A Case Study On Junior High School English Teachers’ Classroom Questioning Based On Turn-taking Theory

Classroom questioning is the main form of teacher-student interaction in classroom teaching,so it will directly affect the communication between teachers and students and thus affect students’ oral output.The turn-taking theory concerns the rules between speakers and listeners in conversations,the strategies of turn-taking,and how to make both participants deliver the corresponding output so that the conversation can proceed smoothly.It is identical to how teachers and students engage in conversational communication activities in classroom questioning.At present,theoretical knowledge about classroom questioning is abundant at home and abroad,mainly studying the classification,functions,and strategies of classroom questioning.Still,the practical research results are fewer,and most of the results are survey research and action research on classroom questioning.At the same time,few case studies of classroom questioning combine specific theories with classroom questioning are available.Therefore,case studies of English classroom questioning in junior high schools based on turn-taking are critical.This study investigates the features of junior high school English teacher A’ classroom questioning based on turn-taking theory and explores the effects of classroom questioning on students’ oral output.So there are two research questions:(1)What are the features of Teacher A’ s classroom questioning under the guidance of turn-taking theory?(2)What is the effect of classroom questioning based on turn-taking theory on students’ oral output?This study mainly adopts three research methods: classroom observation,questionnaire,and interview,and conducts a 16-week case study of junior high school English teachers’ classroom questioning based on the turn-taking theory with one English Teacher and 46 students in class A of a junior high school in Jiamusi City as the research subjects.The final results and discussion revealed that:(1)In the classroom questioning guided by turn-taking theory,Teacher A set more referential questions than demonstrative questions;in terms of questioning strategies,Teacher A used more follow-up and transfer questioning strategies;in terms of questioning wait time,Teacher A tended to control the wait time to more than 3seconds.(2)In the classroom questioning guided by turn-taking theory,Teacher A’ s classroom questioning had an impact on the complexity,accuracy and fluency of students’ oral output.Regarding the types of classroom questions,referential questions increased the complexity of students’ oral output,while demonstrative questions increased the accuracy and fluency of students’ oral output.Regarding classroom questioning strategies,the prompting strategy increased the accuracy of students’ oral output.In contrast,the follow-up questioning strategy increased the complexity of students’ oral output,and the transfer strategy increased the fluency of students’ oral.Regarding questioning wait time,three seconds or more would result in higher levels of complexity and fluency in students’ oral output.Based on the findings of this case study,the author suggests some pedagogical implications of this study including improving teachers’ own theoretical knowledge,using classroom questioning techniques flexibly and changing teachers’ roles.