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習一下句型的時候，就是當他們學過之後，我也會用英文來讓他們練習。”
[= The questions I ask in class are based on the content in the textbook. My questions vary according to different goals and situations. If I want to guide them to the content of the lesson, or if I want to elicit particular answers, I would design such kinds of questions. For instance, when I teach grammar, which involves more special terms, for example, what (kind of verb) is followed by an auxiliary verb? I won’t use English to interact with them. And, if today I want to lively guide my students to the content of the lesson, I will use English. In addition, if I want my students to practice/review the sentence patterns they learned before, I would also use English to let them practice.]
Extract from the interview with Helen.
“至於問什麼類型的問題，我不太一定，為了教學需要，我會問 display questions。
如果要引導學生進入這課課文，或是希望他們把錯誤的觀念呈現出來的時候，
例如說:同學你可以幫我看一下這個句子有沒有問題? He go to the park yesterday 哪 邊有問題? 除此之外，我也會使用一些 referential questions ，尤其當我要詢問個人 的意見或想法的時候。”
[= As for what types of questions I ask in class, it depends on the situation. To achieve my teaching goals, I would use display questions to help my students engage in the content of the lesson or elicit students’ errors. For instance, I will ask my students if the following sentence is correct. “He go to the park yesterday. What’s wrong with the sentence?” In addition, I would also use some referential questions to ask the students’
personal opinion and thinking.] Extract from the interview with Helen.
Teacher’s Questioning Strategies
Helen mentioned that in answering a question, one needs to go through three basic steps: to comprehend the questions, to know the answers, and to put their ideas in English. The first step in answering a question is to understand the question. If the students did not understand her questions, she would give them some clues to the expected answer, which helped the students focus on the domain of appropriate answers. In addition, she would rephrase the question to make it comprehensible. Helen further reported that the difficulty of her questions varied according to the students’ linguistic proficiency. Sometimes, she would design some questions to challenge her students sufficiently but without overwhelming
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them. Normally, she would assign certain students who were able to answer her questions as she commented,
“當學生不會回答你的問題，可能有三個部分。不懂問題本身，不知道答案，
或者是不懂得怎麼去用英文表達出來，如果他完全聽不懂我的問題時，他可能是 需要語言上的協助，我通常會給他一些字，或是嘴巴會做出嘴型出來，讓他們去 follow 一些東西。基本上，我問問題會看人，也會看他們的能力，所以我不會拿一 個超難的問題去問一個完全回答不出來的人，那這樣的情況下，基本上它真的回 答不出來的時候，我覺得小組有一個好處就是旁邊的人就會幫忙他，會教他，就 是教他的時候，這孩子雖然只是學到了 repetition，他至少做到一件事，就是他說 出來了。我也會做英文的提示，然後有時候會用到 translation 的部分，然後還有做 嘴型的提示。例如說 Where did you go this summer vacation？如果說他完全聽不懂 的時候，那我可能就會問他 Where were you this summer vacation？或問一些 For example，I went to UK this summer vacation. 就是我會給他一些例子，我就會做出 來，然後他只要把例句的地方，UK 的地方劃掉就可以。”
[= When students cannot answer the questions in class, their silence may be related to three factors. They may not understand your question itself; they do not have the answer; or they cannot express the answer in English. If one student does not understand my question, I think he may need help with English. I usually give them some words or ask them to read my lips to let them follow. Basically, the difficulty of my questions varies according to students’ linguistic proficiency. I would not assign students who are not able to answer my questions. If students really have difficulty understanding the question after the modification, group members would help the student get the correct answer. Maybe the students just learn repetition: repeat what others say. At least, they produce the target language. In addition, I would give students hints in English or do some translation. Sometimes I may use my lips as a hint. For example, I ask one student:
Where did you go this summer vacation? If the student has no idea about what’s going on, I would rephrase my question like: Where were you this summer vacation? Or else I would give him some examples: I went to UK this summer, for example. Then he could just follow the example, delete UK and replace other words.] Extract from the interview with Helen.
The second step in answering a question is to know the answer to the question. According to Helen’s teaching experiences, junior high school students were very frank, if they did not know how to answer the question in English, they
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would tell Helen directly. She would help them get the answer. However, if they were struggling for the answers, her strategy would be different. She would give them more time to help them construct their answers. She commented in the following interview,
“那如果是學生不知道我問題的答案時，我覺得有一個很重要的是學生的安靜 是有很多層面，就像你剛剛講的，那如果是今天他不知道問題的答案的時候，通 常國中生都蠻坦白，他就會跟你講他不知道耶。如果那個答案是死的，例如他不 知道一加一等於二的時候，你跟他講 two，那只不過給他答案而已，但可是如果是 他需要一點時間釐清他的想法時候，例如說:你最喜歡的運動是甚麼？可是他還在 掙扎是籃球或羽毛球時，或是他不知道籃球英文怎麼講的時候，那你的做法就會 不同，如果他是掙扎哪個答案的時候，就多給他一點時間，如果是他不知道 basketball 怎麼講的時候，其實他就會講籃球，那你就給他一個英文 basketball，他 就會 repeat 那就 ok 啦。”
[= When the students are unresponsive to my questions, it involves many
factors/layers just like what you said. If students don’t know my answer, they would be frank with you by saying they don’t know the answer. When the question has an absolute answer such as what is one plus one, I would just tell them “two”, giving them the answer directly. And if they need time to process their answers, for instance, if I ask one student: what his favorite activity is, my strategy will be different depending on the situation. If he is struggling for the answer, basketball or badminton, I would give him more time. But if he doesn’t know how to say basketball in English, I will give him the word, basketball. He can repeat the word and answer my question. ] Extract from the interview with Helen.
The third step in answering a question is to put their ideas in English. When the students had no ideas how to answer the question in English, Helen would give them some key words or sentence patterns to follow. Their group members would also help them get the answers. Helen pointed out,
“如果學生不懂如何用英文表達時，這時我的策略會在一句裏頭會給一些重點 字，或是重點句型，或是藉由其他同學的幫助，然後讓他回答出答案來。”
[= If students don’t know how to answer the question in English, I will help them by giving them some key words or sentence patterns. Or they can ask their group
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members for help and get the answer. ] Extract from the interview with Helen.
To conclude, Table 5 summarized the participating teacher’s beliefs for more clarification. The results were presented sequentially in terms of seven elements relevant to classroom interaction and questioning.