A Literature Review on the Strategies of Teacher’s Questioning

【Abstract】Teachers questioning can not only motivate students interest to take part in the classroom discussion， but also it can influence students language ability. So， many scholars and teachers are concerned about it. In this thesis， the author made a literature review from the strategies of teachers questioning.

【Key words】English teaching； teachers questioning； literature review

【作者簡介】黃叢叢（1992-），男，漢族，江西新余人，贛南師范大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院，在讀研究生，教育碩士，研究方向：英語教育。

1. Research Background

Teachers questioning is a common teaching approach in the English class， many scholars made a lot of achievements about teachers questioning from different perspectives. they are mainly focused on the definition of questioning， the classification of questioning and so on. So， the author mainly from the strategies of teachers questioning to make a literature review.

2. Previous Studies on the Strategies of Teachers Questioning at Home and Abroad

The strategies of teachers questioning can help teachers design some skillful questions to achieve teaching objectives efficiently and finish teaching tasks successfully. Many scholars have made a lot of achievements about it and the author made a review from following aspects：

First， many scholars divided the classification of questioning into many different classification systems. According to the content of teachers questioning， Barnes （1969） classified it into four types which are factual questions， reasoning questions， open questions and social questions. According to the purpose of teachers questioning， Long & Sato （1983） divided it into display and referential questions. In our country， some scholars have put forward the classification of questioning based on abroad studies. Wang & Lu （2002） divided it into five types from the content， learners response and learners cognitive level. According to the Taxonomy of Objectives by Bloom and the critical reading perspective， Liang （2013） divided it into display， referential and evaluation questions.

Second， as for the ways of answering questions， Walsh & Sattes （2009） proposed four ways which are chorus-answering， volunteering， nominating， and teacher self-answering. Some practical researches are studied in the domestic studies， Hu （2004） found the way of teacher self-answering was the highest percentage through the investigation. Other experts suggested teachers should give every students fair opportunity to answer questions.

Third， as for the waiting time， the length of waiting time can influence the quality of students answer. Nuan （1991） thought teachers should give more time for students to think about the questions so that their language output quality should be improved. Walsh & Sattes （2009） claimed teachers prolong the waiting time from 3-5 seconds， more students are willing to answer teachers questions and join the teaching activities. In the domestic studies， many experts have same views about the waiting time. Zhou （2006） sated teachers prolong the waiting time， students can increase the opportunities to take part in the class. But some scholars suggested teachers prolong the waiting time， if students English level are limited， it will make the classroom atmosphere become more depressing.

Last， in terms of teachers feedback， Nunan （1991） suggested simple positive feedback are very hard to make a good effect on students study. Walsh & Sattes （2009） pointed out teachers should make feedback on the basis of teaching situation. Hu （2004） found the proportion of positive feedback is not high and even some teachers didnt give any feedback.

3. The Conclusion about the Study on the Strategies of Teachers Questioning

From above studies about the strategies of teachers questioning， many scholars have made great achievements and proposed a lot of advisable views at home and abroad. It can draw the following conclusions： First， many scholars from theoretical perspectives to propose the classification of teachers questioning， but the display questions and referential questions are most widely adopted by others. Besides， teachers questioning still didnt develop a unified classification system. Second， some researchers made practical studies about the ways of answering questions， waiting time and teachers feedback. However， many practical studies approach is very simplex， most of them implemented their research through classroom observation or investigation， and there is no unified results.

References：

[1]Barnes，D.Language in the Secondary Classroom[M].Harmonds worth：Penguin，1969.

[2]Long，M.&C.Sato.Classroom Oriented Research in Second Language Acquisition[C].Row-ley，Mass：Newbury House，1983.