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CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The chapter was divided into four parts. First, the findings of the study were summarized as the conclusions of the study. The second part provided the
implications for language teaching and teacher training. The next two parts illustrated the limitations of the study and offered some suggestions for future research.
Summary of the Study
The study aimed to better understand a junior high school English teacher’s beliefs and teaching practices regarding classroom interaction and questioning. To achieve the purpose, qualitative methods were adopted including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall interview, and field notes.
The participants included one junior high school English teacher and one seventh grade class in a medium-sized school in Taichung city. Data were collected from August of 2008 to December of 2008. Findings and conclusions of the study were categorized into three parts with a view to answering the three research questions.
1. What are the English teacher’s beliefs about classroom interaction and questioning?
2. How does the English teacher actually practice during lessons?
3. What are the consistency and inconsistency between the English teacher’s beliefs and practices?
Regarding the first research question, data transcriptions from the
semi-structured interviews were presented to illustrate the participating teacher’s beliefs. Seven elements derived from classroom interaction and questioning were used to display the teacher’s beliefs: the significance of classroom interaction,
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choice of language, activity type, communicative language use, the purpose of questioning, teachers’ questioning types, and teachers’ questioning strategies.
The results of this study showed that the participating teacher acknowledged the importance of classroom interaction. She believed that language was a useful tool, and to help the students acquire ability to use English in real communication was perceived by her as an important aim in her English teaching. Furthermore, Helen mentioned that questioning was a good way to promote a great amount of learner target language production. Therefore, she often used questioning to engage the learners’ attention, promote verbal responses, and evaluate learner’
progress. For Helen, different types of questions had their place in her classroom.
Display questions allowed her to check students’ understanding while referential questions enabled her to encourage her students to provide their own information in the classroom. In addition to questioning types, Helen claimed that sometimes she would use questioning strategies such as repeating, rephrasing, giving clues to guide the students to respond to her questions in class.
Regarding the second research question, data transcriptions from the classroom observations were presented to illustrate the participating teacher’s actual practices. The results of this study showed that the participating teacher utilized a list of strategies to promote classroom interaction. Group activities such as games, role play, questioning and so forth were introduced to encourage the students to speak up in class. However, non-communicative language practices in terms of grammatical focus, the use of drill and controlled practices were
distinguishing features in her classroom.
The significance of questioning was perceived and put into practice by Helen through her high frequencies of questioning in her teaching. Helen’s beliefs of the importance of questioning were put into practice through her skillful use of
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display questions and referential questions. In her actual classroom practices, it was found that Helen incorporated each type of question to promote classroom interaction. However, students did not always respond immediately after teacher’s questions. If the reply called for did not appear, Helen would employ questioning strategies. The questioning strategies included repetition, rephrasing, giving clues and so forth.
Regarding the third research question, the data of semi-structured interviews were compared with those of classroom observations to examine the consistency or inconsistency between the participating teacher’s beliefs and her teaching practices. The results of this study revealed the consistency of the participating teacher’s beliefs and practices in five areas: the significance of classroom
interaction, choice of language, the purpose of questioning, teachers’ questioning types and teachers’ questioning strategies. Consistency was concluded when the beliefs could be practiced with concrete activities. The inconsistency between the teacher’s beliefs and practices was found on the elements of activity types and communicative language use.
The results of the consistency between the teacher’s beliefs and practices showed that her beliefs greatly influence the way how she carried out instructional classroom practices. The results of inconsistency, on the other hand, revealed that the teacher’s teaching practices were constricted by her teaching context. The contextual factors included textbooks, time constraints, large class size, students’
limited proficiency and diverse abilities in English.
Implications
A few implications for English teachers are worth discussing: First, teachers should take part in reflection awakening. Since teaching is an ongoing process,
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teachers should equip themselves with nonstop reflection to improve their teaching practice. Helen’s case may help teachers reflect their own teaching and offer another direction to deal with their context of work. Teachers should be encouraged to verbalize their beliefs in open forums and test them in their classrooms through reflection in and on practice.
Second, the participating teacher’s beliefs and practices about classroom interaction and questioning reflect a wealth of practical knowledge. The study outlined some strategies the teacher utilized to promote classroom interaction and students’ participation. If the strategies are appropriate and can bring about
desirable educational goals, English teachers should be aware of the strategies and their values.
Third, teachers should provide students with more opportunities to speak English. Teacher-fronted discussion may be effective to deliver knowledge but it does not allow greater opportunities for interaction. To provide students with more opportunities to practice English, teachers’ questioning is recommended.
Limitations
The present study has a few limitations that may affect the validity of the results. First, the study sample was small and only included one English teacher.
Since there was only one teacher in the current study, the study may merely reflect idiosyncrasies of the particular teacher and not the tendency of teachers in general.
Second, the level of the class observed may affect the findings. The students observed were in the first year of junior high school. The students’ limited English proficiency might affect the participating teacher’s actual teaching practices. She may introduce different teaching and learning activities to advanced learners such as communicative activities. If more classes with different levels were observed,
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the findings might be richer than the present findings.
Third, the study only focused on the teacher’s beliefs and practices disregarding the student’s viewpoints toward classroom interaction and
questioning. To obtain a complete picture with regard to classroom interaction, students’ perspective should be included.