Research On Effectiveness Of Questioning In Junior High School English Class

Classroom discourse is an important topic of FLT research. The questioning accounts for a very large proportion of classroom discourse. Ur(2000) gives a definition that a question is a teacher utterance which has the objective of eliciting an oral response from the learners. Questioning can significantly affect the quantity and quality of student interaction in the lesson(Brock, 1986). Stevens started the research of questioning in 1912. More researches have been made since then. Effective questioning is a process in which teachers take proper skills to raise a question aimed at teaching content for the purpose of involving students in critical thinking and active participation in class, in which proper feedback are expected to give to students after due waiting time. Borich(1992) states effective questioning is the one for which students actively compose a response and thereby become engaged in the learning process(Quoted in Li Taifu, 2009). In FLT classroom, questioning is an important way for interaction, which can improve the teaching quality, and stimulate the language output.Over the years, questioning has been focused in language teaching research, and researches have been made from different aspects. Based on the previous research achievements, the author does the research of the current situation of English classroom questioning in junior high school and discusses how to improve the effectiveness of questioning in order to promote teacher-student interaction and improve their learning abilities. On the basis of Krashen’s input hypothesis, Swain’s output hypothesis and constructivism learning theory and illustrated by the case of Huangzhou Junior High School, the research discusses the following two research questions: 1) What is the current situation of English classroom questioning in junior high school? 2) What are the main factors influencing the effectiveness of questions? To be specific,the author picks up four English teachers and four classes to make the research by using the class observation, questionnaire and interview, sums up the current situation of junior English classroom questioning from different aspects. According to the analysis of the data, the findings of the research can be presented as follow: 1) Teachers can choose different types of questioning based on the teaching content. 2) The waiting time is reasonable. 3) Most of the feedbacks are positive. 4) Teachers’ abilities influence the questioning effectiveness. 5) Students’ knowledge level and learning abilities influence the questioning effectiveness. On the basis of the results of this study, the author puts forward some suggestions: 1) When designing the questions, teachers should take teaching content and teaching objects into consideration. 2) The form of questions should be varied and reasonable. 3) Teachers should provide timely and positive feedback so as to encourage students. 4) Teachers should cultivate students’ critical spirit, develop their consciousness of innovation. 5) Teachers should improve their professional ability.This thesis is composed of six parts. Chapter One is a brief introduction including the background information, purpose and significance of the research as well as the organization of this thesis. Chapter Two reviews the related literature in this field both at home and abroad. Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework of the research. Chapter Four describes the research design meticulously. Chapter Five makes a detailed analysis of the results of the classroom observation, questionnaire and interview. Chapter Six is the last part as well as the conclusion part. It also includes some suggestions and limitations of this research and involves the issues which need further exploring.