A Study On Teacher Questioning In English Classroom Interaction In Senior Schools

Interactive teaching is a dynamic composite of energies within the teaching and studying between teacher and students in the classroom (Brown, 2001). Classroom interaction is a teaching process that the teacher acts as the dominant role to inspire and guide the students who act as the principal role to learn. Ellis (1990:125) thinks that teachers have the ultimate responsibility for managing classroom interaction. As an organizer, a promoter or a director, the English teacher plays an important role in the stimulation and initiation of the students'participation energetically in the classroom activities. Recently, more and more researchers are becoming interested in the study about English classroom interaction of senior schools. Some researches insist to ease the classroom anxiety, to improve the students'psychology and to strengthen the students'confidence to promote the classroom interaction from the perspective of education and psychology. The thesis relies on the teachers'action---- from the perspective of teachers'Questions to study how to improve English classroom interaction in senior schools.During the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of researchers have concluded that teacher questions which are the composites of teacher talk play an important part in the language teaching, and they have attracted a lot of researchers'attention. The Standard of the New Curriculum requires embodying the students'principal part all the time during the course of English teaching. It requires the teachers to stimulate and initiate the students'learning enthusiasm, arouse the students'learning interest, and build a comfortable and harmonious learning atmosphere during the teaching. It means that the teachers should pay more attention to the dynamic exchange of information among students and between teachers and students during the teaching, and should treat the students as a main part of learning and take the classroom as the space of students'cooperation and exploration actively and energetically. It regards the English teaching as an interactive process and a developing relationship between the teachers and the students. The teacher should optimize the interaction to realize the purpose of the classroom interactive teaching, all the purpose above will be realized by teacher questions.The study employs class observation, questionnaires and interviews by teachers and the students to collect a lot of precious data and materials. Based on the observation and analysis of teacher questions in the English classes, the writer summarizes question types, question modifications, wait time, feedback, and question distribution and interaction. The findings indicated that one of the most important forms and factors that influence the interaction is teachers'questions, i.e., the appropriate employment of questioning strategies in English classroom is significant in improving the effectiveness of classroom interaction, the students'learning interest, strengthening the students'participation, communication and cooperation, constructing the students'English knowledge and abilities, and improving the effectiveness of classroom teaching. Besides, it can cultivate the initiative both the students'learning and teachers'teaching, strengthen the emotion communication, and it can also regulate the relationship between the teachers and the students, and it can make the students study from the practice, it can further contribute to the development of the students'interactive competence, improve the interactive abilities and at last realize the students'the English proficiency.Specifically, teachers should employ effective question strategies, serve enough quality and high quantity questions to realize the interaction; finally, we can achieve the interactive teaching actively and effectively.