A Study On The Cognitive Level Of Junior High School English Teachers’ Questioning In Reading Class

Teachers’ questioning in English reading class can facilitate students’ understanding of reading texts and activate their language output.Meanwhile,teachers’ questioning in different cognitive levels directly affects the development of students’ thinking competences.Based on Activity-based Approach to English Learning(AAEL),Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(BTEO)and Interactive Theory,this paper aims to explore three research questions: 1)What is the general cognitive level distribution of junior high school teachers’ questioning in English reading class? 2)Are there any differences on cognitive level of English teachers’ questioning in reading class? What are the reasons? 3)What difficulties do junior high school English teachers encounter regarding cognitive level of questioning in reading class,and how do they solve the problems?Based on the 452 valid questionnaires,four junior high school English teachers in Qingdao were selected as participants in classroom observation and interviews.The research results show as follows: To begin with,it was found from questionnaires that teachers had a generally nice evaluation on their questioning in reading class.Whereas,most of the teachers asked questions in low cognitive levels.This phenomenon has no apparent relationship to teachers’ seniority,professional titles,educational background,teaching awards,etc.But education policy and students factors affect it to some extent.What’s more,it was found from classroom observation that there were no significant differences among the four observed teachers in cognitive level distribution of their questioning in reading class,while relatively novice teachers intended to ask questions in high cognitive levels.Reasons were found from interviews that experienced teachers designed questions based on their extensive teaching experience and students’ learning condition,targeting at the first two stages of AAEL,i.e.consolidating students’ learning and understanding as well as applying and practicing thinking activity,whereas less questions were designed to challenge students’ knowledge transferring and innovative thinking.On the other hand,though novice teachers were lack of teaching experience,they have more exploration spirit.Specifically speaking,they were willing to apply innovative teaching methods and put forward questions in high cognitive levels.In addition,based on teacher interview,there were discrepancies between teachers’ theoretical learning and practical teaching.The reasons can be attributed to teachers’ insufficient understanding of AAEL and BTEO,as well as lack of classroom implementation.Based on the research findings and previous studies,suggestions were summarized and put forward: 1)Teachers should study the major contents of the new curriculum and reinforce the learning of AAEL and BTEO.2)Teachers should be aware of students’ learning situation,understand students’ needs and learning situation,so as to establish a democratic and harmonious teacher-students relationship.3)Teacher’s questioning should be suitable for students’ capacities and challenging enough to promote students’ high cognitive thinking ability.4)Students should strive to learn basic English knowledge and skills,and be sensitive to questions.This study still has limitations such as insufficient classroom observation hours,classroom observation is lack of video recording.However,this study combines the AAEL and BTEO to explore cognitive level of teachers’ questioning,which can provide inspirations for further research on expanding the theories of cognitive level of teachers’ questioning.