A Study Of Influential Factors And Tactics In Teachers' English Classroom Questioning In Chinese Vocational School

Questions and answers form a high percentage of classroom activities, and it has long been an important technique of language teaching. Appropriate employment of questioning strategies in a second language classroom is significant in improving the effectiveness of classroom interaction and the quality of student learning. Besides, it also helps to develop students' interactional competence as well as language abilities, and stimulates their initiative in participation and the use of target language. A large number of studies have been conducted by both Chinese and western researchers on this problem, and the research questions mainly concern 1) types and levels of questions 2) Principles of questioning. 3) factors that affecting questioning in second language teaching and 4) the use of various questioning strategies.This study applies the theories of second language classroom interaction and language use, employs a survey design, an interview and quantitative analysis, and tries to find the answers to the following research questions:.1) What are the influential factors in teacher questioning in an ESL class in a vocational school?2) What positive tactics should be employed in order to carry out effective questioning in a vocational school? The survey was conducted on 79 first year students of English ranging from 16 to 18 years old. The analysis on the data led to the following answers:Teacher's attitude, questioning skills, question-constructing and student participation greatly affect the effectiveness of questioning.Positive tactics that proved to be effective in classroom questioning include:(1) probing (2) directing (3)modification (4) positive feedback (5) Redirection (6)employment of wait-time (7) using a skillful hierarchy.The findings of this study indicate that English teachers should employ various tactics in conducting classroom questioning so as to develop students' interactional competence and their abilities in using the target language. Moreover, teacher's language used in classroom context should be adapted to students' ability and the goals of teaching, hence to create supportive atmosphere for participation. This study has also provided some suggestions for future research in this area.