Teacher Questioning Behavior And Students' Oral Production

Teacher classroom questioning is one of the most frequently used interactive processes. Question type, question distribution, questioning strategy, wait-time and feedback would greatly influence the fluency and accuracy of students' oral production. On the other hand, teacher classroom questioning behavior has effects on students' motivation, self-esteem and anxiety.Based on the 'Input Hypothesis', 'Interaction Hypothesis' and 'IRF Pattern', the author conducts empirical research to investigate the effect of teacher questioning behavior on students' oral production. The subjects in this research are two randomly selected English teachers and their students in Grade 1 from ChaLing No.2 Middle School. One teacher and her students comprise the control group, while another teacher and her students comprise the experimental group. This research is divided into three procedures: pre-test, intervention in practice teaching and post-test. During the first two weeks, the whole process of six periods of English class by each teacher was recorded and field notes were taken. Intervention in experimental teacher's practice teaching began from the third week. This intervention lasted for one and half months. Post-test and data analysis were done at the end of the semester. At that time, teacher questioning behavior and students' oral production in class during the intervention were summarized. The findings and results obtained through classroom observation, questionnaire survey and in-depth interview are summarized as follows: 1) referential questions are more useful to elicit students' oral production 2) the students who have more opportunities to respond to teacher's questions tend to speak more fluently 3) adequate wait-time does good to fluency of students' oral production 4) clues or hints provided by teacher to student's response help to improve accuracy 5) positive feedback and assessment will boost student's motivation and reduce anxiety. Among them, the response opportunity and clues or hints exert more obvious effects on students' oral production, particularly the intermediate-level students.With regard to teacher questioning behavior in class, the author gives some feasible suggestions from four perspectives. It is hoped that English teachers change the traditional way of teaching, and adopt scientific and artful questioning behavior, so as to complete teaching task with high quality.