A Comparative Study Of Classroom Questioning Of Novice And Experienced Primary School English Teachers

Questioning,as the main form of information exchange and interaction between teachers and students in the classroom,is one of the most visible and reliable teachers'behaviors.Well-designed classroom questions can obtain the feedback information of teaching and learning,guide the students to take active thinking,train the students'basic learning ability,and effectively improve the quality of teachers'classroom teaching.Although many researchers have studied the classroom questioning of novice and experienced teachers,most of them focus on universities and middle schools and ignore the primary school stage.On the basis of previous research,the author compares the similarities and differences in classroom questioning of primary school English teachers,and adds interviews with students in the research methods,hoping to be helpful to similar studies in the future.This study aims to examine the differences between novice teachers and experienced teachers in dealing with their questioning and to achieve effective questioning by the feedback from students.Consequently,the present study attempts to the following research questions:1)Are there any differences between novice and experienced teachers'questioning in terms of question number and type,waiting time,the directed object of questions as well as teachers'feedback?If so,what are they?2)What do students think of novice and experienced teachers' questioning in English classroom?3)What can primary school English teachers learn from such differences between novice and experienced teachers' questioning in primary school English teaching?This study investigated the differences between experienced and novice primary school English teachers' questioning by classroom observation,questionnaire and interview for the purpose of finding out effective questioning strategies for future teachers.In order to ensure the validity of the study,the author audio-recorded the contents of classroom observation and interview.Ten English teachers from a primary school in Shenzhen and the students from their classes took part in the study.Among them,five teachers were chosen as representatives of novice teachers,all of whom have less than three-years teaching experience,while the other five teachers,as experienced teachers,have more than five years of teaching experience.All of these five experienced teachers are senior teachers and have won various awards for teaching skills.Each group of novice and experienced teachers taught parallel classes,and 194 of the students in these classes were chosen to participate in this research as questionnaire subjects.In the first stage,10 English classes of 10 teachers were observed and radio-recorded by the author and then be tidied up into tables and sheets.In the second stage,194 students completed a questionnaire about their expectations for teachers'questioning.In the last stage,20 students were interviewed to express their attitudes and suggestions to their teachers and the 10 teachers were interviewed separately about their views on teachers'questioning in order to supplement the practice of teachers'questioning in class.Through the ten-classes teaching procedure,the major findings are drawn as follows:1.As for question number and type,experienced teachers often raise more questions than novice teachers,and novice teachers are more likely to adopt procedural questions,while experienced teachers tend to ask referential questions.2.As for the waiting time after questioning,experienced teachers are more willing to give students more time to think about the questions.3.As for the directed object of questions,both experienced and novice teachers tend to use collective answers.Experienced teachers are more prone to choose students to answer questions voluntarily,while novice teachers are more likely to focus on either designating students to respond or answering questions by themselves.4.As for teachers' feedback,experienced teachers usually provide more reasonable judgment after the students answering the questions,while novice teachers use more simple approval.This paper compares the classroom questioning of novice teachers and experienced teachers in order to sum up the most effective questioning methods and strategies for students in order to promote their learning and improve teachers' teaching.The author hopes it will be helpful for future teachers to ask questions in class.