A native English speaking teacher's beliefs and practices regading questioning and scaffolding in an English classroom

Abstract

The study of teachers' beliefs regarding their teaching practices is considered an important area that would greatly benefit professional development (Ashton, 1984 Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2000 Wheatley, 2002). This research concerns how a native English speaking teacher's beliefs influence his classroom practices, including asking questions and using scaffolding techniques in an English classroom in a Thai university. The participants were one experienced native English speaking teacher and eight Thai postgraduates in the second semester of the academic year 2012-2013 in a university in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. In order to gather data from the participants, interviews, classroom observation, and digital audio recording were all employed. The teacher believes that students' participation in the classroom is the key to learning successfully therefore, he asked questions in various ways to engage students, sustain students' interest, and check students' comprehension. In addition, scaffolding techniques were used in the classroom as follows: 1) spelling, 2) repetition, 3) rephrasing a question, 4) giving a clue, 5) giving the correct answer, and 6) modeling a word or phrase. Most students revealed that when the teacher uses a scaffolding technique after asking a question, it can improve their oral responses. In conclusion, the teacher's beliefs influence his questioning and scaffolding techniques because he thinks that those teaching practices can benefit the students' English competency. Teachers should understand their teaching beliefs to enhance their professional practices and benefit their students to meet the objectives of each lesson effectively.;