A Study On Question Types And Students’ Responses In Upper-elementary English Classrooms

This thesis focuses on a study of question types and students’ responses in upper-elementary English classrooms. It is aimed at assessing the frequencies and percentages ofquestion types employed by teachers as well as analyzingthe relationship between students’responses and question types.Both quantitative observations and qualitative observations were conducted in this study.The former is to obtain the statistics by means of the observation check list compiledaccording to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Fourteen videos of the teaching of reading inupper-elementary classrooms were chosen as the research materials. Data concerningfrequencies and percentages of question types was computed and presented in tables. On thebasis of the statistics gained from quantitative observations, four teaching videos, two withthe highest and two with the lowest frequencies of higher-order thinking questions wereobserved to investigate the relationship between question typesand students’ responses withthe help of the observation table. Data collected by means of descriptive system wasanalyzed as well.The main findings are as follows: First, remembering questions are posed mostfrequently. Next come understanding questions. Procedural questions, applying questions,evaluating questions, creating questions and analyzing questions come third, fourth, fifth,sixth, seventh respectively with a rather low percentage. Teachers in upper-elementaryEnglish classrooms pose few higher-order thinking questions and they prefer to pose fixedtypes of questions rather than varied types of questions. Second, though the language outputof students in all the classrooms is low regardless of the percentages of higher-order thinkingquestions, students in classrooms with highest percentages of higher-order thinking questions can understand the teaching material better; they are more motivated and can thinkmore critically and creatively.In light of the findings, three concrete suggestions about questioning are put forward forupper-elementary English teachers. First of all, they should be equipped with some basicknowledge concerning question types to pose better questions. Besides, they shouldunderstand students well in order to ask questions that are suitable for and intriguing to them.Moreover, they should integrate higher-order thinking questions with lower-order thinkingquestions in their classrooms so as to stimulate students’ thinking, thus making teachingmore effective.