as well as class observations, the author summed up some pedagogicalimplications, which are hoped to be of some help to teaching.The Open and referential questions should be asked more and every questionserves a function. A question should be challenging to the student who answers it andsome questions are to be answered individually, some are together, some are in groups.It is better not to answer in turns, for it provides an opportunity for the students torelax and think wild. The wait time should vary from open questions to referentialquestions, and feedbacks should be various too. Questions are supposed to be plannedvery carefully ahead of time but be employed flexibly in class. Questions should bedesigned to arouse the students’ interest and close to students’ life. In the end, thethesis mentions some of the limitations in this study and some suggestions are givenfor further study.The structure of this thesis falls into six chapters. ChapterⅠis an introduction ofthe thesis; chapterⅡis the literature review, some related researches on this topic;chapter Ⅲ is the theoretical framework which support the study; chapter Ⅳ is theresearch design of this research; chapterⅤis about the major findings and discussionsafter the study; the last chapter is the conclusion drawn from the study in whichimplications and limitations are mentioned in this chapter.