A Study on Questioning Strategies in English Teaching

FAN Yingbo

Abstract：This research presents a practical study of an English teacher's questioning behavior in a college English class in Beijing Normal University and the English course is open to college students from remote areas with poor English learning environment.

Key words：questioning；strategies

Currently， classroom questioning plays a dominant role in college English teaching， and its effectiveness has much to do with classroom teaching quality. Compared with other subjects， questioning plays a much more dominant role in English class. By making an analysis of the English teachers questioning behavior， this study will probably promote the English teacher to think about her own teaching behavior， especially her classroom questioning behavior and also enhance her understanding of teaching regularity. This paper will mainly focus on the research data analysis and the discussion based on the research results.

Definition of questioning

Questioning has been noticed by researchers for a long time. However， when it comes to the definition of classroom questioning， there exist various versions in terms of different perspectives.

Strategies of Questioning

Questioning strategies generally refer to techniques employed by teachers in class in order to get good responses to their questions from students. Questioning strategies have been studied by a number of researchers.

Research Questions

The research presents a practical study about classroom questioning of an English teacher at a college English class. Grounded on the literature reviewed in the previous chapter， combined with classroom observation method， interview method and questionnaire investigation， the research aims to discover the main problems of the classroom questioning behavior， the reason for its ineffectiveness and also provide some useful suggestions， so as to improve its classroom teaching efficiency.

Research Subject

This thesis is a study about English classroom questioning in an optional English courses in BNU. The subject of the study is an experienced college English teacher. According to her interview， she has been in charge of this optional course of several years. Besides， there are 39 college students with poor English level in her class.

Research methods

In order to get full-scale data about classroom questioning， both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in this thesis， involving classroom observation method， interview method as well as questionnaire method.

Classroom Observation

For classroom observation， it was an opportunity to observe the teachers real performance about her questioning behavior as well as students reaction in English class. It was more objective and vivid.

Interview

For the interview， it was mainly a communication with the English teacher about classroom questioning， involving question-designing before class， some details of her questioning strategies and even her beliefs hidden behind her teaching behavior. Then the recordings were later transcribed so as to be analyzed.

Questionnaire

For the questionnaire， it served to be a supplement to understand the situation as well as students expectation of classroom questioning in this class. The questionnaire is mainly composed of 3 dimensions： students understanding of English classroom questioning； the situation of English classroom questioning； students expectation and suggestions towards English classroom questioning.

Research Findings

Low level questions are preferred

The research found that 48.7%of the students think their English teacher often pose high level questions， while 51.3% consider that low level questions are often used by their English teacher. Additionally， according to the interview with the teacher， she explained that due to the limited teaching time， hardly had she applied open questions in class. What she preferred to ask are closed questions. For example， “T： Is it right” “Ss： Yes/No”.

Well-performed students have more chance to answer questions

The search shows the correlation between students academic performance and their probability of being questioned is significant. And this finding is consistent with the teachers belief about the distribution of classroom questioning.

Pedagogical Implication

Teachers recognition and beliefs on classroom questioning should be strengthened. It is generally acknowledged that teachers beliefs have much to do with their teaching behavior. They tend to owe the incongruence only to some objective factors， such as the examination-oriented education system， the limited teaching time as well as students proficiency， which is improper. Instead， teachers should be fully aware of the beliefs about questioning they held as well as the possible impacts they will have on their questioning behaviors.

To summarize， this paper is about a survey and analysis on college English teachers questioning behavior in a college class of low English level， and also put forward possible reasons for the ineffectiveness of classroom questioning， developed some questioning implications for other English teachers.

Reference：

[1]Bloom，B.S.（1956）.Taxonomy of educational objectives. Handbook1： the cognitive domain. [M] New York： David Mckay Co.

[2]Yao， H. 2011. A case study of classroom questioning of excellent English teachers in Senior High Schools [D]. Northwest Normal University.