A Study On The Effectiveness Of English Teachers’ Questioning In Middle Schools

In recent years,a growing number of scholars and researchers have realized the value and importance of effective classroom questioning.They have done a great deal of researches,mainly focusing on the current situation of classroom questioning,affecting factors and definition of effective questioning,while the contrast analysis is less conducted.In view of the fact,this study carries out a practical research of effective classroom questioning in middle school English class,through contrast analysis between regular classes and open classes.The research is expected to guide middle school English teachers in the aspects of appropriateness and effectiveness of classroom questioning.Class observation,interview and recording transcription are employed in this research,with the following research questions in two aspects focused,through contrast analysis of the regular classes and open classes.1.What about the proportion of effective questioning in both regular classes and open ones,and what about the efficiency of the questions?2.What about the question types,questioning strategies,and teachers’ feedback,and what specific teacher-students interaction is followed correspondingly?The research concludes that more than sixty percent of questions asked in both regular and open classes are proved to be effective,with slight edge in open classes;less efficient questions are roughly the knowledge to mechanically recite,as well as those less closely related to the topic;display questions are commonly asked in regular classes to check students’ memory and degree of mastering of textbook knowledge,while questions tend to be more referential in open classes for students to discuss and develop comprehensive capability of language application;interaction followed by teachers’ questions within learning groups is infrequent in regular classes,compared to a higher degree of interaction between teachers and the whole class since teachers habitually ask questions to the whole class,leading to a lack of cooperative learning in class;in both regular and open classes teachers employ at least one strategy for most questions,sometimes they even take two or three strategies together for one question and strategies such as inquiry,retelling and division are commonly used;teachers are ready to make specific comments on students’ answers with diverse favorable words in open classes,compared to the simple “Good job”in regular classes.Accordingly,this thesis raises some feasible suggestions for teachers,aiming to improve the effectiveness of classroom questioning in middle schools.Teachers need to encourage students to learn in group and offer more opportunities for students’ cooperative learning.Furthermore,teachers need to update their concepts and adapt to the reformation of curriculum.They have to set questions before class carefully,and adjust their questioning according to students’ responses by using different questioning strategies.Finally,teachers also need to make specific comments on students’ answers with diverse favorable words and guide them to improve their answers by themselves.