A Study On The Effect Of Teachers’ Classroom Questioning On Senior High School Students’ English Classroom Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most significant and common emotional elements in foreign language learning.In a classroom setting,various factors may have an effect on students’ anxiety.English teachers are one of the important factors in classroom teaching and learning.And their classroom questioning,as a common way of teacher-student interaction,have an effect on students’ anxiety.Through studying the effects of teachers’ classroom questioning on students’ classroom anxiety in senior high school English classroom,this study can be used for references to help students alleviate their English classroom anxiety and to help teachers find out the appropriate classroom questioning.Based on the Affective Filter Hypothesis and Humanistic Psychology,this study adopted quantitative and qualitative research methods,including classroom observation,questionnaires and interview,to investigate the effects of teachers’ classroom questioning on students’ classroom anxiety in senior high school English classrooms.230 students and4 English teachers at Shaoyang No.1 Middle School in Hunan Province were selected as the research subjects.Classroom observation adopted in this study is to explore the characteristics of teachers’ questioning in senior high school English classroom.In addition,this study adopted “English Classroom Anxiety Scale” and “Combined Questionnaire of Anxiety and Teachers’ Questioning” to investigate the effects of teachers’ classroom questioning on students’ classroom anxiety from four dimensions,they are question types,wait time,questioning methods and feedback types.This study aims to explore the following four questions:(1)What is the current situation of teachers’ questioning in senior high school English classroom?(2)What are the effects of teachers’ questioning on students’ classroom anxiety?(3)What are the differences in the effects of teachers’ questioning on students’ classroom anxiety among students in the high-anxiety,medium-anxiety,and low-anxiety groups?(4)What are the reasons for students’ classroom anxiety caused by teachers’ questioning?The results show that,firstly,the current situation of teachers’ questioning in senior high school English classroom is as follows.(1)The number of referential question is far less than that of display questions.(2)The wait time for students is usually less than 3seconds.(3)Teachers often adopt the methods of chorus-answering and appointing.(4)Teachers often give students positive feedback.Secondly,the effects of teacher questioning on students’ classroom anxiety are as follows.In general,teachers’ questioning causes students’ English classroom anxiety at a medium level.To be specific,(1)referential questions are more likely to cause students’ English classroom anxiety than display questions.(2)Students suffer from intense anxiety towards short wait time of referential questions.(3)Appointing of questioning methods causes students’ severe English classroom anxiety.(4)Explicit correction,clarification request and repetition in negative feedback result in students’ serious English classroom anxiety.Thirdly,the differences in the effects of teachers’ questioning on students’ classroom anxiety among students in the high-anxiety,medium-anxiety and low-anxiety groups are as follows.(1)Referential questions cause students’ serious anxiety in the high-anxiety group.(2)Short wait time for referential questions cause students’ severe anxiety in the high-anxiety and medium-anxiety groups,while short wait time for display questions cause students’ heavy anxiety in the high-anxiety group.(3)Appointing of teachers’ questioning causes students’ intense anxiety in the high-anxiety and medium-anxiety groups.(4)Among the negative feedback types,repetition and clarification request cause students’ high level of anxiety in the high-anxiety and medium-anxiety groups,while explicit correction leads to students’ severe anxiety in these three levels of anxiety groups.The reasons for students’ classroom anxiety caused by teachers’ questioning are as follows.In addition to the factors of teachers’ questioning,other factors also cause students’ anxiety,such as their self-esteem,preparation for class and personalities.Based on the results of this study,the author puts forward some suggestions for teachers and students.For teachers,they should adopt different question types according to students’ different anxiety states,leave enough wait time for students based on the difficulty of questions,adopt different questioning methods according to students’ emotional states,and diversify their feedback types.For students,they should understand the meaning of anxiety in the English classroom,monitor and regulate their anxiety on their own initiative,and have a positive attitude towards teachers’ questioning.