A Conversation Analysis Of Teachers’ Questioning Strategies In Senior High School English Class

A majority of researchers and scholars discover that the critical form of classroom interaction is teachers’ questions, in reverse, are the essential element that affects classroom interaction. Teacher questioning strategy has been investigated substantially and a series of research has been conducted, which supplies worthy references for further study. These studies concentrate on topics such as the proportion of classifications of questions, questioning skills, wait-time and feedback after questioning and so on.However, little systematic and comprehensive research has been performed towards questioning strategy in senior high school English classrooms in the Chinese EFL milieu. In addition, many studies have revealed that teachers seldom fulfill the full potential of teacher questioning, thus there still exist some shortcomings in present classroom questioning. Furthermore, little research is implemented by combining Conversation Analysis with teacher questioning strategy in senior high school English class, which is a brand-new angle and can render study scope of questioning richer. On the foundation of output hypothesis, interactional hypothesis and social interactionist theories, Conversation Analysis as the analytic framework, the author discusses the teachers’ employment of questioning strategy in the classroom.In the research, the involved participants are four English teachers and their students selected from a senior high school. In the process of investigation, four classes taught by four teachers are observed naturally and recorded. Meanwhile, a questionnaire has been distributed to 250 students and four teachers have been interviewed to gain detailed information. Under the circumstance of classroom context, the concrete questioning strategy teachers need to consider incorporates question type, wait-time, question modification and question directing(Borich, 2002). The objectives of this research are as follows:(1) to find out how display questions and referential questions are distributed(2) to investigate the features of length of teachers’ wait-time(3) to make clear how teachers modify questions and the features of teachers’ different question modifications(4) to discover the features of distribution of teachers’ question directing.By means of transcribing recording materials as well as analyzing data collected from the interview and questionnaire, of which audio-recording and interview materials are analyzed under the guideline of Conversation Analysis, the author has a relatively comprehensive understanding of the questioning situation in senior high school English class.According to data analysis, the investigation results are as follows: more display questions are initiated by teachers than referential questions. Display questions elicit more production in word/phrase level and simple sentence level while referential questions lead to more complex sentences in comparison with display questions. Teachers’ wait-time given to students isn’t sufficient to think questions and organize answers. Repetition in English and Chinese is frequently used by teachers and other questioning modifications are hardly applied. In the respect of question directing, chorus-answering and nominating are popular ways of questioning distribution.Regarding present problems about teachers’ questioning strategies, the author offers some practical implications to refine their questioning techniques and improve teaching efficiency, such as cultivate awareness to promote the application of questioning strategies, design questions exquisitely before class and turn to students for feedback.