An introduction into Question Awareness of Dialogue Teaching in English Class

潘盈盈

1. Introduction

Nowadays，creative and talented persons are urgently needed in our country. It is believed that the reform of education should be further carried out alongside with the promotion of quality education， thus improving the sense of creation and the ability to deal with actual things， and in class innovative ability mainly focuses on students question awareness.

2.“Question Awareness” in Dialogue Teaching

2.1 The definition of “Question Awareness”

The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom. Ou Yangwen（1999）pointed that question awareness is a thinking quality. It reflects ones thought， which also reflects the independence of individual thought and creativity. Actually psychologists do not think that they could offer a satisfying definition of “question awareness”. Question awareness is a cognitive imbalance， that is， when an individual being aware of its cognitive structure cannot solve the problems in cognitive progresses. So a state of confusion and exploration resulted.（Yu Guoliang & Hou Ruihe 11）

In English class， question awareness is the starting of creation， and showing an individual's ability of reflection and asking questions. This means the students must have the ability of raising questions and solving problems by themselves. And only during the course of asking questions and trying to solve them can the students bring forth new ideas and make a study of something new. Otherwise， they can only accept what is given by the teachers. Therefore， teachers shouldnt just concentrate their efforts on giving the students some fixed language knowledge. Teachers must pay more attention to develop students curiosity and question awareness， which will really lead to the creative behavior.

3. The influence of the lack of “Question Awareness”

In dialogue teaching， teachers only teach language. There always lacks question awareness. Over years， in class students engaged are rare. The teacher is playing “ping-pong” with individual students（Askew & Lodge， 2000）. In this model the power sits with the teachers， positioning students in a role of passivity. This kind of interaction is not the true teacher-student interaction. Usually book contents are read out in class and students just learn what is taught for them. Tine and again it has been said that learning is boring and so many brilliant minds stop asking questions.

3.1 The reason analysis of “Question Awareness”

3.1.1 Internal factors

（1）Limited knowledge. Some students dont know what teachers are saying. To initiate an effective dialogue， the overlap between the teachers understanding and the students needs to be exposed so that student and teacher can each appreciate each others perspective while reflecting upon their own.

（2）Peer pressure. Usually， these are some students making the class dynamic. There will always be same students that raise their hands to answer questions. It doesnt take long， however， for those raised hands to slowly disappear. In many cases， this is due to peer pressure. Students that answer questions on a regular basis are often dubbed as the “teachers pets” or “nerds.” Peer pressure eventually results in less constructive classroom participation.

（3）Lack of confidence or on the contrary. At the same time， there are students that fear answering questions. They may be introverts， who prefer listening but avoiding all opportunities to speak openly. Some students have a fear of public speaking. Other students may be afraid to give a wrong answer. Some students are too lazy to think. There is a kind of students. They even know the answers， but they just refuse to engage the class. They said some questions are too easy that they dont want to answer.

（4）Listen carefulness. Some students dont know what the questions are. As they dont regard class listening is important， or they just lose interests in some parts and easily drift away.

3.1.2 External factors

（1）The questions are designed not so well. Some questions are too easy or too difficult. There were also many students who said that the questions were hard because they dont get asked questions like that. While some questions with only one answer are limiting and do not encourage imagination， they do not encourage divergent thinking， and they are less likely to encourage self-confidence and self-esteem. Questions with only one answer are often too easy or too hard. The average student is either bored or frustrated. Motivation declines.

（2）There is no enough time for students to think. In too many cases， students rapidly learn that if they answer a question correctly， they may face a follow-up question that they are not prepared to answer. Students with learning differences or that have acute processing difficulties need more time to work through a question. By the time they formulate an answer， the class has already moved on. These students never achieve a level playing field in terms of class participation.

（3）Teachers are too serious， and there is no encouragement. It seemed that teachers do most of the talking， and if we believe that talking is ‘thinking aloud， we wonder who is doing the thinking in our classrooms. Mercer （2000） talks about the infrequency of ‘exploratory talk in classrooms and the need for teachers teaching. Mason （2002） suggests that some features of teacher talk such as repeating back may not necessarily be wrong. We can create opportunities for teachers to view and reflect on their classroom talk so they can deliberately and consciously use these features appropriately to facilitate learning. （Sue Bewley and Dianne Smardon 2）

4. Suggestions for constructing “Question Awareness”

Question awareness is not an activity simply made up of input， process and output， but a complicated task affected by the learners cognitive ability and emotional variables.

4.1 Suggestions for the teachers

Generally speaking， there are two factors affecting students speaking in class. One is that they fail to find suitable words to express themselves and the other is that they are afraid of making mistakes. So a good environment helps the students to think and speak actively and correctly. Here are some ways to build a free and lighted-hearted environment.

（1）Try to arrange the seats of the classroom in a circle or in groups with the students facing each other not in rows and lines.

（2）Let the students speak English sitting in their seats not standing. They will not feel uneasy this way.

（3）Try to get students to do the talking by using non-verbal gestures such as nodding and shifting eye contact to invite other students to contribute.

It is essential to try to build an atmosphere where the students no longer feel shy， where they will voluntarily raise their hands to ask a question and where they will freely voice their own opinions.Encouragement is necessary. After students finish their speaking especially they raise questions in class， teachers should encourage them and let the students feel they have made some progress with a sense of their fulfillment.

4.2 Suggestions for the students

There must be a good learning attitude， and there must be self-confident. Some students who are seen active in the class believe that dialogue can create opportunity for them to think and express their ideas when they can：

（1）listen to others ideas， perspectives and opinions and think about what they have heard， because everyone has different opinions. Then they get to see what other peoples points of views are and they take it in. Theyre more aware of what others think and its not just what they think.

（2）express their ideas and opinions， because if they dont get to talk they wont get to express their ideas.

（3）expand on their ideas. They can carry on from what oehers said and they can learn more things.

5. Conclusion

it is suggested that more effective strategies should be implemented to help further develop students question awareness and their thinking ability. Besides，students learning methods should be paid more attention to. Whats more， teachers should improve their qualities so as to satisfy the need of the students with strong question awareness. If so， developing question awareness will promote English learning to a higher degree. Students will have the ability of learning all their lives. It will be possible to cultivate more creative persons for the future society.

References：

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