Research Into Effect On Classroom Interaction Through Teacher Questioning In Senior High School

Many ESL researchers have regarded teacher questioning behavior as an important research constituent in many fields since the 1980s. Researchers studying teacher talk,teacher and student classroom interaction, classroom language learning and language use all feature teacher questioning behavior.The present research is motivated not only by the varying research findings in the literature,but is also prompted by the researcher's realization that hitherto within the context in China there has been few such empirical studies conducted to investigate the effects on classroom interaction through teacher questioning in Senior High School.The interaction between the teacher and the students is facilitating the implementing of language teaching.Teachers question has the function of controlling and mediating classroom climate.In the meantime,it is one of the main factors producing classroom interaction as well.This article tries to discuss the different types of teachers' questioning behavior and probe into their roles and effects in the course of the generation of ESL classroom interaction.Teacher questioning behavior in classroom contexts is a mundane activity.Pedagogically,for decades teachers of different subjects have used questions extensively to help them understand their students.In addition, particularly in second-language classrooms,questions get students to practice using the target language for a myriad of pedagogical purposes.The ultimate goal of studying teachers' questioning behavior,as the title of the present study illustrates,is to investigate their various effects on classroom interaction,since teachers' questions constitute a basic means of promoting target language production in most ESL contexts such as the one where the data were collected.The researcher adopted the naturalistic enquiry approach and also utilized three instruments of data collection,namely,a questionnaire, classroom observation and follow-up interviews to collect the data among teachers and students of two classes of Grade One in a Senior High School. And the data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively.The present study focuses on the issue of classroom interaction,which, as the title suggests,is related to teacher questioning behavior.By asking students different types of questions,teachers are able to engage students in various types of classroom interaction,which constitute opportunities to use the language for an array of pedagogical and communicative purposes.In other words,teachers' questioning behavior in an ESL context such as that in which the data were collected,generates most of the classroom interaction opportunities,and,to a large extent,determines the chances of student language learning and language development via classroom interaction.Enlightenments are gained that some types of teacher questions asked, the way the questions put forward,the proper tone-management and adequate walt-time in English classrooms,are all able to modify the interaction between teachers and students.The effective questions and questioning behavior should assist in making teachers' input more comprehensible to students,cultivating the students' ability of brainstorming,arousing their desire for knowledge and in getting students opportunities to interact with teachers so that they are able to use English with better linguistic production when communicating their meaning to others.Thus,active student participation in classroom interaction has been documented to be conducive to second language development.Therefore,a large variety of interactions promote the creation or recreation of meaning through language by ESL learners.Apart from this,student target language learning should be greatly enhanced if the student target language output is conveyed precisely,coherently and appropriately to the native speaker/hearer of the language.Therefore,the quantity and the quality of student utterances as answers to teachers' questions in classroom interaction are generally deemed crucial to student second language learning.Through the research,it is desired that the issue of teacher questioning and classroom interaction call great attention in the field of general education. As it cast light on the criteria for the effectiveness of teacher questioning,it made for sure the teachers are better directed and oriented.Thus,teachers arc expected to create optimum environments through interaction in order to develop learners' second language competence and help them become autonomous learners.