| Questioning in classroom teaching refers to any teacher’s talk in rising tone or interrogative sentences to trigger students’feedback. The relationship between the effectiveness of EFL teaching and questioning, an essential teaching method, has always been the focus of studies that interest both language scholars at home and abroad. Since Stevens made a study of questioning for the first time in1912, quantities of theoretical or empirical studies relating to it have emerged. As the results of these studies show, questioning is the most important form of communication between teachers and students, through which teachers can get feedback and testify his achievement in teaching. At the same time, students get stimulated to generate language output by answering questions in order to acquire language. However, these studies are mostly theoretical studies and some empirical studies based on specific discipline rely mainly on class observation in universities. As to studies on questioning based on English in middle schools, only a few scholars make a study of it such as Yang Chunying(2007),Xu Qianjin(2010),Li Yuehong(2011)etc.The study not only combines questioning with English teaching, but also studies simply one type of English lessons, that is, reading lessons. It aims at finding out defects in questioning in reading lessons in senior high school and explore pedagogical suggestions subsequently so as to promote effectiveness of EFL teaching. Applying both method of observation and questionnaire, the study is conducted by observing five reading classes given by five teachers in Huangshi No.2Middle School in Hubei Province and collecting the data of them. By analyzing the data, it reveals the characteristics of questioning in these classes in the following aspects:(l)the total number of display questions and referential questions(2)teachers’wait-time (3)teachers’ feedback (4)teachers’ questioning techniques (5)the arrangements of students’ seats and the distribution of teachers’ questions (6)the forms of answering. The results of the study show that quite a few problems exist in effective questioning in the classes such as low application of referential questions, uneven distribution of questioning, insufficient time in wait-time, a lack of awareness of questioning from students and so on, which results in other problems. For example, student can’t be fully involved in the class; the communication between teachers and students can’t go smoothly; the efficiency of the class is not high as expected.The author therefore proposes corresponding questioning strategies and teaching advice. As far as a teacher is concerned, he or she should probe questioning deeply and systematically to master questioning strategies. For example, how to design effective questions, how to utilize techniques to raise questions and how to give the best feedback to promote students’language acquisition. Furthermore, teachers are supposed to develop students’awareness of questioning. Only when students volunteer to ask questions rather than they are obliged to ask questions can they become real masters of a reading lesson and can learn various reading skills effectively.The research on some degrees enriches studies on questioning strategies in middle schools, which is of positive significance and referential value to promote effectiveness of EFL teaching and cultivate students’autonomous, explorative and cooperative spirits under the background of New Curriculum Reform in EFL teaching in middle schools. |
PDF Full Text Request