A Comparative Study On Junior High EFL Teachers' Questioning Strategies From The Perspective Of Classroom Interaction

In foreign language teaching,questioning in class is an indispensable teaching strategy,which plays a vital role in language learning.The quantity and quality of teacher questioning would affect classroom teaching efficiency directly.Therefore,it has been the focus of language teaching research at home and abroad for many years.The current questioning studies,mostly are static description and analysis of question types and frequency,waiting time,distribution and feedback.In order to understand the nature of classroom interaction,we should not only focus on the overall development of teacher's questioning strategies in specific contexts,but also describe and analyze the interaction process of questioning in different classroom micro-contexts.This thesis attempts to conduct a comparative analysis of classroom questioning strategies between an expert teacher and an experienced teacher through classroom observation,questionnaires and teacher interviews.The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze the characteristics of teachers' questioning strategies and its impact on students;In different classroom micro-context,how do the two teachers respectively help students to understand and respond questions through T-Ss interaction in different classroom micro-contexts;The factors that affect teacher's interactive decision making of questioning strategies in the process of questioning interaction;and how each teacher understands classroom interaction.The findings show:(1)The expert teacher seems to use questioning strategies more actively and effectively in promoting students' thinking and language production than the experienced teacher.Specifically,first,the expert teacher asks much more questions than the experienced teachers;second,the expert teacher uses more referential questions which play a more important role in triggering students' thinking and language production while experienced teacher asks more display questions;third,there is no significant difference in the average waiting time between them,yet the expert teacher seems more patient;fourth,both teachers are inclined to put questions to the whole class,but there are more volunteers to answer the questions in the expert teacher's class;fifth,there are significant differences between the two teachers in terms of communication strategies involved in questioning interaction,the expert teacher using much more and diversified communication strategies than the experienced teacher.(2)In different classroom questioning micro-context:(1)When student's answer is completely correct,the expert teacher tends to expand the topic or knowledge through further guidance questions;while the experienced teacher tends to avoid "new problems cropping up unexpectedly" after she gets the correct answer.(2)When students encounter difficulties,such as student's answer is partially correct,completely wrong or can not answer,the expert teacher tends to give students timely help and support with positive communication strategies such as encouraging students,making further inquiry,simplifying questions,decomposing questions and prompting,etc.to provide necessary thinking and language "scaffolding" for students.While the experienced teacher seems eager to get the expected answers from students as soon as possible and avoid possible errors,thus she would interrupt students or tell the correct answers directly.The analysis manifests that the teachers' selection of communication strategies in questioning interaction seems to be influenced by the following factors: the predetermined teaching objectives,the teachers' perception of student's difficulties and learning needs in classroom interaction and their decision-making for adjustment,and the teachers' classroom discourse competence.(3)The expert teacher regards question as an opportunity for student to enter the language input and negotiation of meaning,as the interaction between teachers and students can scaffold students' discovering and constructing personal meaning.Meanwhile,concerned about students' answers(i.e.to achieve teaching objectives),the expert teacher puts more emphasis on the actual process of students' perception,comprehension and application of English language.While the experienced teacher seems to lack adequate understanding of the nature of classroom interactive communication,and the classroom communication is mainly closely controlled by the teacher to achieve the predetermined teaching objectives,insufficient attention paid to students' learning needs,which may reflect the teacher's professional development.Based on the findings,the author gives the following suggestions:(1)Teachers need to constantly reflect on their classroom teaching so as to construct and reconstruct their understanding of language teaching and learning in practice;(2)Teachers should study theory and renew their knowledge of foreign language teaching constantly;(3)Teachers should also seek cooperation with others actively(including peers and professional mentors)to obtain professional development motivation and effective support in the learning community.