A Study Of Teachers' Questioning Discourse In Primary School English Reading Classes

English Curriculum Standards for compulsory Education(2011-year Edition)proposes that teachers should constantly update their professional knowledge and improve their language ability.To a certain extent,the language ability of English teachers is reflected in the classroom discourse.As part of the English classroom discourse,teachers'questions are an important way for students'language input and language output.Based on previous studies,this paper conducts a further study of teacher questioning discourse in primary school English reading classes.By observing videos of excellent teaching cases,the study discovers and summarizes the characteristics of classroom questioning and then analyzes the differences of teachers'questioning from the aspects of genders and teaching grades so as to find out the existing problems and further improve the teaching quality in primary school English reading classes.From the perspective of teachers'questioning,based on the 6 reading classes of6 teachers selected from the 9~thh National Primary School English Teaching Demonstration Classes,this study mainly discusses the following three key questions:(1)What are the characteristics of teachers questioning discourse in primary EFL reading classes?(2)Are there any significant differences of teachers'questioning between the teachers'genders and grades?(3)What are the problems of teachers questioning discourse in primary school English reading classes?Based on the comprehensive input hypothesis,interaction hypothesis,comprehensive output hypothesis,adopting qualitative and quantitative research methods,the study transcripts the 6 classes,then collects and analyzes the statistics from 5 dimensions:questioning types,questioning strategies,answering ways of questioning,post-questioning waiting time and post-questioning feedback.According to the classroom observation and data analysis,the results of the research are as follows:(1)In terms of questioning types,the study divides each class into 3 stages:pre-reading,while-reading and post-reading.It is found that:in the pre-reading and post-reading stages,teachers mainly ask referential questions,while in the while-reading stages,teachers mainly ask display questions;In terms of questioning strategies,teachers mainly focus on probing strategies and redirecting strategies;In terms of the way of answering questions,teachers mainly choose volunteering and chorus-answering;Post-questioning waiting time is mostly no more than 3 seconds;In the form of post-questioning feedback,teachers mainly give positive feedback.(2)There are no significant differences between the teachers'genders and grades.(3)The main problems that teachers have in questioning are:no answer and teachers'self-answering are obvious;post-questioning waiting time is comparatively short;no feedback and simple praises appear too many times.In view of the existing problems,this study mainly puts forward several suggestions for teachers:improve questioning skills;learn to be patient and accustomed to listening;give timely and clear feedback.