A Study On The Scaffolding Functions Of Teacher Questioning In EFL Classroom In Junior Middle School

As a vital part in classroom discourse,teacher questioning has become one of the most important and the most universal tools for promoting teacher-students interaction and teaching process in the classroom.In recent years,teacher questioning has become one of hotspots in the field of foreign language teaching.After reviewing previous research,it can be found that the current research mainly focus on the type and the distribution of questioning,questioning strategy,and teachers’ feedback,while a paucity of research focus on the scaffolding function of teacher questioning,and uncovers how teachers scaffold students by questioning to guide students’ language learning from the perspective of sociocultural theory.Based on sociocultural theory lens,this research studies the scaffolding function of teacher questioning in the junior EFL classroom from sociocultural lens with instruments of classroom observation and interview,and the research specially addresses the three research questions:1)What is the distribution of teacher questioning types in the junior EFL classroom?2)What is the distribution of scaffolding functions of teacher questioning in the junior EFL classroom?3)How do teachers scaffold students by questioning when students have difficulty in answering questions in the junior EFL classroom?For the purpose of the research,the research was conducted in a junior middle school in Guangzhou and selected four English teachers and their students as participants.To collect data,the researcher had observed 20 lessons,among them each teacher was observed five lessons and each lesson lasts for 40 minutes.After classroom procedure was taken notes and classroom talk was recorded,the recording was transcribed into texts.Then the questioning types were coded by adopting Kong Wen & Li Qinghua’s(2007)criterion and the scaffolding functions were coded by adopting Wood et al’s(1976)classification of scaffolding function(including recruitment,direction maintenance,reduction in degree of freedom,marking critical features,frustration control,demonstration).After analyzing the data with microgenesis,main findings of the thesis are as follows:First,display questions and referential questions account for a large proportion of teachers’ questions,of which the former accounts for a larger proportion,and the latter accounts for a smaller proportion.Compared with previous studies,the proportion of rhetorical questions,comprehension checks and managerial question has increased,while the proportion of expressive question has decreased.Second,in teacher questioning,the scaffolding function of direction Maintenance takes up the largest proportion.Afterwards,reduce the degree of freedom,recruitment,marking critical features,demonstration and frustration control are in turn.The interaction is strictly controlled by the teacher,and the teacher dominates it.The proportion of each scaffolding function in each questioning type is different.Teacher has a tendency in choosing teacher questioning type to scaffold students.Third,the teacher adjusted questioning types and communicative moves timely to scaffold students.This research used a large number of examples to show how teachers support scaffolding for students.Here are some important pedagogical implications for English teaching.Teachers should pay attention to questioning in the classroom,and timely adjust the questioning type and communicative moves to build a scaffolding for students.They should support scaffolding for students according to the students’ ZPD so that students can transition from others-regulation to self-regulation in teacherstudent interaction,so as to successfully output target language.