A Study Of The Influence Of Teacher Questioning On Students' Oral Output In Senior High School Reading Class

Teacher questioning plays an important role in English teaching.Effective teacher questioning can trigger students' thinking and improve students' oral output.With the promulgation of new English Curriculum Standard for senior high school,people begin to pay attention to teacher questioning and try to find out relationship between teacher questioning and students' oral output.However,the influence of teacher questioning on students' oral output is still unclear.Therefore,this study tried to discuss characteristics of teacher questioning and find the influence of teacher questioning on students' oral output in senior high school reading class.Based on the IRF theory,relevance theory and interaction hypothesis,this study used the research methods of questionnaire,classroom observation and interview to explore research questions.The research participants are 4 English teachers and 150 students from Hangzhou X senior high school.The research questions are as follows:1.What is the characteristic of teacher questioning in senior high school reading class? 2.How does teacher questioning influence students' oral output in senior high school reading class?The contents of classroom observation were divided into two aspects.As for teacher questioning,the observation contents were:(1)questioning type.(2)questioning strategy.(3)wait-time.(4)teachers' feedback.As for students' behavior,the quantity and complexity of students' oral output were considered.The questionnaire for students contained 19 multiple choice questions which consisted of(1)students' attitude toward teacher questioning.(2)characteristics of teacher questioning in reading class.(3)factors which may influence students' oral output.The questions of the interview were designed from two aspects:(1)teachers' opinionsabout teacher questioning.(2)teachers' application of questioning types,questioning strategies,wait-time and teachers' feedback.This study has shown that current teacher questioning has the following characteristics:(1)in the form of questioning,teacher tends to ask special questions;in the purpose of questioning,teacher prefers to asking display questions;in the content of questioning,the implicit questions and explicit questions are more welcomed by senior high school English teachers.Meanwhile,most teachers believe that the main purpose of reading teaching is to let students understand the text,so they put forward a lot of display questions in while-reading stage.(2)most teachers lack the theoretical knowledge of teacher questioning strategies.They always ask questions based on personal habits,which is too casual.(3)the average wait-time of teachers is shorter than the expected wait-time of students.(4)teachers tend to use positive feedback,but the content of feedback is simple and the amount is small.Meanwhile,findings to second research question are as follows:(1)all question types promote students' oral output to varying degrees,but different types have different effects on the amount and complexity of students' oral output.When students answer specific questions,referential questions and beyond-text questions,their oral output is longer.Among all types,beyond-text questions are more likely to lead to complex oral output.(2)when using the promotion and self-explaining strategies,teachers are more likely to lead to student's oral output.Redirection can lead to longer,more complex students' oral output.(3)wait-time has no significant effect on the length of students' oral output.But when the wait-time exceeds 10 seconds,it has a positive impact on the complexity of students' oral output.(4)teachers' feedback has little effect on the complexity of students' oral output,and the appraise with expansion feedback is most likely to lead to students' oral output.This research also put forward some implications to contribute to the improvement of teacher questioning and students' oral output.