A Study On The Influence Of Teachers’ Questioning Strategies On Students’ Participation In Senior High School English Reading Classes

Teacher’ questioning in language teaching is not only an important source of students’ language input,but also a common form of interaction between teachers and students in classes.Teachers’ questioning strategies in reading teaching are the core force to promote reading teaching.Rational use of questioning strategies in reading teaching can stimulate students’ enthusiasm and initiative to participate in classes,help them read texts and improve their thinking level.Teachers stress the importance of students’ active participation in reading classes,but some students still cooperate mechanically in classes.Such inefficient participation is undoubtedly not conducive to reading teaching and interaction between teacher and students.After literature survey,it can be found that most scholars have conducted overall research on teacher’questioning strategies,but a few scholars have studied students’ expectations on them and the influence of teachers’ different questioning strategies on students’ participation,and there is a lack of research on the specific class type,section and subject of English reading classes in senior high school.Therefore,this dissertation is committed to investigating and understanding the specific deficiencies and influencing factors of students’ participation in senior high school English reading classes,investigating and analyzing the characteristics of teachers’ questioning strategies,and then exploring the influence of teachers’ questioning strategies on students’ participation,focusing on both the quantity and the quality of students’ participation,which is significant to improve students’ participation effectively,optimize the interaction in reading classes and improve students’ thinking quality.This study is based on six classes of students and six English teachers in a senior high school in Jiangsu province.The following three questions were discussed through classroom observation,questionnaire and interviews with teachers and students:(1)How about students’ participation in senior high school English reading classes?(What are the deficiencies and the influencing factors of students’ participation?)(2)What are the distribution characteristics of teachers’ questioning strategies used in senior high school English reading classes?(3)How do teachers’ questioning strategies affect students’ participation in senior high school English reading classes?This study is based on Krashen’s comprehensible input hypothesis,Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis and Long’s interactive hypothesis.First of all,through two questionnaires and classroom observation,a preliminary understanding of the deficiencies of students’ participation in reading classes and the influencing factors,the distribution characteristics of teachers’ questioning strategies and students’ attitudes and expectations towards them can be made.Based on classroom observation,the author analyzed the influence of English teachers’ questioning strategies on students’ participation from three aspects: the type of questioning,the waiting time after questioning and the way of questioning.Then,the auxiliary survey was conducted by interviewing with teachers and students.Finally,the collected data were classified and analyzed.The results of the study show that:(1)In senior high school English reading classes,students lack the support of enthusiasm and initiative,resulting in low students’ participation.The specific performance is that the overall quantity of students’ participation is low;The quality of participation is also poor,non-verbal participation is the main behavior of students’ participation.Students seldom take the initiative to participate,unwilling to explore and dare not ask questions.According to the research,the psychological characteristics of senior high school students,students’ individual English level and teachers’ questioning strategies may all cause this phenomenon,but the rational use of teachers’ questioning strategies can mitigate the negative effects of other factors effectively.(2)In terms of the distribution characteristics of teachers’ questioning strategies.High school English teachers will consciously set different number of questions according to different teaching stages in reading classes,but they set few challenging and exploratory How/Why questions according to reading texts;Students answer the questions in a single form,and the short waiting time is inconsistent with students’ expectations.(3)Teachers set more challenging and exploratory questions and give sufficient and reasonable waiting time according to the reading materials,especially,the waiting time of 5-8 seconds can be more conducive to improving students’ participation,including not only the quantity but also the language richness in the process of students’ participation.At the same time,using various ways of questioning to stimulate students’ enthusiasm and initiative can improve students’ participation effectively,stimulate students to think and discuss the text,and optimize the interaction effect between teachers and students in reading classes.In view of the above research results,the author tries to put forward specific suggestions to improve students’ participation in reading classes from the aspects of teachers’ questioning strategies,which can improve the deficiencies of passive,mechanical students’ participation in senior high school reading classes,help students think and explore reading resources more actively and conduct language output,so as to optimize the interaction and teaching effect of reading classes.