高中优秀英语教师课堂提问个案研究论文.pdf

硕士学位论文 m d thesis a case study on classroom questioning of excellent english teachers in senior middle schools 高中优秀英语教师课堂提问的个案研究 高中优秀英语教师课堂提问的个案研究 yao hongxia 姚宏霞 yao hongxia 姚宏霞 contents 独创性声明 i abstract ii 摘要 iv list of abbreviations vi list of tables vii chapter one introduction 1 1 1 background of the study 1 1 2 purpose of the study 2 1 3 significance of the study 3 1 4 organization of the thesis 4 chapter two literature review 6 2 1 studies abroad on teacher questioning 6 2 1 1 definition of questions 6 2 1 2 functions of teacher questioning 6 2 1 3 question types 8 2 1 4 questioning strategies 12 2 1 5 distribution of teachers questions 14 2 1 6 wait time 15 2 1 7 teacher feedback 17 2 2 studies on teacher questioning at home 19 2 3 summary 21 chapter three theoretical background 23 3 1 krashen s input hypothesis 23 3 2 long s interaction hypothesis 24 3 3 swain s output hypothesis 25 chapter four methodology 27 4 1 research questions 27 4 2 subjects 27 4 3 instruments 28 4 3 1 video recording 28 4 3 2 questionnaire 28 4 4 research procedures 29 4 5 data collection and analysis 29 chapter five results and discussion 31 5 1types of questions used by the subjects 31 5 1 1 the ratio of display questions and referential questions 31 5 1 2 a great difference in question types among the subjects 34 5 2 questioning strategies applied by the subjects 36 5 3 question distribution 45 5 4 wait time 47 5 5 the characteristics of feedback 49 chapter six conclusion 57 6 1 findings of the research 57 6 2 implications 59 6 3 limitations and suggestions for the future study 61 bibliography 62 appendix i transcripts of the observed class 68 appendix ii rules of transcription 70 appendix iii questionnaire 89 i ii abstract teacher talk is very important in foreign language teaching not only a means of teaching but only the content of teaching questioning part of teacher talk is one of the most frequently adopted teaching strategies freiberg six types of questioning strategies have been employed in the three classes which are probing repeating self explaining prompting redirection and translation respectively among them probing is the most frequently employed strategy and translation is the least frequently used one the post question wait time which is 4 3 seconds averagely is appropriate for the students to organize and finish their answers in the present research questions are distributed in chorus by nomination and by volunteer the predominant way to distribute questions is in chorus nomination is the least frequently employed way to direct questions positive feedbacks are far more than negative feedbacks among positive feedback simple feedback is the most frequently used one and feedback with in extra input is the least frequently iii employed one during investigation it is found that there are defects in classroom questioning for the excellent english teachers a number of language activities related to questioning answering are advised to be designed on the basis of the characteristics and interests of students and the materials to be taught which are as follows 1 teachers should pay attention to the proportion which display questions and referential questions take up 2 questioning strategies should be enriched again various strategies should be used especially the strategies like probing prompting self explaining etc 3 teachers should distribute their questions as many ways as possible teachers should not depend on one or two of them completely 4 teachers should offer students sufficient time to think a question posed by them of course wait time should not also much too long 5 various ways of positive feedbacks should be adopted in addition negative feedbacks should be adopted adequately 6 teachers should also adequately guide their students to raise questions due to the limitations of the research conditions only a few excellent english teachers are chosen as subjects in the present study and there aren t interviews in the study so there is still much room for further research regarding the issue key words question excellent english teachers senior high school iv 摘 要 摘 要 教师话语在外语教学中起着重要的作用 既是教学的工具 又是教学的内容 提问作为教师话 语的一个组成部分 是教学中使用频率最高的策略之一 freiberg zhou xing and zhou yun 2002 in their article gave a comprehensive description of teachers behaviors including the amount of teacher talk the way of questioning the modification features and the characteristics of teachers feedbacks in chinese a case study on classroom questioning of excellent english teachers in senior middle schools 4 college english classes xu feng 2003 made a study of six college english teachers questioning behaviors in english classroom meng chunguo 2004 centered his survey on four senior high school teachers question types questioning distribution and wait time hu qingqiu et al 2004 investigated and analyzed four college english teachers questioning patterns among which the most famous of the studies is that have been conducted by the beijing normal university research group led by wang qiang 2001 they investigated 33 teachers by recording their classes on video tapes in the first national junior english teaching competition 2001 which in fact were not at all reflective of a typical classroom situation and analyzed the types of classroom questions the students response to teacher questions teachers feedback how many students the teachers directed questions towards and any preferences that teacher showed as to which students they asked another important reason comes from richards findings richards 1987 pointed out that although a number of questioning techniques employed by teachers have been identified in content classroom there is no assurance that the same techniques used by foreign language teachers will also result in effective teaching in addition many classroom oriented researchers have pointed out it is only through analyzing descriptions which show how teachers raise questions to students and through a better understanding of classroom that teacher performance can render their teaching more profitable for learners and hence they can learn a great deal about how to teach all in all the significance of the present study is two fold in theory most studies related to teacher questioning have mainly given a description of its characteristics in english classroom in colleges or universities and most are related to common teachers compared with them studies are scarce on excellent english teacher questioning in senior high schools thus serving as a good supplementary case to the studies in this field in practice it may be beneficial for english classroom teaching in senior middle schools and offer some enlightenment for teaching to other common english teachers in a word the present study will contribute to improving quality of teacher questioning in english classroom and the teaching efficiency in senior high schools especially in the undeveloped area 1 4 organization of the thesis this thesis consists of six chapters chapter one introduces the research background presents the purpose and significance of the study chapter one introduction 5 and then provides the organization of the dissertation chapter two is literature review the related studies abroad in the fields of definition and functions of questioning question types questioning strategies wait time after teachers questions teachers feedback and a selective studies on questioning at home are reviewed chapter three is theoretical background the main theories relating to teacher questionig like the input hypothesis output hypothesis and interaction hypothesis are reviewed chapter four is methodology the objective research questions and research method including the subjects instruments procedures data collection and analysis are introduced in this chapter chapter five shows the results of the study and discussion on the study are carried out chapter six is conclusion including the findings of the research the implications the limitations of the study and suggestions for the future study discussed in this chapter a case study on classroom questioning of excellent english teachers in senior middle schools 6 chapter two literature review 2 1 studies abroad on teacher questioning 2 1 1 definition of questions as for the definition of questions richards et al 2000a 379 suggested that a question is a sentence addressed to a listener reader and asking for an expression of fact opinion belief etc this definition is one of broad sense which covers the areas outside and inside the classroom compared with it ur 2000 229 gave such a definition a question is a teacher utterance which has the objective of eliciting an oral response from the learners this is only suitable to classroom settings the longman dictionary of the english language gives such a definition a question is a command or interrogative expression used to elicit information or a response or to test knowledge according to the definition above not all questions are interrogatives e g i want know why you are late and on the contrary not all interrogatives are questions e g how are you the definition also shows that questions are used to be a way of measuring knowledge by questioning in the classroom teachers can learn about what students have learned and what haven t been known understood of course there are questions used to get information of various kinds take the questions in the classroom for example questioning enable teachers to learn about what students opinion for a topic are and how they deal with matters apart from these there are questions used to make communication going smoothly e g is all right as far as the forms of questions are concerned based on longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics richards and plat 2004 379 cited from pang lingjuan they may be formed by a the use of a question word such as what how when why b by the use of an operator in the first position in a sentence as in can she come c through the use of intonation as in she isn t married d by the use of a question tag such as isn t it it is can he won t she do you etc for example patricia is a student isn t she 2 1 2 functions of teacher questioning teacher questioning is one of the most dominant instructional strategies it is also at the very heart of learning in teaching learning process this mainly lies in its different functions in classroom according to brown and edmondson 1985 teachers use questioning fundamentally to check understanding and chapter two literature review 7 knowledge to aid teaching to diagnose students difficulties to recall facts to test knowledge to direct attention and to maintain control research has consistently showed that the most frequent function of teachers questions is recall usually 60percent or more of all teachers questions management questions may vary between 12 and 30 percent kerry 2002 in the view of morgan and saxton 1991 teacher questioning can help teachers to keep students actively involved in lessons to pace their lessons and moderate student behavior to evaluate student learning and revise their lessons as necessary and it also enable students to have the opportunity to openly express their ideas and thoughts other students to hear different explanations of the material by their peers compared with the opinions of morgan and saxton kauchak and eggen 1989 suggested that the functions of teacher questioning should be classified into three parts diagnostic instructional and motivational in the terms of diagnostic function teacher questioning can help the teacher to learn about students established knowledge by questioning the teacher can glimpse into the minds of students to find out not only what they know or do not know but also what they think about a topic as for the instructional functional function questioning contributes to facilitating students to learn new knowledge integrating the new knowledge with the old one and by questioning the teacher can help students to internalize what have been learned remind students of noticing the important information as to the motivational function teachers can promote students interests in the lesson make them actively take part in the classroom stimulate their thinking by posing questions as far as functions of teacher questioning are concerned penny ur 2005 also have a detailed description to provide a model for language or thinking to find out something from the learners facts ideas opinions to check or test understanding knowledge or skill to get learners to be active in their learning to direct attention to the topic being learned to inform the class via the answers of the stronger learners rather than through the teacher s input to provide weaker learners with an opportunity to participate to stimulate thinking logical reflective or imaginative to probe more deeply into issues to get learners to review and practise previously learnt material a case study on classroom questioning of excellent english teachers in senior middle schools 8 to encourage self expression to communicate to learners that the teacher is genuinely interested in what they think compared with the opinions of penny ur brown 2003 also has some similar explanations he suggested that teachers questioning can elicit particular structures or vocabulary items check students understanding clarify what a student has said and exercise disciplinary control and it can get students to review and practice previously learnt material stimulate or maintain their interest direct their attention to the topic being learned encourage thinking and stimulate students participation in a lesson apart from the functions above christenbury and kelly 1983 gave a little different understanding 1 teacher questioning can motivate students desire and offer them opportunity to produce language without having to risk initiating language themselves in the classroom students seldom initiate conversation or topic for discussion teachers questioning can give students opportunity to practise their second language and express their opinion for the topic in the second language in this way the ability to communicate in the second language can be promoted 2 teachers questions enable students to initiate a series of reaction of interaction among themselves by questioning teachers trigger students thinking and offer them a topic for discussion which contributes to communication s going smoothly 3 teacher questioning can offer students immediate feedbacks about their answer by posing a question a teacher can utilize the student response to diagnose the difficulties in studying 4 teachers questions can give students opportunities to find out what they think by hearing they say as they make responses to questions posed by the teacher they can find out what their own views are this self discovery can be good for their studying in future 2 1 3 question types it is indispensable to question in teacher student interaction teachers typically ask questions whether in content classroom or in language classroom a lot of work has been done to develop taxonomies to describe the different types of teacher questions many scholars have classify questions from different perspectives each reflects a somewhat focus bloom 1956 made categorization of questions according to the cognitive levels his taxonomy consists of six cognitive categories knowledge comprehension application analysis synthesis and evaluation the taxonomy is an organizational strategy in which lower categories are subsumed in higher chapter two literature review 9 ones knowledge the lowest level must be mastered before comprehension the second level can be attempted in fact comprehension is an intellectual process that uses knowledge these six levels have been adapted in formulating school goals assessing learner progress and developing questions bloom s six cognitive levels range from simple recall or recognition of facts through increasingly more complex and abstract intellectual tasks corresponding to the six cognitive categories questions can also be categorized into six levels 1 knowledge questions which require that students recognize or recall information remembering is the key intellectual activity 2 comprehension questions which require that students demonstrate sufficient understanding to organize and arrange material mentally demands a personal grasp of the material 3 application questions which require that students apply information demonstrate principles or rules and use what was learned many but not all educators believe that this is the first of the higher level thought processes 4 analysis questions which require higher level thinking skills it requires students to identify reasons uncover evidence and reach conclusions 5 synthesis questions which require that students perform original and creative thinking often many potential answers are possible 6 evaluation questions which require that students judge the merit of an idea solution to a problem or an aesthetic work these questions might also solicit an informed opinion on an issue barnes 1969 1976 distinguished four types of questions based on his observation in secondary school classroom in britain 1 factual question what 2 reasoning questions how and why 3 open questions that do not require any reasoning and 4 social questions questions that influence student behavior by means of control or appeal barnes has made much of the distinction between two types of reasoning questions close questions and open questions in his opinion a closed question has only one acceptable answer while a open question permits many different acceptable answers in his study he found that the teachers preferred closed questions to open questions he also pointed out that a number of questions sound open but turn out to be closed in fact when the teacher s response to a student s answer is examined what s more he suggested that the teachers only hand over ready made material wh