As we all know, questioning is a common used by teachers in class to motivate students’ learning initiative, stimulate them to think and help them consolidate the learned knowledge. If the questioning is applied properly, it can adjust the class atmosphere and help students to learn Mandarin effectively. At the same time, teachers can find the problems and solve them in time. In the following, the functions of questioning will be explained in detail.

First of all, questioning is helpful for students to the directed thinking, thus guiding them to pay attention to the teaching points and difficult points. Therefore, teachers in Mandarin learning courses should consider from the perspective of the students when questioning and evaluate the questions exist in the new learning points. Teachers should ask questions about the teaching points and the points that are difficult to understand.

The second function of questioning is to help students to consolidate the knowledge they have learned and deepen it. According to the materials learned, teachers can ask a series of questions to help them study Chinese language. After teachers assist them review the learned knowledge systematically, the knowledge will leave a profound impression in students’ mind.

In addition, proper questions have the function of attracting students to focus on the learning contents, thus activating the class atmosphere. If the class centers on teachers’ lecturing, the students will accept the knowledge negatively. As a result, the class atmosphere is oppressive. Then, the students are easy to feel tired and mind-absented when they learn Chinese language. On the opposite, if questions can be asked in the right time, it will attract their attention and mobilize their activeness.

The last but not least function is to know more about the situations of students in time. It is a good way to test the conditions about the mastering of the knowledge by the way of questioning. Therefore, the teachers in Chinese language school should be able to ask questions properly to find the problems. After the teachers get the feedback from students, they can adjust the teaching in speed and contents so that to teach purposefully.

The proper questions are beneficial to students to learn to speak Chinese. However, the inappropriate questions have no promotion to the language learning, even affected the teaching effect and students’ initiative. There are some common problems in questioning that teachers should know. The first one is that teachers ask complicated questions but students answer simply such as “是、好、行、对、能”.

One important function of language teaching is to train students’ ability of verbal expression. Only by listening and speaking more can students who learn Mandarin Chinese can form the good habits to speak Chinese. If they just understand but without transferring with their own words, it is still not their own language. Therefore, it is an effective method to encourage students to speak more by questioning. But the questions should be those can stimulate them think and speak.

Sometimes, teachers ask too many questions without important points. Some of the teachers ask questions about every details when they teach Mandarin Chinese. It is a waste of time and reduces the teaching effect. Another problem exists in questioning is that the questions are too irrelevant with the teaching points or too profound for students to ask. These kinds of questions will harm the initiative of learning. Students will be easier to be bored because they don’t know how to answer.

In addition, the proper time of questioning often happen in classes. During the process of teaching Chinese, some teachers may ask questions at the bad time, for instance, when they students lose their interest in the teaching points. It is bad to ask questions especially when the class is going to be over. If teachers ask questions at this time, students who are learning Mandarin Chinese can’t concentrate on the contents.

Among those students who come to study Mandarin Chinese, some are excellent and some perform poorly. The teachers may neglect the poor students and ask questions only to the excellent ones. In the rapid classroom teaching, teachers may hope students to answer questions quickly. Therefore, in the interaction, teachers may be pocus more on the excellent students unconsciously.

In brief, questioning is a good way to encourage students to speak Chinese. However, teachers should pay more attention to ask questions properly. The proper questions have many positive functions. Therefore, teachers should avoid some common problems in questioning.