Teachers' Questioning And Classroom Interaction

Teacher questioning is a frequent, universal, and pervasive practice in school classrooms. One of the most common forms of classroom interactions is initiated by teacher questioning. This paper aims to provide teachers with information on what kinds of questioning behaviors can facilitate the learning process so as to create an interactive classroom. The aims of questioning, question types, wait time, allocation of turns, the feedback and assessment that teachers provide all affect classroom interaction.However, few teachers are aware of the effects of teachers' questioning on classroom interaction. Thus, teacher-centered classroom instruction and their problematic questioning behavior evidently undermine the effectiveness of classroom interaction.According to social constructivist theory, language teachers should emphasize learners' active role, provide more opportunities for learners to use the language, and allow them enough wait-time to form meaningful responses. As mediators, teachers are supposed to help learners to react properly to teachers' purposeful questioning, to fully understand teachers' beliefs about questioning and to form their unique answers. Teachers also need to encourage their students to build up their self-confidence in taking the risks of answering questions. Similarly, proper feedback and assessment should be provided so that the .students feel confident of themselves and feel like taking risks to respond. To accomplish all these well requires teachers to know about the learners' personalities and individual needs.Based on the above considerations, this paper first gives an introduction. Chapter Two offers a literature review which includes theoretical considerations, previous studies of teachers' questioning and a synthesis. Chapter Three discusses the problems currently existing in EFL classroom interaction and the affectingfactors. Chapter Four focuses on the implication and application of teachers' questioning in classroom interaction. Chapter Five summarizes the whole paper.Effective questioning is promoted as a means of initiating, extending and controlling the conversational interactions within a classroom. This paper mainly illustrates how teachers' questioning affects classroom interaction. Some instructive suggestions are put forward that teachers should be more aware of the effects of questioning on classroom interaction and consciously monitor their questioning behaviors, for example, allowing enough wait time, balancing the allocation of questions, asking probing questions, building questions into lessons, shifting interaction, matching class questioning with assessment, creating a trustful atmosphere, using cueing during the lecture, increasing the number of referential questions and modifying questions appropriately, etc.