Research On Effectiveness Of English Teachers’ Classroom Questioning In Senior High School

Questioning is a major component of classroom teaching and an important means of teaching. Effective questioning plays an important role in improving teaching quality and is regarded as the core of effective teaching. Compared with other subjects, questioning is of greater significance for English teaching. English teachers’classroom questioning is not only a crucial source of comprehensible input, but also exerts an influence on the quantity and quality of students’ oral output. The effective English teachers’classroom questioning can promote teaching, improve students’communicative ability and increase the interaction between teachers and students.Scholars abroad and at home make substantial studies on classroom questioning, while studies on the effectiveness of questioning are relatively fewer and superficial. In recent years, more and more domestic scholars turn to realize the research value of effective questioning and have explored it from many focuses which are mainly on the definition, functions, influencing factors, the analysis of current situation and questioning strategies. According to the literature review, related studies on this topic are mainly conducted at a college level and there are fewer explorations on effective questioning in senior high school, and empirical studies which combine effective questioning with concrete subjects are much fewer. Therefore, the thesis selects a part of students and teachers in a senior high school as research subjects and investigates the current situation of effective classroom questioning and students’expectation towards teachers’classroom questioning through classroom observation, questionnaire and personal interview. The present study primarily explores three questions as follows:(1) What’s the current situation of the effectiveness of English teachers’classroom questioning in senior high school?(2) What’s students’expectation towards teachers’effective questioning?(3) What’s the effective ways of teachers’classroom questioning?Based on input hypothesis, output hypothesis, interaction hypothesis and constructivism theory, the thesis chooses six English teachers and their 157 students from my internship school as research subjects and investigates the current situation of the effectiveness of questioning through classroom observation, and probes into students’ expectation towards teachers’questioning through questionnaire survey. Finally, the author interviews with the six English teachers and several students and discusses some effective ways of classroom questioning. The research findings are as follows:(1) English teachers’ classroom questioning in senior high school is not quite effective:First, in terms of questions type, there are more display questions and text questions, while referential questions and real questions which can improve students’oral output and thinking greatly are relatively fewer; Second, for the way questions answered, nominating is the commonest way, but it is not advantageous to students’ learning initiative and bilateral interaction between teachers and students; Third, teachers’ wait-time is not adequate, which blocks students’complete thinking and oral production; Then, prompting is a questioning strategy teachers frequently use in class, while probing strategy can develop students’ thinking more greatly; Finally, teachers tend to supply positive feedbacks, but most of them are simple and mechanical.(2) Students’expectation towards teachers’questioning is not quite in line with teachers’ performance in actual class:Students expect teachers to pose more referential and real questions; They are fed up with nomination and more willing to answer questions voluntarily; Sufficient teachers’wait-time is favored by them; They prefer prompting and repetition strategies and wish for detailed explanations and comments.(3) There are many effective ways of teachers’classroom questioning:Firstly, teachers should design some key questions which can embody teaching structure and direction; Secondly, questions proposed should have specific purposes and must be expressed clearly and logically; Thirdly, questions should accord with students’ cognitive level; Fourthly, questions type should be diversified and more high-level questions which can develop students’ thinking should be posed. Teachers ought to propose different questions with different difficulty levels due to students’individual difference; Fifthly, teachers should encourage students to answer or ask questions initiatively and involve all the students in classroom questioning; Sixthly, they are expected to lengthen the wait-time appropriately, employ more probing strategies and less redirecting strategies; Finally, teachers should exploit effective and proper feedback techniques to offer students detailed explanations and evaluation.According to the research results, the author summarizes some implications on how to improve teaching quality, enhance interactions between teachers and students as well as develop students’ability by teachers’effective questioning, which aims to provide some references and thinking for English teaching in senior high school.