A Case Study Of Teachers’ Questioning In English Reading Class Of Senior High School From The Perspective Of Thinking Quality

National English Curriculum Standards for Regular Senior High School(2017 edition)makes it clear that thinking quality is one of the training objectives of English courses in senior high school.Therefore,the cultivation of students’ thinking quality in English classroom teaching has attracted the attention of more and more theoretical researchers and front-line teachers.This study takes thinking quality as the starting point,based on the teacher’s questioning in English reading teaching of senior high school.The case study method is used to solve the following research questions:1.How does the target teacher think about the cultivation of students’ thinking quality with questioning?2.What types of questions and questioning strategies does target teacher adopt in reading class to cultivate students’ thinking qualities?What are the influences of teachers’ questioning on the development of students’ thinking quality?3.What difficulties does the target teacher encounter in cultivating students’thinking quality by questioning in high school English reading teaching?Based on the research questions,the researcher selected one senior high school English teacher from a middle school in Hainan Province and 33 students from the class of the teacher as the subjects,and adopted the research methods of questionnaire survey,classroom observation and teacher interview to collect data to answer the above research questions.The study shows that the teacher has a basic understanding of the concept and functions of thinking quality.She can realize the importance of cultivating students’thinking quality,and attach importance to the role of questioning in the cultivation of thinking quality.The classroom observation of the teacher shows that six types of questions and questioning strategies are used when the teacher cultivates students’thinking quality by questioning in reading class,but she adopts the Understanding Questions and Probing Strategy most frequently,and adopts the Evaluating Questions,Creating Questions and Repetition Strategy least frequently.In addition,the teacher will use different types of questions at different reading stages in the reading class,supported by different questioning strategies,which will have the following influences on the development of students’ thinking quality.Remembering Questions,Understanding Questions and Analyzing Questions in the pre-reading and while-reading stages can help students associate the existing knowledge with the new knowledge,learning to explore and discover the knowledge actively,and construct the meaning of the knowledge actively,thus enhancing students’ logical reasoning ability.The Evaluating Questions in the post-reading stage can guide students to think critically in relation to real life,and help students to enrich or adjust their understanding,so as to promote the development of critical thinking.Applying Questions and Creating Questions in the post-reading stage can further improve students’ creative thinking and problem-solving ability by stimulating students to think divergently and discover and solve problems creatively.Finally,the teacher is faced with the following four difficulties when cultivating students’ thinking quality by asking questions in reading class:(1)the teacher’s question design and questioning ability need to be improved;(2)the limitation of class time;(3)the difficulty of cultivating critical thinking and creative thinking.Based on the above findings,this study proposes some instructive implications for teachers to correctly and effectively use questioning to cultivate students’ thinking quality in English reading teaching.