英语专业毕业论文TeacherQuestioning in the English Classroom.pdf

毕业论文（设计） 1 teacher-questioning in the english classroom in junior middle school 1 introduction.2 2 literature review.3 2.1 overview.3 2.2 definition of teacher-questioning.4 2.3 theoretical background of teacher-questioning. 5 2.3.1approach of communicative language teaching.5 2.3.2 second languageacquisition theory. 5 2.3.3 initiate-respond feedback pattern.7 2.4 the studies of teacher-questioning. 7 2.4.1 reasons of teacher-questioning. 7 2.4.2 functions of teacher-questioning.8 2.4.3 categorization of teacher-questioning in english classroom.9 2.4.4 wait time.13 2.4.5 related studies on teacher questioning.14 2.5 current status of teacher-questioning.15 2.5.1 unawareness of aims of questioning.15 2.5.2 teachers controllment on the right of questioning. 16 2.5.3 inadequate wait time.17 2.5. 4 inadequate the distribution of teacher questioning. 17 2.5. 5 improper feedback and assessment.18 3 teacher-questioning in english classroom in junior middle school.18 3.1 investigation of teacher-questioning in classroom.19 3.1. 1 subjects.19 3. 1. 2instrument.20 3. 1. 3 procedures. 20 3. 1. 4 method of analysis.21 3. 1. 5results and discussions.21 3. 1. 5.1 teacher questioning types.21 percentage.21 display questions.22 referential questions. 22 pseudo-referential.22 questions. 22 count.22 3.1. 5. 2 wait-time.23 3. 1. 5.3 a comparison between teacher questions in the two samples.25 3. 1. 6 implications for language teaching.27 4 conclusions.29 notes.32 references.33 毕业论文（设计） 2 1 introduction in recent years, more and more people learn english from their teachers in the classroom. that is to say, classroom instruction is the main media of english learning. learners are offered a lot of opportunities to study english in the classroom, so various kinds of interactions take place there.among the various kinds of interactions, teacher questioning and student answering is the most important aspect. as a teaching strategy, the high incidence of questioning and its consequent potential for influencing student learning, have led many investigators to examine relationships between questioning methods and student achievement. teachers questions also provide students with opportunities to find out what they think by what they say. many researchers had already indicated that questioning is second only to lecturing in popularity as a teaching method and that classroom teachers spend anywhere from thirty-five to fifty percent of their instructional time conducting questioning sessions. “in second language classrooms, where learners often do not have a great number of tools,yourquestionsprovidenecessarysteppingstonesto communication”(brown,1994:165). at every stage in our education questioning is the core element in language acquisition. questions are one of the most powerful tools that can be used to engage and enhance the mind. questions influence the level of student thought and have the ability to cause further interactions. skilful questioning can lead to more efficient and improved learning. degarmo (jin chuanbao 1997:57) states, “to question well is to teach well.” gooding questioning can induce students 毕业论文（设计） 3 rich language output, involve students in classroom activities, and promote interactions between students and teachers in the target language. a teacher poses questions that encourage students to think in a novice ways. questions provide the opportunity to access students learning from text. questions help teacher understand students ongoing and their cognitive development. therefore, teachers should pose proper questions. these questions will promote students intelligence ability and stimulate students to participate classroom activities and promote the communication and cooperation between teacher and students. for this reason, it is so important to investigate the teacher questioning in junior level students. the thesis consists of four parts. the first part is a brief introduction of the whole study. the author states the importance of teacher questioning, objective and significance of the study. the second part is concerned with the literature review of teacher questioning. the third part of this thesis presents a study of teacher questioning in junior middle english classroom. in this essay, two samples of teacher questions were looked into to find out the types and distribution of teacher questions and the wait time. the main devices in this study are classroom observation. it was found that the experienced teacher was better at employing teacher questions for interaction than the novice teacher. the last part is the conclusion. 2 literature review 2.1 overview according to postman (1979:140), “all our knowledge results from questions.” 毕业论文（设计） 4 at every stage in our education, questioning is the core element between the teacher and students in communication. articles on the subject of classroom questioning often begin by invoking socrates. according to researchers and other writers thesis, we know that questioning has a long and venerable history as an educational strategy. nowadays, questioning is one of the most popular modes of teaching. 2.2 definition of teacher-questioning the word questioning is from the latin verb quaere which means to seek. words acquire, inquire and require include the meaning to get something from others, so they have the same root with questioning. according to longman dictionary of language teaching mehan,1979).following is an example of the irf form: initiate (teacher): when in the national day? respond (student):octbor.1 feedback (teacher): right. irf form often focuses on “known answer” questions. it is regarded as a means to access student knowledge. xie chun-miao (2007) states in her research, the initiation from the teacher serves as the input of the target language, students performance in the language is the output of language and feedback from the teacher enhances learnersacquisition of language. 2.4the studies of teacher-questioning 2.4.1 reasons of teacher-questioning effective questioning is one of the most important skills when teachers give lessons. it is found that teacher put up many questions; they also realize the reasons of questioning. teacher use questioning during a class to stimulate thinking, assess 毕业论文（设计） 8 student progress, check on teacher clarity, emphasize key points, and many more things. the act of asking questions has the potential to greatly facilitate the learning process and foster teacher-student in interaction if done correctly. in this essay, the following reasons of teacher-questioning will be studies. (ur, 2000:229): (1) to let learners present information like facts, ideas and opinions. (2) to make examinations about learners “understanding, knowledge or skills”. (3) to engage learners actively in participating in their learning. (4) “to stimulate thinking (logical, reflective or imaginative); to probe more deeply into issues.” (5) “to get learners to review and practice previously learnt materials.” 2.4.2 functions of teacher-questioning teacher use question to develop interest and motivate students to become actively involved in lessons. teacher can gain teaching information from students answers so that teacher knows their learning difficulties. questioning can stimulate students to pursue knowledge on their own. they can be used to allow the learners to keep participating in the discourse and even modify it so that the language used becomes more comprehensible and personally relevant.”(richards and lockhart 1996:185).according to kauchak and eggen (1989:104), these functions can be divided into three areas: diagnostic, instructional and motivational. “as a diagnostic tool, classroom questions allow the teacher to glimpse into the minds of students to find out not only what they know or dont know but also how 毕业论文（设计） 9 they think about a topic”(ibid). “the structure of students existing knowledge is a powerful determinant of whether and how novice information will be learned and that often students misconceptions and prior beliefs interfere with the learning of novice materials” (mayer, 1987; cornbleth, 1985; champagne et al., 1980). so the teacher can examine studentsknowledge through questioning. ellis (1994) consider that teacher questioning provide students with opportunities to use target language and find out what they think by what they say. questioning helps students to learn novice knowledge and integrate old knowledge, which is the instructional function. questioning makes students explain their thinking. once ideas are under discussion, it enables correct language to be used to talk. teacher sometimes stopped periodically to ask questions to ensure that the students were on task. besides, questioning serves as a way of maintaining discipline and develops an appropriate study environment. as for motivational function, the teacher can involve students actively in the lesson by questioning, encouraging students to think and raise problems. questioning stimulates students to think. when teachers ask questions, students are encouraged to master knowledge to form their answers. 2.4.3 categorization of teacher-questioning in english classroom there are many different ways to categorize questions, all of which have both advantages and disadvantages. different scholars make categorization of questions from different perspectives. 毕业论文（设计） 10 in one of the earliest, barnes (1969, 1976) divides questions into four types:1) factual questions ( “what?” ), 2) reasoning questions (“how?” and “why?”), 3) open questions (questions that do not require any reasoning), 4) social questions (questions that influence students behavior). following barnes, other scholars enrich the categorization of questions. long and stato (cited in ganyan, 2006:11) divides questions into three types: 1) display questions: teacher already knows the answers.2) referential questions: those to which the questioner does not already know the answer.3) pseudo-referential questions: those to which the questioner does not already know the answer, but is still testing the students knowledge of a specific point. according to hargies (1981), questions can be classified into the recall/process questions and the closed/open questions. (1) recall and process questions recall questions largely focus on the retrieval of knowledge, i.e. peoples recollection of previous experience or knowledge. the answer to a recall question is particular information that has been learnt by the respondent, whether it is correct or not. e.g. whats the main ideal of the passage? recall question help students review knowledge. it will improve students abilities to organize their own learning. learners do not need to apply their high cognitive capacity. process questions ask students to explain the procedures, for example, “could you tell me how to go to ” in process questioning, the teacher can ask learners to make a decision, to voice out their opinions. therefore, learners exploit their 毕业论文（设计） 11 reasoning skills, judging skills as well as higher mental competence and more time on questions may be required. (2) closed and open questions closed and open questions are the most frequent types and are easily identified. there are some distinctions between closed question and open question. closed questions are often with only one acceptable answer, or answers in a few words or a short sentence. cole and chan state(1994:176), “closed questions encourage convergent thinking and allow only a narrow range of prescribed responsesthese kinds questions demand specific and unambiguous responses. open questions stress divergent or creative thinking and allow a wide range of acceptable responsesthese kinds of questions do not haverightand wronganswers in the way that closed questions do” (1994:176). closed questions can be subdivided into three types: a. selection questions. e.g. “which subjects do you like best, chinese or english?” b. yes/no questions. e.g. “do you come from england?” c. identification questions. e.g. “what time do you go to school?” open questions are for the respondent to provide all possible answers to the questions. open question is for checking students understanding of knowledge or skills. there are several advantages while teachers ask open questions. first, open questions can help students participate actively in learning english. second, open questions also offer opportunities for teachers to know students background. besides, if the students know they would be asked to answer questions, they would increase 毕业论文（设计） 12 their attention in class. the two basic types of open questions are description questions and comparison questions. for example, “what were you doing at 4:30 p.m. yesterday?” which is an open question. according to blooms (cited from ganyan, 2006) famous work, the “taxonomy of educational objectives,” (1956), questions are categorized into six levels, ranging from knowledge level to the evaluation level. 1) knowledge: ask pupils to remember information they have previously learned. 2) comprehension: ask pupils to express ideas in their own words or to interpret the major elements in a piece of writing to make them more accessible to himself or someone else. 3) application: ask pupils to understand a general principle and apply it in novice situation. 4) analysis: ask pupil to break down subject matter into its parts, and to study the nature of those parts and relationship between. 5) synthesis: ask the pupils to build a novice idea, plan or experiment. 6) evaluation: ask pupils to make judgments particularly about quality. (based on bloom et al, 1956 and kerry, 1982) there are many different types of teacher questions which made it difficult to decide on which type is better. barnescategorization is based on the form of question and the length of students answers. according to whether the questions answer is known to the questioner, long and stato divides questions into three types. i quite agree with them, referential questions may be either open or closed. distinction 毕业论文（设计） 13 between open and closed questions is simple, referential questions and open questions are all closely related to each other, they all usually require more than one answer and will encourage students creative abilities to work out the answer. bloom is one of the most well-known figures, with his research partners, designed the famous six levels of cognition found in questions. among these levels of questions, knowledge level questions are usually regarded as being lower-level questions, while comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation are regarded as the higher level questions