A Study Of The Relationship Between Teachers’ Effective Questioning And Students’ English Learning Motivation

According to the New Course Curriculum Standards, teachers should on one handcultivate students’ language knowledge, language skills, learning strategies, and cultureawareness. On the other hand, they should also cultivate students’ emotional attitude.Only when these five aspects are all cultivated, can students improve their Englishability. One of the most important factors of emotional attitude is motivation. That is tosay if teachers want to improve students’ English learning ability, they must inspire andcultivate students’ English learning motivation. Nowadays, students’ English learning islack of the authentic language speaking atmosphere. It’s important for teachers tostimulate students’ English learning motivation in class. However, classroom activity ismainly composed by teachers’ questions and students’ answers. So if teachers want toinspire students’ English learning motivation, they must be skillful in questioning.This thesis mainly uses students’ questionnaires to find out the factors that affectthe effectiveness of teachers’ questions and the change of students’ English learningmotivation. According to the results of the preliminary experiments, the author finds outthe original state of students’ English learning motivation, and assumes six factors thataffect the effectiveness of teachers’ questions. Students’ English learning motivation isclassified into five types, including extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation,achievement motivation, efficiency motivation and process motivation. The six factorswhich affect the effectiveness of teachers’ questions are (1) whether teachers havethought about learner differences and when to ask a question while preparing lessons,(2)whether teachers have used different types of questions and made the content interesting,(3)whether teachers have used different ways to call students to answer the questions,(4)whether teachers have given students’ proper thinking time while questioning,(5)whether teachers have used proper strategies while questioning,(6) whether teachers have used harmonious language while questioning and given students appropriatefeedback after students’ answering.In the latter experiments, the author tries her best to avoid the bad factors that mayaffect the effectiveness of teachers’ questions, and tries to turn these bad factors intogood ones, such as thinking about learner differences and when to ask a question whilepreparing lessons, using different types of questions and making the content interesting,using different ways to call students to answer the questions, using proper strategieswhile questioning, using harmonious language while questioning and giving studentsappropriate feedback after students’ answering. Through these attempts, the authormakes sure that there are only five factors that affect the effectiveness of teachers’questions, including whether teachers have thought about learner differences and whento ask a question while preparing lessons, whether teachers have used different types ofquestions and made the content interesting, whether teachers have used different waysto call students to answer the questions, whether teachers have used proper strategieswhile questioning, whether teachers have used harmonious language while questioningand given students appropriate feedback after students’ answering.According to the comparison of the data of the pre-experiments andpost-experiments, the author also finds out that students’ English learning motivationchanges tremendously, especially achievement motivation and efficiency motivation.That is to say teachers’ effective questioning can improve students’ English learningmotivation. In a word, in order to inspire and cultivate students’ English learningmotivation, teachers should try their best to improve the effectiveness of the questioningin classroom teaching.