An Empirical Study On Teachers’ Questions In English Classroom Communication In Vocational Colleges

Due to the global economic and cultural exchanges and other human activities, social interactions have become increasingly frequent; English has become the world’s most important lingua franca, which put forward higher requirements for English language teaching of vocational colleges. Therefore, how to develop English practicability of students and improve the practical use of English communicative competence in Vocational colleges is well worth considering. In order to achieve this purpose, the promotion of the classroom communication is very crucial. Because the classroom communication of EFL classroom can put greater impact on the quality of completing teaching objectives and students’communicative competence for the carrier relied on by communication is the target language that is still not fully proficient for students.Based on input hypothesis, output hypothesis and interaction hypothesis, the paper uses some relevant researches about teachers’ classroom questions to illustrate if it can achieve the purposes of classroom communication better, with teachers’classroom questions to improve classroom interaction. Combining the author’s practical experience in vocational colleges with some of the current status of vocational colleges in China, the author conducts a survey of100freshmen in Chongqing City Management College to understand the current status of students’ classroom communication of vocational colleges, and then makes an experimental teaching for two and half months in two classes taught by two selected teachers randomly. During the intervention in practice teaching, the author advises the teacher in experimental class consciously to ameliorate teachers’questions to improve the classroom communication, during which two instruments are employed:questionnaire and class-observation.The questionnaire concerning the teachers’classroom questions also shows that teachers use traditional teaching methods in the classroom. Teachers spend a lot of time in explaining the usage of the word, key sentences and syntax, and very few teachers give students the chance to communicate and interact. According to the survey, the existing main questions are the following:1. classroom questioning mainly focuses on display problems instead of referential questions, what’s more, fewer even no referential questions are raised;2. Strategies of question modification were relatively simple.3. Teachers’questioning distribution are unbalanced, generally speaking, teachers are in favor of a few extroverted and high achiever students.4. The teachers’ feedback towards students’answers are simple, and sometimes teachers even give no comments on students’answers. After analysis, the author finds that students’poor skill of classroom communication of vocational colleges is related with the teachers’ questions in the classroom. During the phase of intervention in practice teaching, the author mainly suggests that the teacher consciously improve questioning behaviors in the experimental class. For example, the teacher should put forward more referential or the higher-level questions which can produce information gap and negotiation of meaning and it is also easy for students to think abstractly to promote their oral communication. More strategies of question modification should be adopted to enhance students’comprehensible input. According to student’s responses or the actual communicative context, teachers should give students supportive or encouraging feedback to promote the conversation. In the control class, teaching methods remains unchanged.The comparison of data and in-class observation of the pre-test show that the use of teachers’questions and the level of classroom communication of two classes are similar, but the data and in-class observation of post-test show that the use of teachers’ questions has been improved and the level of classroom communication in experimental class is significantly higher than the control class. Therefore, the experimental results accords with the author’s experimental assumption that it is of great significance for teachers to ameliorate teachers’questions for better classroom communication and improve the quality of classroom teaching in vocational colleges. Accordingly, in order to further optimize the teacher questions to promote classroom communication, combining other factors influencing classroom communication, the authors gives some specific and concrete suggestions.