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1、On Improving the Effectiveness of English Classroom Questioning in Senior High SchoolContentAbstract1Key words11 Introduction of Classroom Questioning21.1 Background21.2 Significance31.3 Organization32 Literature Review of Classroom Questioning42.1 Theoretical basis42.2 Research abroad72.3 Research
2、at home93 Teachers questioning problems in senior high school103.1 More display questions than referential questions103.2 Improper control of wait-time113.3 Inappropriate distribution of questions113.4 Lack of feedback123.5 Insufficient preparation124 Main factors causing questioning problems134.1 L
3、earning environment134.2 Cultural influence134.3 Teachers factor144.4 Students factor155 Strategies of Improving the Classroom Questionings Effectiveness155.1 What155.2 When165.3 Who175.4 How176 Conclusion19Bibliography20AbstractClassroom questioning is an important part of classroom teaching, as we
4、ll as a major method to reach teaching target. Currently, New English Curriculum Standard has set high demand for classroom questioning, but there are many serious problems related to classroom questioning, which we cant ignored any more. Based on a lot of relative materials in this area and the obs
5、ervation of English classroom teaching in senior high school, this thesis from five aspects lists the main problems of classroom questioning in senior high school, finding out four factors leading to these problems and bringing up some strategies to improve the effectiveness of classroom questioning
6、 in the end.Key words: Classroom questioning, Effectiveness, Senior High School1 Introduction of Classroom Questioning1.1 BackgroundIn classroom, classroom questioning is an effective method and an essential component in classroom teaching, as well as a useful way both for teachers and students. As
7、it shown, classroom questioning is more used in English subject rather than any other one, either in terms of person-time or questioning-frequency. Moreover, studies relating to ESL (English as second language) teaching have also pointed out the necessity for teachers questioning. In second English
8、classrooms, where learners often do not have a great number of tools, teachers questions provide necessary stepping stone to communicate. Therefore, it is of profound significance to improve the effectiveness of classroom questioning, and to cultivate the students linguistic ability of comprehensive
9、 application. However, with the continuous reform on English teaching as well as the special demand of English subject itself, new problems and challenges for classroom questioning are arising. Thus, it is important to deal with questioning of teaching practice constantly, scientifically and tactful
10、ly.1.2 Significance1.2.1 Academic valueIn recent years, more and more experts pay close attention to classroom questioning, but most of them are discussing the types of classroom questions, the principles and strategies to improve the efficiency of it in theory. While under the reform on English tea
11、ching, the research on the new demands for senior high school classroom questioning is rare. On the other hand, many distinguished high school teachers give many detail methods and strategies according to their own teaching experience, but these methods and strategies lack important theoretical basi
12、s. Besides, many research methods traditionally through questionnaire and interview are full of limitation. Only observing the classroom teaching, can it get closer to the actuality of classroom questioning and find out problems, then analyze and summarize to get corresponding strategies. 1.2.2 Prag
13、matic valueThe greatness of questioning in English subject is more predominant than any other subject. However, because of lacking enough research and professional cultivation, teachers cant take an appropriate method to ask questions. We can often see a teacher asks question for question sake or ce
14、remonially forces to ask questions, which will dampen students vigor and initiative and thus affect the quality of class teaching. Therefore, its the demand of practice to improve and enhance the effectiveness of teachers classroom questioning. 1.3 OrganizationThe study comprises six chapters. Chapt
15、er one introduces background and significance of the study. Chapter two is literature review, including theoretical basis, such as, Krashens input hypothesis, Swans Output Hypothesis and Longs Interaction Hypothesis and the relevant research both at home and abroad. Chapter three lists the problems
16、that exist in the classroom questioning of senior high school. Chapter four explores the factors that lead to the related problems. Chapter five illustrates the strategies to improve the efficiency of classroom questioning. Chapter six makes a conclusion and the limitation of the study.2 Literature
17、Review of Classroom Questioning2.1 Theoretical basisClassroom questioning is an important part of classroom teaching and the main approach for teachers to interact with students. The interaction between teachers and learners in classroom goes on through learners receiving input mainly from teachers
18、and producing output by themselves, which is hypothesized to aid language learning. And this is consistent with the Input Hypothesis, Output Hypothesis and Interaction Hypothesis. 2.1.1 Krashens Input HypothesisEllis claimed, “Input is the language that is addressed to the L2（Second Language）learner
19、 either by a native speaker or by another L2 learner.” In the late 20th century, Krashen (1985) puts forward what he calls the Input Hypothesis. He indicates that development from a learners current stage level of competence, i, to the next stage, i+1, which is a little bit beyond his or her current
20、 level of competence, is achieved through the learner comprehending language. The gap between the learners i and i+1 is bridged by information drawn from the situation and from the learners previous experience. Krashen believes comprehension is necessary in order for the input to became intake. He s
21、tresses that the learners focus of attention during this process is not on the new forms themselves, but on the message being communicated. It maintains that a second language is acquired through processing comprehensible input, i.e language that is heard or read and understood. Besides, Krashen als
22、o states that the best language input has four basic conditions. First, language input should be of large amount. Second, language input should be comprehensible. The purpose is to ensure the learning interest of second language learner. Third, language input should be interesting and closely relate
23、d to the learners life and study. Fourth, the language input should not emphasize too much on grammar. 2.1.2 Swans Output HypothesisOn the basis of long years of research with French immersion programs in Canada, Swain (1985) has put forward Output Hypothesis that emphasizes the opportunities to “pu
24、sh” the students to produce language. The Output Hypothesis has claimed that “comprehensible input is an important factor in language acquisition, but not a sufficient one; learners need the opportunity for meaningful use of their linguistic resources to achieve full grammatical competence in the ta
25、rget language” (Swain, 1985).Swain defines three functions of output: 1. Noticing function: Learners encounter gaps between what they want to say and what they are able to say and so they notice what they do not know or only know partially in this language. 2. Hypothesis-testing function: When learn
26、ers say something there is always a hypothesis underlying e.g. about grammar. By uttering something the learners test this hypothesis and receive feedback from an interlocutor. This feedback enables them, if necessary, to reprocess their hypothesis. 3. Metalinguistic function: Learners reflect about
27、 the language they learn and hereby the output enables them to control and internalize linguistic knowledge. In classroom environment during the interaction of questioning-answering process, students receive input and produce output. According to the Output Hypothesis, more opportunities to utter th
28、e target language should be created and provided by teachers to learners, aiding them to utilize the interactional negotiation, for the purpose of promoting their interlanguage development.2.1.3 Longs Interaction Hypothesis “Interaction is the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas b
29、etween two or more people resulting in a reciprocal effect on each other”(Brown, 1994:159). Scholars has argued a lot about the importance of interaction in L2 classroom, such as Allwright(1984) and Long(1983) etc. And Long thought that not only linguistic modifications but some of the modifications
30、 of speech help or even are of more importance for comprehension. He launched a series of studies that illustrated the relationship between interaction and learners linguistic needs, which is the base of Interaction Hypothesis. The Interaction Hypothesis proposed by Long is considered to be compleme
31、ntary to the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, which is challenged by some researchers for its negligence of the importance of output and/or interaction. The Interaction Hypothesis admits the importance of comprehensible input and emphasizes the function of meaning negotiation to language acquisition
32、. It is claimed that it is a most effective way to maximize the students acquisition when the comprehensible input is modified through the negotiation of meaning (conversational adjustment) or interactional modification. Long believes that “two-way communication” has more advantage in improving SLA
33、(Second Language Acquisition) than “one-way communication”. Because during “two-way communication”, meaning negotiation and interactional modification between speakers can be used to construct the common understanding on the ongoing discourse, aiding to improve the compensability of input (Nunan, 19
34、99). Allwright(1984) also claimed that the comprehensible input has to be combined with interaction in order to improve language acquisition. When communication breakdowns happen, efforts are often made by interlocutors to modify foregoing utterances by means of a variety of strategies so as to impr
35、ove comprehensibility. These strategies are commonly referred to conversational modification devices or interactional modification devices. Long describes fifteen devices for the modification of interaction. Among these, the commonly used devices are comprehension checks, confirmation checks and cla
36、rification requests. And these devices are used statistically significantly more often in native speakernon-native speaker conversations than the native speakernative speaker conversations (Long, 1983). According to Ellis, confirmation checks and clarification requests are often used in the natural
37、environment to conquer the difficulties occurred in the communicative process. Since “language use can be regarded as essentially a matter of the negotiation of meaning” (Widdowson, 1999:104-105), language use in L2 classroom then can be viewed as the interactional negotiation between teachers and l
38、earners. And both sides should be aware of the importance of employing these devices in the classroom interaction, on one hand, to make the teachers utterance as input more comprehensible, and on the other hand improve the understandable output of the learners.2.2 Research abroad2.2.1 Questions type
39、sMany researches on questioning is involved with developing taxonomies to describe types. In general, there are two popular ways of classifying questions.2.2.1.1 Open & Closed questionsBarnes (1969) categorized questions into open and closed questions. An open question refers to a question with no d
40、efinite answers from the responder. The responder can provide any answer that seems appropriate. A closed question, in contrast, is likely to be regarded as clearly right or wrong and often teachers will persist in their questioning until they obtain the response they are seeking. For example, “How
41、many seasons in a year?” is a closed question, while “whats you favorite season?” is an open question.2.2.1.2 Display & Referential questionLong and Sato (1983) divided questions into display questions and referential questions. Display questions refer to those to the questioner has the answer in mi
42、nd. In other words, display questions are used to test the leaner by eliciting already known information. Referential questions, on the other hand, are those questions to which the questioner does not have a definite answer in mind. These questions are used to seek information from the responder. Fo
43、r example, a teacher has a pen in her hand, she asks her students “whats this? Is this a pen?” This question is a display question. Then she continues, “What do you think of the pen?” This is a referential question.2.2.2 Questioning strategiesStrategies are concrete and practical actions that people
44、 perform to accomplish a certain task. And questioning strategies refer to practical actions used in teacher questioning. Teachers adopt questioning strategies to enable classroom questioning effective.Questioning strategies are of great importance in L2 class. With questioning strategies, teachers
45、pose questions skillfully or artfully so as to fulfill some teaching aims effectively and successfully.The classification of questioning strategy is various. For example, Hu (2004) classified questioning strategies into six, and they are probing, chaining, repetition, simplification, rephrasing and
46、decomposition.2.2.3 Wait timeEllis (1999:589) defined wait-time as the length of time the teacher is prepared to wait for an answer. And some other scholars claimed that “wait-time” referred to the length of time elapsing between the initiation of teachers question and the respond of students and be
47、tween the student answers and the following teacher speech act (Rowe, 1986).Rowe(1986)found that teachers wait only approximately one second after asking a question before calling on a student and one second after a student responds before the teachers intervened by probing the responses, rephrasing
48、 the question, redirecting to another student, or providing the answer. Nunan(1991)summarizes the effects of increasing wait time observed in studies. For example, when wait-time is increased, the student responses will be lengthened; there will be more volunteers to respond to the question and the
49、answer will be more appropriate and more speculative; the failures to answer questions will decrease.2.2.4 Teacher feedbackFeedback, according to Brown(1988), means“allowing learners to experience the effect of what they produce as a guide in their future efforts”. Brown believes that Feedback must be more than encouragement, for “empty and automatic encourag