Research On Scaffolding Assistance Of Teacher Questioning In English Reading Class In Junior Middle School

As one of the ways conducted by the teacher in the class, teacher questioning has been a very effective and useful way of classroom teaching in helping the students learn. In reading class, teacher questioning constitutes a major part of the teaching and its influence on students? reading has attracted the attention of many scholars.Most previous research on teacher questioning have described the function, the frequency of the question and questioning wait-time. However, how teachers scaffold students to acquire the language skills and learn the language by questions has not been explored. Scaffolding assistance, a new angle on the teacher questioning, means the teachers use discourse tool appropriately to accommodate the language study of students.In order to better understand the scaffolding assistance of teacher questioning and help to promote the interaction with the goal of enhancing the students? second language learning, the present thesis employed the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the scaffolding assistance of teacher ?s questioning in junior middle school English reading class based on the constructivism and scaffolding theories.The teachers that observed in this study were four teachers of a middle school in a suburban area of Nanchang city, Jiangxi Province. The author observed and recorded two classes of each teacher, eight classes in total. The classes were recorded and the part of teacher questioning and students? responses were transcribed into texts. The classification of teacher questioning was based on Hakansson and Lindberg theory(1988), which divided the questions in Yes/No form, alternative questions that in the form of ?or ?, the form of wh- question and the theory of Long & Sato(1983) that divided the questions in display questions and referential questions. And different scaffolding features on the framework proposed by wood, Bruner and Ross(1976). Also, the strategies of teaching questioning would be marked based on Zhao N isha theory(2012). Interview with teachers were used as a supplement to classroom observation to know the teachers? opinion on why they put forward those kinds of questions and which kinds of questions would be suitable for the junior students. Through these methods, the present study attempts to study the following questions:1) What types of questions do teachers ask in English reading class in junior middle school? At what stage do teachers ask most of the questions?2) What types of strategies of teacher ques tioning are adopted in English reading in junior middle school?3) What kinds of scaffolding assistance are realized by teacher questioning strategies?It was found that all the teachers, whether young or old, often asked the form of wh- question. They tended to ask more display question than referential question and most questions were raised in the while-reading stage. There maybe two reasons, one reason is that middle school student are beginners in English learning, so display question can stimulate them to give more output and increase confidence. Though T3 and T4, the two experienced teachers increase the number of referential question and they ask more display question. The second reason is in the middle school, the reading text is the basis for stude nts to learn how to read and lay a solid foundation for students to acquire more reading skills so all the teachers like asking questions during while-reading stage. It is an important stage that teachers should scaffold more to the middle school students in the purpose of reading more accurately and smoothly.The questioning strategies identified were repetition(rephrase), simplifying(prompting), simplifying(narrowing), probing, redirecting, self-explaining, extending wait time. Among the seven strategies, the teachers adopted probing the most, which seemed more useful for the students to increase enthusiasm of participating in the class. Next to probing was prompting, when the teachers thought the students? answers were unsatisfactory, they provide more information or give hints to aid the students. Prompting was also regarded as an efficient way to get students involved in the interaction. All the teachers seldom self-explained the answer.During the interaction between teachers and students, teachers a lways supplied students with scaffolding questions to help build their language knowledge, which helped students take actively part in the classroom activities and the atmosphere of the class was dynamic and good for learning language. The most widely used scaffolding assistance was DM(Direction Maintenance). Teachers often probed the students to speak more about the questions and kept their interest in discussions. Next to DM is RDF(Reduction of the Degree of Freedom). When students did not understand questions or produce incorrect answers, teachers often repeated the question, probed the students and extended waiting time in order to simplify the task for the students which promoted the students to give right answers.The present study promotes the understanding of teacher questioning in reading class for younger learners.