英语论文网

stioning are conducted by many linguists and researchers abroad (Barnes,1969; Long & Sato, 1983; Allright, 1984; Nunan, 1987, 1991; Ellis, 1999; Brown, 1994;Richards& Lockhart, 2000; Feldman; 2003; Marilyn, 2007). In 1990s, many domesticresearchers like Liu Xianguo (2000), Zhou Xing& Zhou Yun (2002), WangDuqin&Ying Jing& Tu Zhenhe (2002), Zhang Lingkun (2006), Zhou Jing& Zhu Dan(2015) etc. focus on the teachers’questioning in EFL (English as a Foreign Language)classroom by observing teachers’ behaviors. In this section, some researches done onmain aspects of teachers’ questioning will be reviewed, including the definition ofteachers’ questioning, classifications of questions, questioning strategies used byteachers, teachers’feedback, waiting time, and distribution of questions.

2.1 Definition of Questioning
In classroom teaching, teachers design questions on the basis of the teachingobjectives, participants, teaching context etc. The research history of teachers’questioning abroad is quite long. The earliest systematic research on the teachers’questioning can be traced back to the research on the number of questions by theAmeracan psychologist Stevens in 1912. Nowadays teachers’ questioning is still apopular research topic among many educators. According to the Longman Dictionaryof the English Language (1984), “question” refers to the interrogative sentences usedto check one’s knowledge or to seek some information. In classroom settings, the“question” is defined as an instructional tool used by teachers to prompt or stimulatestudents to think and give corresponding responses (Cotton, 1998). Broadly speaking,a question is “a sentence which is addressed to a listener/reader to ask for an expressionof fact, opinion, belief, etc.” (Richards and Lockhart, 2000) . However, we should payattention to the point that questions are not necessarily in the form of the interrogatives(Richards and Lockhart, 2000). Take the command “Now tell me when you often go toschool” as an example. Though it is not in the form of interrogation, it has the functionof a question.“Questioning” is also defined by many scholars abroad and at home.According toReigeluth, questioning is used to explore some responses or feedback in the form of aseries of signals. (Cited in Liu Xianguo, 2000: 1-3). Jin Chuanbao (1998) states thatteachers’questioning is used to check students’understanding, promote them to think,improve their knowledge and learning ability in an active way by the mutualcommunication between teachers and students in forms of posing a question. Accordingto the American educational expert, Sterling G. Callahan, “questioning is a basic toolfor teachers which is used to promote students to think, check students’understandingand achieve teaching goals” (cited in Zhang Lingkun, 2006).To sum up, teachers’ questioning can be defined as a kind of teaching behavior.On the basis of teaching objectives and students’ needs, teachers prompt students tothink, to interact, and improve their language competence by using questioning.
.........

2.2 Classifications of Questions
Different scholars divide questions into different types. The earliest classificationof questioning abroad is Barnes’ classification (1969) who divides the questions intofactual questions (“what”), inferential questions ( “how” and “why” ?), open questions(without any reasoning ) and communicative questions ( affect the behavior of