A Study Of The Effects Of Teachers’ Question Types On Students’ Oral Output In Senior High School English Class

Not only is teachers’ questioning an important part of the class,but also is one of the teaching skills widely used in the classroom.Effective teachers’ questions can increase students’ motivation to participate in class and promote their thinking,thus improving their English oral output.However,in the actual English classroom,questioning does not attract much attention from teachers.Therefore,this paper mainly probes the effects of different types of teachers’ questions in high school English class on students’ oral output,providing new insights for teachers to improve students,oral output ability,leading them to pay attention to and adjust the design and use of classroom question types in order to promote students’ oral output.Based on Long’s Interaction Hypothesis,Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,Swain’s Output Hypothesis as well as Krashen’s Input Hypothesis,this study used classroom observation and interview methods to examine 10 lessons from the 11 th National Senior High School English Demonstration Class,focusing on the two research questions in this paper:(1)What are the features of different teachers’ question types in senior high school English class?(2)What are the effects of teachers’ different question types on students’ oral output in senior high school English class?Through quantitative and qualitative analyses,the following three main findings emerged from this study:(1)knowledge questions were used most frequently and accounted for the highest proportion in high school English class,followed by comprehension questions.Synthesis questions,analysis questions,application questions,and evaluation questions ranked third to sixth and were used less frequently and in lower proportions.Most teachers were more likely to ask low-level cognitive questions than high-level cognitive questions.(2)In the process of instruction,the effects of different teachers’ question types on students’ oral output were significant,with students’ oral output being the highest for synthesis questions,and the differences in oral output arising from evaluation,analysis,application,comprehension and knowledge questions were not significant.(3)The complexity of students’ oral output was remarkably affected by teachers’ question types,with students’ responses to knowledge and comprehension questions preferring words or phrases and simple sentences,and responses to analysis questions preferring simple sentences.Students preferred to use simple and complex sentences to answer synthesis questions.When answering evaluation questions,students used only complex sentences.Low-level cognitive questions elicited more oral output of words or phrases and simple sentences,while high-level cognitive questions elicited more simple and complex sentences than words or phrases.Based on the above findings,this study provides new insights for improving the design of English teaching in senior high schools.In order to design effective English classroom instruction,senior high school English teachers need to be familiar with the role of different types of questions on students’ oral output.Not only are the teachers limited to the understanding and application of knowledge and comprehension questions,but also need to pay more attention to high-level questions and improve their teaching level theoretically in English classroom.Moreover,teachers should look for information relevant to students’ real-life scenarios in order to stimulate their background knowledge and interest in learning.Finally,in some occasions,it might be another optional way that teachers prompt students to express their thoughts with complete and complex sentences.