An Investigation Into Teachers’ Questioning In Senior High School English Reading Teaching Based On Higher-order Thinking Ability Cultivation

The development of higher-order thinking skills has taken center stage in English teaching since the National English Curriculum Standards for General Senior High School(2017 Edition)(hereinafter referred to as the curriculum standards)were published.The curriculum standards makes it very obvious that teachers must assist students in using English to gain,explain,and grasp the content of the text,express their own opinions,intentions,and emotional responses,and cultivate critical and diverse thinking.The development of language competency in reading class begins with the acquisition of discourse knowledge,and teachers’ questioning is an essential tool for teachers to teach English.As a result,well-constructed questions in the English classroom can encourage students to learn effectively and cultivate their higher-order thinking ability.By reviewing the literature,the author finds that teachers’ questioning has a positive effect on the cultivation of higher-order thinking ability in English reading class.However,a more thorough investigation is still required to determine whether teachers can effectively pose questions in the classroom to cultivate students’ higher-order thinking ability.The two questions below are what this study aims to address:(1)What is the current situation of teachers’ questioning in English reading class to cultivate students’ higher-order thinking ability?(2)What are the possible reasons for the different proportions of higher-order questions and lower-order questions?This study makes use of classroom observation,questionnaires and interview.It is completed while the author works as an intern at a senior high school in Taiyuan.In the beginning,the author records the number and range of questions that the four English teachers pose in the 16 reading classes.To further investigate the current situation of teachers’ reading questioning design,the author then employs a questionnaire for students from the perspective of analytical thinking,evaluative thinking and creative thinking.Finally,the author finds various problems in teachers’ questioning through the teacher questionnaire and teacher interview.The author explores the reasons for them,and then put forward some suggestions.The study demonstrates that teachers can raise different types of questions in reading class to cultivate students’ higher-order thinking ability.However,the majority of the questions emphasize the development of lower-order thinking ability while lacks the development of higher-order ones,especially the cultivation of analytical thinking ability and creative thinking ability.The following are the possible reasons:Firstly,although most teachers concur that they may nurture students’ higher-order thinking ability through questioning in English reading class,some of them may feel that their theoretical knowledge of teachers’ questioning and higher-order thinking ability is insufficient.They are unable to raise questions that take the concept of higher-order thinking ability into account as a result.Secondly,students’ learning level affects teachers’ questioning.Thirdly,there is not enough time for teachers to cultivate students’ thinking ability due to the tightly scheduled teaching tasks and limited class time.It is concluded that in order to cultivate students’ higher-order thinking ability by questioning,teachers should improve their consciousness,make good use of question types,optimize question design and improve the questioning ability,and arranging teaching hours and class time in a reasonable way.