國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
60
present grammar instruction, get a learning activity start and introduce classroom activities.
3.Activity Type Whole-class instructional methods were the most commonly used models in Helen’s teaching.
4.Communicative Language Use Little of the language used in the classroom was genuinely communicative. Most of the interaction was mechanical like drill practice.
5. the Purpose of Teachers’
Questioning
Questioning was designed to engage the students in the content of the lesson, to facilitate their comprehension, and to promote classroom interaction.
6. Teachers’ Questioning Types Referential questions were used to elicit the students’
opinions and promote classroom interaction while display questions were used to practice certain language
structures and to check the students’ understanding of certain linguistic forms.
8. Questioning Strategies Questioning strategies were used to help the students to respond in class such as repeating, rephrasing, and giving clues.
Consistency and Inconsistency between the Teacher’s Beliefs and Practices Research Question3: What are the consistency and inconsistency between the teacher’s beliefs and practices?
Consistency
There was much consistency between Helen’s beliefs derived from the interview and her practices obtained from the classroom observations.
Consistency was concluded when the beliefs could be practiced with concrete activities. Among the seven elements through which Helen’s beliefs and
classroom practice were displayed, five of them showed consistency between her beliefs and actual practices. The five elements were: the significance of classroom interaction, choice of language, the purpose of questioning, teachers’ questioning types and teachers’ questioning strategies.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
61
Helen held true that interaction was significant in her teaching in that it had a powerful influence on the quality of the learners’ learning experience. Interaction enabled Helen to evaluate her students’ understanding, improve classroom dynamics, lead to the students’ full participation, and train students’ listening and speaking abilities. In her actual teaching, it was found that she utilized a list of strategies to promote classroom interaction. Group activities such as games, role play, question-and-answer exchanges and so forth were introduced to encourage the students to speak up in class. It was found that the students participated actively when Helen introduced these activities.
According to Helen, the use of target language is encouraged in foreign language classroom; therefore, she would provide a rich target language
environment for her students. In her teaching, it was found that the students were encouraged to use the target language to practice the sentence patterns or
communicate with her. For example, before presenting dialogues and reading, she would have some small talk with the students in English to strike up a
conversation. Besides, Helen claimed that sometimes the use of Chinese could assist in the teaching and learning processes. Thus, she would resort to Chinese when explaining certain difficult concepts or presenting grammar. Chinese was also used when she got a learning activity start or introduced classroom activities in her teaching.
The significance of questioning was also perceived and put into practice by Helen through her high frequencies of questioning in her teaching. In the semi-structured interview, Helen mentioned that questioning was a good way to promote a great amount of learner target language production. Given questioning’s obvious importance in teaching and learning process, it is not surprising that Helen often used questioning to draw the learners’ attention, promote verbal
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
62
responses, and evaluate learner’ progress.
Helen’s beliefs about the importance of questioning were put into practice through her skillful use of display questions and referential questions. According to 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 class. In her actual classroom practices, it was found that Helen incorporated each type of question to promote classroom interaction.
Furthermore, Helen claimed that sometimes she would use some
questioning strategies to guide the students to respond to her questions in class. In her teaching, it was found that Helen sometimes repeated or rephrased her
questions to make the previous question more comprehensible and answerable within the learners’ L2 competence.
Inconsistency
On the whole, in the areas explored, data showed few inconsistencies between what the participating teacher said she believed about classroom
interaction and questioning and her actual practice in the classroom; nevertheless, the participating teacher was observed compromising certain beliefs in her
classroom. The inconsistency between the participating teacher’s beliefs and practices was found on the elements of communicative language use and activity types.
First, Helen’s endorsement of communicative approach as a good teaching strategy was not authenticated in her teaching practice. It was found that little of the language used in the classroom was genuinely communicative if we define communication as an exchange of information. The teacher almost knew the
‧
answer to the questions before she asked them, and students seldom had the chance to ask questions of their own, not to mention to negotiate for meaning. It was found that most of the interaction was mechanical like drill practice. The students were trained to give rapid, automatic responses.
Furthermore, Helen claimed that group work was another effective strategy to promote classroom interaction. Group work allowed the students to take more turns, produce more language and promote a great amount classroom interaction.
However, the function of group work was limited. In her actual teaching, it was found that the students seldom used English to discuss and communicate with their group members. The students were simply put into groups and cooperated with one another in pursuit of higher grades.
To sum up, this chapter has identified the English teacher’s beliefs and practices regarding classroom interaction and questioning. For more clarification, Table 7 summarized the participating teacher’s beliefs and her actual classroom practices to examine the evidence of consistency or inconsistency between the two.