A Study Of Classroom Interaction Features-from The Perspective Of Teacher Questioning

Classroom interaction is very important to EFL (English as a Foreign Language)learners since it determines whether the students learn effectively. An activeclassroom interaction would certainly attract the students’ involvement in classactivities so as to promote their language output. Therefore, classroom interaction hasbeen a focal point in EFL teaching．Meanwhile, teacher questioning plays animportant role in classroom interaction. Over the past few years, teacher questioninghas been focused by more and more researchers because it can sustain and initiateclassroom interaction. However, most of the studies simply research on classroominteraction or teacher questioning, the present study focuses on classroom interactionfrom the perspective of teacher questioning.Based on classroom observation and interview，3teachers and86non-Englishmajors were selected as subjects from The Tourism and Culture College of YunnanUniversity, despite6classes were observed and recorded, the author chooses threerepresentative teachers’ classes as the observed objects. Based on a comparison ofthree EFL classes，the author finds that different teacher questioning patterns (theamount of teacher talk and student talk, questioning types, wait time, distribution ofquestions and the Feedback of teachers) lead to different effects on classroominteraction.The purpose of this paper starts to solve the problems of questioning patternswhich affect classroom interaction existing in EFL class and conclude with activeclassroom interaction features. Firstly, a student-centered classroom should be createdin the college EFL classroom. So there is a need to change teachers’ role among EFLteachers. In other words, teachers should cut down the degree of control andencourage the students to express their ideas and practice the language. Secondly,English teachers should ask more referential questions and demand more responsesfor better class interaction. Thirdly, teachers should not frequently answer thequestions by themselves on questions distribution as the students would depend ontheir teachers too much and therefore inhibit their attempts to achieve target language. Meanwhile, teachers should adopt diversified ways of answering so as to arousestudents’ learning interest. Fourthly, teachers should be patient enough to wait forstudents’ response to questions particularly those low-level students or difficultquestions. Sufficient wait time is helpful for the students because learners graduallyincrease confidence in learning English if they can produce answers most of the time.As for the teachers’ feedback, the findings reveals more positive feedback should beemployed in class, It not only decreases the students’ anxiety and makes them relaxedbut also builds up their confidence in learning. Apart from positive feedback, teachersshould notice that simple and short positive feedback is less effective to promoteclassroom interaction. Thus, teachers should give diverse and specific comments ontheir students’ performances. With regard to the error treatment, the author proposesthat EFL teacher should not interrupt and correct their students immediately becausethat is the way which students hate. Finally, teachers should improve their languageproficiency and change their mind to emphasize language output in course syllabus,teaching plan, teaching design and evaluation.