A Study On Strategies Of Teacher Questioning In Junior Middle English Class On The Basis Of Scaffolding

Teacher questioning provides scaffolding for students' English learning in Zone of Proximal Development(ZPD).It not only teaches knowledge,but also regulates students' classroom behaviors.What's more,it's helpful to stimulate students' thinking ability and improve their interests in learning.On the basis of studies at home and abroad in recent years,it's easy to find that there are lots of analysis of teacher questioning focusing on types,functions and numbers,but relatively a few scholars study on strategies of teacher questioning based on the theory of scaffolding.On the basis of scaffolding,this study adopts the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.Taking four English teachers and their students from junior one in one middle school of Chengdu as examples,this study applies research methods named classroom observation and recording transcription,interview,questionnaire with the aims to explore the following three questions: 1.What are the characteristics of teacher questioning in junior middle English class? 2.What are the factors accounting for the characteristics of teacher questioning? 3.What are the scaffolding strategies of teacher questioning used in English Teaching?Through the analysis of types and modification strategies of teacher questioning,the purpose of this study is to explore the scaffolding strategies of teacher questioning used in English Teaching.What's more,this study aims to provide some referential suggestions for English teachers when they ask questions.The results are presented as follows:(1)by analyzing the data obtained from the classroom observation: In terms of types of teacher questioning,it is obvious that the number of low-level questions is more than high-level questions;In terms of modification strategies of teacher questioning,simplifying is more than repeating and probing.(2)by analyzing the data from interview for teachers and questionnaire for students,teachers' beliefs and objectives,students' attitudes and preferences are two factors influencing the characteristics of teacher questioning in junior middle English class.(3)by analyzing the data of recording transcription,teacher questioning provide scaffolding for students' language,cognitive and affective development by changing its types and modification strategies.This study shows that types and modification strategies of teacher questioning provide different scaffolding for students to construct the knowledge system to some extent.It is evident that there are fewer questions to foster students' abilities on cognitive development.Cultivating learners' thinking quality is put forward in the belief of core competence.So the author puts forward some suggestions for improving the strategies of teacher questioning:(1)teachers should increase the usage of high-level questions.(2)teachers should design different teacher questioning for different learners.(3)teachers should make appropriate usage of modification strategies.(4)teachers should improve their professional knowledge.