A Case Study Of Effective Questioning In A Junior High School English Reading Classroom

Questioning in the classroom refers to anything that the teacher produces in the form of a question or in an ascending tone in order to elicit feedback from students.As an essential teaching tool,the relationship between questioning and the effectiveness of foreign language teaching has been the focus of interest of language teaching researchers at home and abroad.Since Stevens’ first study of questioning in 1912,a large number of theoretical or empirical studies on questioning have emerged.These studies show that questioning is the most important form of communication between teachers and students in the classroom in foreign language teaching.The teacher gets feedback from the students by asking questions to test the results of teaching,and the students acquire language by answering questions to stimulate language output.The effectiveness of questioning has a direct impact on the effectiveness of the classroom.However,most of these studies are mainly theoretical,and some of the empirical studies are conducted in university classrooms,while only a few of them have conducted research on questioning in secondary classrooms and in the context of English.This study not only combines the study of questioning with the junior high school English subject,but also selects only one type of class,English reading class,as the object of the study.And based on the interaction hypothesis theory and dialogue theory,this paper discusses six aspects: the type of questions,the waiting time of questions,the strategies of questions,the feedback of teachers,the distribution of question areas and the forms of students’ answers.The study aims to identify the shortcomings of questioning in junior high school English reading classes and suggest improvements to promote classroom effectiveness.The research adopts the method of classroom observation and questionnaire to observe and statistics the classroom questioning situation of five junior high school English teachers in a middle school in Shifang,Sichuan Province.The research questions are as follows.1.What are the characteristics of the number and types of questions asked in junior high school English reading classes?2.What are the characteristics of questioning strategies in junior high school English reading classes?3.What are the characteristics of the waiting time and teacher’s feedback for questioning in junior high school English reading classes?4.What are the characteristics of the regional distribution of questions and the ways of answering in junior high school English reading classes?The results of the study showed that there are still many problems with the classroom questions in junior high school English reading classes: few reference questions,insufficient time for students to answer questions,uneven distribution of questions,and lack of students’ awareness of active questioning.These factors lead to the lack of students’ active participation in class,the lack of smooth communication between teachers and students,and the dull atmosphere in class.Many questions are not effective and the class is not efficient.The author explores and suggests appropriate teaching suggestions to address these issues.From their own perspectives,teachers should conduct in-depth and systematic research on classroom questioning,master effective questioning strategies,and understand how to design effective questions,what techniques to use to ask questions,and what feedback is best to facilitate students’ language acquisition.For students,teachers should develop students’ awareness of active questioning.In reading classes,only by turning students’ being asked into actively asking questions can they truly become the master of the classroom and be able to learn a variety of reading skills effectively in reading classes.This study has enriched the research on questioning in secondary English classrooms to some extent.In the context of the current reform of foreign language teaching in secondary schools in China,this study has positive significance and certain reference value for improving classroom efficiency and cultivating students’ spirit of “autonomy,inquiry and cooperation”.