Teach English in Longfeng Zhen - Jinzhong Shi

Frequently, teachers are understood to be the givers of information and students are the recipients. Students are expected to learn and absorb all of the information that teachers present to them. However, students can often learn much more effectively when teachers shift away from this one-sided relationship to a mutual, back-and-forth interaction. In other words, students often benefit from having to answer questions asked by the teacher, whether they give this answer based on prior knowledge, logic, or pure guessing. This teaching style is sometimes referred to as the Socratic teaching method, and is generally praised as a way to encourage students’ critical thinking by giving questions instead of answers. Consistently and frequently asking students questions instead of feeding them the answers in the EFL classroom has three different kinds of benefits: it improves the effectiveness and efficiency of lessons, it facilitates better learning of English, and it encourages student confidence. There are two primary ways in which asking students questions improves the success and efficiency of teacher’s lessons in the classroom. Firstly, doing so decreases teacher talk time and increases student talk time. This is especially true if the question requires a longer explanation, as opposed to a word or two. Ideally, questions should be designed to require critical thinking and thus a detailed answer, allowing the student to talk more. Asking questions gives students more opportunities to engage with the lesson and practice their speaking skills in class. It can prevent students’ attention from drifting because they must not only listen, but also talk. In particular, this can be a good method to increase the talk time of students who are reluctant to speak, as these students may be unlikely to ask the teacher questions. If the teacher did not ask the student questions, they might never speak up in class. Secondly, asking questions allows for more opportunities for the teacher to evaluate students’ knowledge and progress without allotting time specifically for evaluation such as giving assessments. While exams and assessments likely will still be needed at times, asking questions is an efficient and often less stress-inducing way to evaluate students. Asking students questions about previously covered material can test their memory and comprehension. Asking students questions about new material can tell the teacher multiple things. The teacher will be able to surmise whether the student has already learned about the material from another source. If the student has not learned the material before, the teacher can determine which elements of the material are more intuitive and which will be more difficult for the students based on their answers. There are also two ways in which questioning students enhances their learning of English. Firstly, it improves students’ ability to retain information. This is because the students are required to produce the information themselves instead of simply receiving it. In the same way that writing something is more effective for memorizing it than reading it, speaking something is more effective for memorization than hearing it. Secondly, questioning students encourages their creative and critical thinking in relation to English. To most effectively encourage critical thinking, the teacher should ask students not only “what” questions, but also “how” and “why” questions. Asking students to explain vocabulary definitions, grammar structures, or language functions during the Study phase of a lesson will help the students not only to remember material, but also to better understand it. This is perhaps especially important for grammar and language functions, which students can find difficult to apply in real life situations even if they can successfully complete structured exercises using them in class. It is fine if students answer questions wrong at first; as long as the class eventually reaches the correct answer, it will still facilitate retention and understanding. Beginner students’ language levels may be too low to respond to more complicated questions that require complex critical thinking, but beginners can still benefit from frequent asking of simple questions as opposed to lecturing. Teachers should adjust their use of the Socratic teaching method to their students’ ages and abilities. Finally, giving students the opportunity to answer questions can encourage a sense of confidence and independence. Students can develop a more positive relationship with the English language when they are allowed to figure things out for themselves instead of being told. In order to accomplish this, it is important that the teacher does not immediately correct the student when he or she is wrong. Whenever possible, the teacher should allow the student to self-correct. This way, even if the student answered incorrectly at first, he or she will still be able to gain confidence in their English language abilities once able to come to the correct conclusion on his or her own. Students who feel confident about their English will be more likely to enjoy their EFL class, participate actively in lessons and assignments, and progress more quickly when new material is introduced. Asking EFL students frequent questions can make lessons more successful, improve students’ learning, and build their confidence when using English. However, using the Socratic teaching method does not mean putting the students in the teacher’s role—although sometimes having students act as teachers for their classmates can be a useful and fun activity! The teacher still plays an important role as a facilitator of the classroom, guiding the students through the lesson at the proper pace using carefully chosen and focused questions, encouraging and praising students, and giving corrections when needed. In reality, it is next to impossible to conduct an entire EFL lesson using only questions without providing any explanation. There are times when students will not be able to grasp a concept without some explanation from the teacher, and questioning the students over and over would not be appropriate or effective. Nevertheless, teaching by questioning can be a very effective teaching method when done right.