Teacher Questions in EFL Classroom: A Study between More and Less Developed Regions

Abstract

Teacher questions are important indicators to reflect English teachers’ teaching ability. This study took 28 English teachers as corpora to explore the characteristics of teacher questions in EFL classroom between more and less developed regions. Combining the models of interactive choices of EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher questions (Yang, 2021) and the revision of Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001), this study investigated the interactivity degrees and cognitive levels of teacher questions. Firstly, it was found that there was no significant difference in the interactivity degrees of teacher questions in EFL classroom between more and less developed regions. Secondly, teachers in less developed regions asked remembering questions more frequently than those in more developed regions while the latter asked applying questions more frequently than the former. From the perspective of sociocultural theory, it was found that teachers in more developed regions focused more on students’ intra-mental interaction, while teachers in less developed regions focused more on students’ inter-mental interaction.