PragmaticsAnalysisofImproperQuestioninginEnglishClass

【Abstract】Questioning， a kind of teacher talk， plays an important role in language teaching. This paper tries to analyze the inappropriate questionings in terms of the Cooperative Principle and the Politeness Principle in the pragmatics field. If English teachers could abide by these pragmatics principles in questioning， the quality of teaching and studying could be enhanced.

【Key words】inappropriate questioning； teacher talk； pragmatics principles

1. Introduction

Teacher talk is not only an implement for teachers to carry out the teaching program， but also an important resource for language input， hence it is of great concern in organizing teaching activities and learners acquisition. Except for the above advantages， it has other special functions， for example， livening up the atmosphere in the classroom and motivating students learning. Questioning has three steps， pre-questioning， questioning， and post-questioning. Here， I want to study those seemingly correct questions which have no mistakes in grammar， but are used unsuitably in the context from the aspects of the CP and the PP in pragmatics field.

2. Implications of the CP to questioning in ELT class

Grice （1975） proposed that in ordinary conversations， speakers and hearers share a cooperative principle involving four maxims to govern the efficiency and normal acceptability of conversations. They are the maxim of quantity， the maxim of quality， the maxim of relation， and the maxim of manner. In short， it asks for speakers to say something informative， truthful， relevant and acceptable.

In order to know better the CP in teacher questioning， lets have a look at the following example.

T：What are indispensable qualities of great men？Napoleon， of course， is a great man who made a contribution to the British；Premier Zhou Enlai， is a great man who worked hard to serve the foundation of new China. So Jessie， can you tell me？

S1：Er…Churchill？

T：I mean their common qualities， Leo， please！

S2：…

From the teacher questioning above， we can see that， this teacher goes against the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner in the CP. In addition， he gave a wrong answer at last. The questions had better be brief and orderly， avoiding obscurity of expression and irrelevance. Then students can easily know intentions of teachers and are more willing to interact by answering questions.

3. Implications of the PP to teacher questioning in ELT classendprint

As we all know， language is a means to express the politeness， while the politeness restricts the use of language. In Brown and Levinsons terms， politeness is concerned with the positive image or impression of oneself that one shows or intends to show to the other participant in communication. On one hand， in social communication， people attempt to offer a positive image which reflects their values and beliefs.

Therefore， teaching EFL should concern learners face-wants. The teacher should choose appropriate politeness principles to satisfy learners face needs. We can see from the example above that this teacher also violates the PP. After the first student answers this question mistakenly， the teacher doesnt let him answer this question once again， but asks another student to answer directly. No matter whether this teacher is on purpose or not， he or she has hurt the first students feeling.

The PP is linked with teacher questioning， especially raising questions， giving feedback， and teachers responses to the answer. Brown and Levinson distinguished positive politeness strategies from negative politeness ones. Positive politeness strategies indicate the closeness and intimacy between speakers and hearers， while negative ones show the social distance between participants.

3.1 Politeness strategies used when raising questions

When a teacher is asking a question， he or she has to think about a lot of factors. First， the acceptability and comprehensive ability of students. If he asks a question that only a small part of students can answer， the rest of students may feel unbalanced and lose confidence. Secondly， the type of question. Questioning in a direct way sounds like giving the order， which engenders fear of answering. For example， “Lucy， retell the story.” This kind of imperative sentences brings a kind of an uncompromising and threatening feeling， thus the students feel nervous and refuse to answer questions by keeping silent. Thirdly， in order to make every student have equal chances to answer questions， teachers should be aware to ask those academically poor students. Here， sympathy maxim and the strategy of encouragement can be used. The question like “It doesnt matter even if you make a mistake. Leo， could you have a try？” could be a better choice. If Leo was still not brave enough， “Dont worry. Its not difficult at all. Just speak out your idea loudly”. These words arouse their confidence and stir up enthusiasm to take an active part in classroom activities. Last but not the least， when raising a question with mistakes on grammar or tense， the teacher should be modest to confess faults and apologize to the students.endprint

3.2 Politeness strategies used when responding to students answers

Feedback is an indispensible part of teacher questioning. Students can know whether they have performed well， and they always have great expectations to be praised. There are two types of feedback， positive feedback and negative feedback. In order to take care of students affection， in most cases， teachers adopt positive feedback， such as “Good！” “Well done！” and “Excellent！” When students are aware of teachers care and encouragement in the words， they will change the bad learning habits gradually. Besides， teachers can say “Thank you！” or “ Thats so kind of you” in a modest way not only for their right answers， but for being willing to cooperate.

When students seem hard to express their idea， teachers must be patient and provide hint to guide them. For example， “I think you may sum up the main meaning this way…” or “You have a great idea， but how do you think if…”. As for how to treat students undesired answers， some teachers censure them heavily by using negative sentences. And even “Thats terribly wrong.” some teachers say with a furious look， which deeply hurts students sense of self-respect. At this time， teachers should say “I know you are not deliberate…”. Attribute the mistakes to inadequate endeavor. They can also use the sentence like “Youve done well in other subject. I believe you will catch up if you make more efforts.”

Generally speaking， it is better not to interrupt while students are answering questions. But when students are coming up with an innovative idea which is worth discussion among the classmates， the behavior of interruption is allowed. In order not to break learners face needs， teachers have to apologize before interruption， for example， “Sorry， can you stop here？” .In this way can a harmonious relationship between teachers and students be built.

4. Conclusion

Teacher questioning not only acts as language input， but is a method to assess teaching results. How to make full use of it effectively in ELT class is a big challenge for foreign language teachers. This paper attempts to point out some commonly inappropriate questionings and analyze them with the combination of the CP and the PP. Whats more， it calls attention for teachers to improve the ability of questioning and have a good knowledge of pragmatics with which to solve problems. Only in this way can ELT be more efficient.

References：

[1]吳若丹.英语课堂教师话语的语用探析[J].南昌教育学院学报，2011.

[2]利奇，G.语用学原理[M].伦敦：朗文出版社，1983.

作者简介：熊锐（1988.9-），女，汉族，河南息县人，助教，研究方向：英语教学。endprint