A Study On Effects Of Wait Time Of Referential Questions On Students’ Language Production In Senior High School Between Experienced And Novice Teachers

Wait time is an indispensable part of question-answer process in English class,which is of great significance for us to deeply understand the teaching behavior of teachers.Research on wait time at home and abroad mainly focuses on their classification,functions,strategies,etc.Domestic research is deficient in much deeper study of wait time.Considering that referential questions are related to the depth of students’ text interpretation and the cultivation of thinking levels,students often need more wait time to think about questions and organize their language.So it is more meaningful to study wait time of the referential questions on students’ language production.For this reason,this paper focuses on exploring effects of wait time of the referential questions on students’ language production between experienced teachers and novice teachers in Senior High School in order to provide reference for classroom teachers.It attempts to explore two questions:(1)what are the similarities and differences of wait time(wait time 1 and wait time 2)of referential questions between experienced teachers and novice teachers?(2)What are the similarities and differences of the effects of wait time 1 and wait time 2 of referential questions on accuracy,fluency and complexity of students’ language production between experienced teachers and novice teachers?Through the use of conversation analysis and classroom observation,the above research questions are analyzed.First,this study selects 20 English reading classes of Senior High School(10 classes of experienced teachers and 10 classes of novice teachers).Then it intercepts extracts of referential questions,calculates wait time(wait time 1 and wait time 2)on two types of teachers with the help of Folker.Then,the students’ language output(fluency,complexity,accuracy)is analyzed according to the corresponding metrics.Correlation analysis of SPSS 21.0 is to test the degree of effects of wait time on students’ language production.Research indicates:experienced teachers and novice teachers have similarities and differences in wait time 1 and wait time 2.(1)Similarities:both give relatively reasonable wait time 1,but not enough;both give too little wait time 2;both are not good at using high frequency with long wait time；(2)Differences:wait time given by experienced teachers(wait time 1 plus wait time 2)is longer than that of novice teachers;experienced teachers give longer wait time 1 than novice teachers,novice teachers give longer wait time 2 than experienced teachers;experienced teachers use higher frequency with long wait time than novice teachers.Effects of wait time 1 and wait time 2 on students’ language production of experienced teachers and novice teachers:(1)Similarities:wait time of both have less obvious effect on the accuracy and fluency of students’ language production;(2)Differences:wait time 1 of experienced teachers has an obvious positive effect on complexity of the students’ language production,while novice teachers not;wait time 2 of novice teachers has an obvious positive effect on the complexity of the students’language production,while experienced teachers not.(3)The study also finds that effects of wait time 1 and wait time 2 of referential questions on quality of the students’ language are also subject to the teachers’ questioning strategy and feedback strategy,and the three work together.Based on the above research findings,this study proposes the following suggestions for teachers:(1)For experienced teachers,properly extend wait time 1 to increase the complexity of students’ language production;and extend wait time 2 by delaying feedback to promote student’ self-replenishment.(2)For novice teachers,it is necessary to predict the difficulty of the problem in advance and reserve or adjust wait time 1 accordingly;extend wait time 2 by avoiding interrupting or answering directly by teachers,and improve the complexity of students’ language production.(3)Both types of teachers should improve awareness of wait time of referential questions,and combine it with questioning strategy and feedback strategy to work together on high quality of students’ language output.