Classroom questioning has been commonly regarded as one of the most important techniques in language teaching and used frequently in every aspect of the teaching process as a connection of bilateral activities between teachers and students. A previous survey shows that questioning occupies 20 to 40 percent in English classroom interaction, which means questioning plays an incredibly significant role in EFL classes.

    EFL teaching aims at fostering students’ ability of using English for communication. As suggested from a preview study, the frequency of questioning in English class predominates among all the subjects in school. The nature of English subject determines that questioning is the most effective bilateral activity between teachers and students. 

    The study on teacher’s questioning strategies in EFL classes of junior middle school is the need of curriculum reform. The new national English curriculum has clearly stated that the key point of English curriculum reform is to change the situation of overemphasis on grammar and vocabulary teaching and neglect of developing students’ practical language ability to stress on students’ interests, experience and cognition, advocate authentic and cooperative practice and promote students’ overall language ability. In the meantime, English curriculum should aim for all students and emphasize on quality-oriented and student-centeredness education. It is supposed to advocate experiential learning, participation and develop creative ability. To successfully transform the overall teaching objectives, fulfill English curriculum task and finally achieve the goal of English curriculum reform, the traditional teaching method must have a change. So teacher’s questioning, as a vital mean of class conduct, should even have a breakthrough. 

    After years’ elementary education reform, teacher’s questioning seems still unsatisfactory which in a degree influences the teaching efficiency. Most teachers wish that there were good concepts and plans directing them to well perform class conduct of questioning. To acquire effective questioning skill, these factors including teacher-student relationship, wait time, speech speed, feedback and so on should come into consideration. 

    The study on questioning strategies also meets the developmental need of students. Adolescence is the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person grow from a child into an adult. It’s the essential stage to develop student’s critical thinking ability. Questioning, as a stimulus, tries to cause the reaction of students and prompt them to actively find and solve the problems. The traditional English class is stagnant without any interaction, which greatly limits students’ creative thinking. So it’s urgent to research effective questioning promoting students’ physical and mental health. 

    Although a great number of researchers and experts have conducted some researches on classroom questioning in China and abroad, there is still a long way to go. Currently, most researches focus on teachers’ questioning and students’ expectations & attitudes towards questioning in EFL classrooms. Different from previous researches, this study focuses on comparing the pre-service teachers with experienced teachers to find out the common problems existing in the current questioning situation and conclude some effective questioning strategies in EFL classes of junior middle school. It aims at analyzing typical mistakes the pre-service teachers would make and finding out the effective questioning strategies referred to the experienced teachers. Such specific researches on studying the conducts of pre-service teachers and experienced teachers when questioning are still really few in China, especially for junior middle schools.  

The focus of this study is to put forward some suggestions on effective questioning strategies for student teachers by drawing the merits of the experienced teachers.