On Cultivating the Ability of Question

劉龍霞

【Abstract】Questioning is the starting point and the power of human cognition and development.At present，most of students in our country have no awareness of questioning.In traditional teaching，teachers are accustomed to asking students questions，rather than to guide students to ask questions.How to develop students' awareness of questioning and enable students to ask questions is becoming a hot topic today.Therefore，I will discuss this topic with you.

【Key words】teaching method；awareness of questioning；ability of asking

1.Current Situation of Question-Raising and Its causes

It is generally acknowledged that most ESL（English as a Second Language）students are less competent communicatively than they are linguistically.Many students have low confidence and feel unease when they speak English.Teachers need to provide more and better opportunities for students to develop oral skills and use these skills in active learning roles the classroom.It is also necessary for teachers to develop their questioning techniques to encourage their students to step into the active learning roles which both sides seem to want.

There are many reasons for the problem.They may be a dull textbook，a dark classroom，unpleasant topic，etc.However，as far as teachers are concerned，the causes for students lack of question-raising competence can be summarized as two aspects of teachers and students.For students aspect，the cause is the psychological barrier of students which is caused by the authority of the teacher，students own personality of shyness and timidness，and the lack of learning interest.For teachers aspect，is can be summarized like this：traditional teacher centered instruction and teachers problematic questioning.Therefore students are seldom given any chances to use the target language.Moreover，in teacher-centered classrooms，students are rather passive.

2.Methods of Cultivating Ability of Questioning

2.1 To Stimulate Students' Interest and Create the Atmosphere

People all know that interest is our best teacher.The teacher should arouse the students interest first to lit their inner seeking knowledge desire and promote their active thinking.Realistically，even if the students questions are without purpose.We should give students a smile，because if the teacher does not give them correct guidance，it will cool their enthusiasm on seeking knowledge and missing the best opportunity of training students' self-study ability.

2.2 To Give Students Methods and Encouragement

2.2.1 To Give More Praise and Award to Students

After students ask questions，if the teacher does not attach importance to commend them，it will make students more and more reluctant to ask questions.Afterwards their enthusiasm，passion and ability of questioning will be weakened，and the good quality of learning is difficult to form.So I really think it is necessary for teachers to check and give support and encouragement to those students who can put forward questions when they preview the context.As far as I am concerned，every student wants to be praised，so it is a good way to commend them in the presence of all class.If it is possible，give them small reward to stimulate their desire to raise questions.In addition，to set up a competitive group can also work.In such an incentive learning environment，the students who did not want to ask questions in the past slowly learned how to ask and start raise questions proactively.

2.2.2 To Create the Situation and Let Students Play a Full Role

It is obvious that many students are passive in English learning today，they are not active to achieve their learning goals unless teachers or parents ask them to do so.Students are accustomed to passively and unconditionally accept the knowledge imparted by teachers or textbooks，and reluctant to question teachers or textbooks even sometimes teachers make mistakes.What they want to do is not getting knowledge by exploring or questioning by themselves but accepting a unified standard answer from the teacher，so that they can meet through a variety of examinations.In fact，this is the negative impact of examination-oriented education to the students.While quality education is to mobilize the initiative of all students，it stresses that students play the main role and teachers may enable students to participate in the teaching process and obtain the all-round development.In fact，the teachers emphasis on students ability of questioning precisely mobilize their motivation to learn English and it is an important way of training students' sense of innovation.Therefore，teachers should strive to create a pleasant situation，to make students feel comfortable and in the best state of learning.

3.Conclusion

In short，if we want to develop students awareness of questioning and innovation，we should focus on cultivating students ability of questioning.Training their ability of questioning during middle school English teaching cannot only increase the efficiency of teaching，develop students ability of English speaking，but also cultivate the ability of individual thinking and innovation.Teachers can give support and encouragement to these students who are good at thinking and questioning.Bringing students to the field of questioning is to open the door of thinking.Students may have more interests in English learning because they can express themselves and their abilities of listening，speaking，reading and thinking are developed.Our English class can be full of happiness.

References

[1]Harmer，J.（2000）How to teach English[M].Foreign Language and Research Press.

[2]Scrivener，J.（2002）Learning Teaching—A Guidebook for English Language Teachers[M].Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

[3]Wang Qiang.（2000）A Course in English Language Teaching[M].Higher Education Press.