Classroom Questioning Strategies

【Abstract】Interaction has been playing a more and more important role in language research since the early 1970s， when the communicative teaching method was widely applied in language teaching. Questioning is the most common classroom interaction. This thesis analyzed the influence on students' immediate oral production by applying different teacher questioning strategies including teacher's question types， teacher question modification and teacher feedback.

【Key words】Classroom Questioning Strategies

1 Introduction

A great number of researchers have reached a consensus that classroom is an important learning setting for second language learners. Questioning is the most common classroom interaction. A great deal of time in many classes is taken up with question-and-answer sessions.Questioning is an effective device to serve educative purpose in classroom ，Good questions can make the students think and help them clarify concepts and problems related to the lesson. Asking more effective classroom questions can encourage all students to think at higher cognitive levels.

2 Principles of questioning

Teachers spend much time asking questions. However， how to ask good questions？ The value of a question depends on a teacher's purpose in asking the question and on the context. Although a question can be performed in a twinkle， it is not to say that there are no principles to follow.

2.1 Planning questions

It's not an easy work for teachers always to form effective questions in classrooms. So it is necessary to decide what questions to ask before lessons. Teachers should spend enough time on preparing the questions before lessons. teachers should think of the following principles：

1.Ask low-order questions early.

2. Produce a variety of questions.

3. Ensure the questions are closely relevant to the teaching aims

4. Make sure the wording of questions is direct and clear and vocabulary and language forms are well known to students.

5. Ask questions that are matched with students' reality： knowledge， experiences and abilities.

2.2 Presenting questions

How can teachers present questions appropriately？ Teachers should consider many aspects， such as， sequence of questions， the use of wait time， when and how to nominate students， how to attract all students' attention and so on. Teachers should follow the principles below when present questions：

1. Ask one question at a time

2. Present questions in the order from easy to difficult.

3. Ask questions in logical sequence.

4. After presenting a question， give students enough time to form answers

5 Ask questions before nominating an individual student to answer.

6.Distribute questions to all students and encourage all students to participate.

3 Question types

There are many ways to classify questions. The present study employed the distinction， namely display questions and referential questions， to research the relationship between teacher questions and students' oral production. In this study， display questions are those questions， which merely require students to present their knowledge or list the facts of passages； referential questions are those ones， which let students freely express their opinions.

4 Modification

In language classes， when questions are not understood， teachers often attempt to modify their speech in order to enhance comprehensibility and encourage students to actively participate in their Language learning.

1.Repetition： Are the questions repeated？

2.Paraphrase：Are the questions rephrased with easier words or sentence patterns？

3. Narrowing： Does the teacher narrow the range of the topic to help students’ output？

4.Decomposition： Are the questions broken down into smaller parts？

5.Prompt： Does the teacher prompt and help students to go further？

These modification types are more effective at eliciting students' oral production.

5 Feedback

Teacher feedback here mainly refer to teachers’ positive which relates to the teacher's approval or acceptance of students' production， Positive feedback can offer positive environments not only to help learners consolidate their existing language knowledge but also to invite their further participation. positively reinforcing feedback serves purposes：

1. to show the students response to be correct

2. to praise （and therefore motivate） the respondent

3. to create an atmosphere conducive to learning

6. Conclusion

As an English teacher， his/her job is not only to teach some language items， but also to work as a communicator and a mediator to help students expand their interlanguage ability. Teacher use referential questions in teaching， making various question modification when students fail to answer， and using feedback to encourage students make more “output” do have significant influence on improving students' oral English competence.