An Investigation On Effective Questioning In Senior English Teaching —From The Perspective Of Constructivism

In China, with the transformation of the teaching model from "teacher-centered" to "learner-centered" in English classrooms, many teachers are actively exploring and trying various teaching forms to activate classroom interaction. Questioning, as one of the most commonly used teaching techniques, has become an indispensable part of classroom interaction. When we examine the current practice of classroom teaching, it is not difficult to find two problems:on the one hand, the previous "cramming method of teaching" has evolved into the present "full house asking". Classroom teaching has become a "question-and-answer teaching". However, a lot of questioning is inefficient, and it does not play its due function in classroom teaching. On the other hand, in the process of classroom interaction, teachers dominate the right of raising questions and students’ questioning does rarely occur. Actually, the relationship between teachers’ questioning and students’ questioning can be described as both stimulating and restricting with each other. Only the combination of them can achieve the optimal effect of classroom questioning. Effective questioning is helpful to stimulate the consciousness of students’ participation, help students better comprehend the English texts and cultivate their abilities of posing questions and solving problems, thus improving the effect of English reading teaching.Based on the input hypothesis, interaction hypothesis and output hypothesis and from the two aspects of effective questioning of teachers and students in senior English classrooms, this thesis further studies the topic of effective classroom questioning from the perspective of constructivism and explores what kind of classroom questioning is effective and how to achieve its effectiveness.This study adopts the methods of classroom observation, interviews of teachers and students’ questionnaire survey. Firstly, the author analyzes the constituent elements of effective questioning through classroom observation. Secondly, the aim of interviewing teachers is to explore the factors affecting the formation of teachers’ effective questioning. Finally, the questionnaire survey can help to understand students’ attitudes toward effective questioning. The major findings are as follows:(1) The number of display questions far outweighs that of referential questions; (2) For answering ways, teachers use more appointing and self-answering; (3) After posing a question, teachers rarely organize students to discuss; (4) Teachers fail to arrange enough wait-time for students to think about the question; (5) Although teachers have realized the importance of questioning strategies and feedbacks to students’ responses, they cannot offer them comprehensively and effectively on the proper occasions; (6) The quality of students’answers is closely related to three aspects, types of the questions, wait-time and questioning strategies; (7) Compared with teachers’ questioning, students’questioning rarely occur; (8) The result also shows that senior English teachers know a little about the theoretical aspects of effective questioning.The author therefore proposes corresponding teaching advice for effective classroom questioning. As far as teachers are concerned, they should probe into 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. From the perspective of students, teachers are supposed to develop students’ awareness of questioning. Only when students volunteer to ask questions can they become real masters of a reading lesson and learn various reading skills effectively. On the whole, this study to some degree enriches the studies on effective classroom questioning in high schools, which is of positive significance and referential value to improve teachers’ questioning skills, promote the effectiveness of classroom questioning and cultivate students’ autonomous, explorative and cooperative spirits.