Learning How to Ask Questions
Suzanne Meyer, the assistant director of the English Language Institute at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, says that many students need to develop critical thinking skills.
In other words, students need to learn how to collect information, and then evaluate the information and apply it to a new context.
She says:
"We need to get students actively engaged in inquiry, from the beginning levels on, into those levels where they really are close to professional and university contexts."
One way to develop critical thinking skills, Meyer says, is to teach students to be creative about the types of questions that they ask.
Meyer says that there are many benefits to using question-asking activities with English learners.
Question-asking activities help students to become better language learners.
She says:
"Question-asking overall helps students be better language learners. Not for the obvious, because you ask a question you get an answer. Often, questions are the first point of contact. And so if my question is not good, then that's going to direct the level of our conversation."
Meyer also says that question-asking may help develop critical thinking skills by allowing for more interactions:
"People who can ask questions are very confident. And when you are confident, you can have more interaction.That extra interaction might lead to critical thinking. Because you are more likely to actually integrate in some fashion into a new setting if you are in an ESL scenario. So, I think overall, just the whole question-asking idea has so many benefits."
There are many strategies to improve question-asking and develop critical thinking skills.
One possible strategy, says Meyer, is to use question-asking patterns that start with concrete questions and move to abstract questions.
So, for example, if students were reading a new text, they would design a series of questions using three different steps.
In the first step, students create questions about information in the text that they are reading.
In the second step, students create questions about how the information in the text connects to their own life.
In the third step, students create questions about abstract ideas - ideas that came up in the questions about themselves.
If students follow these three steps, they have not only practiced creative ways to ask questions, they have also started practicing critical thinking.
Meyer gave an example of what this activity could look like:
In the activity, students read part of a story.
In this case, the story is about how different foods affect a person.
In the first column there are questions about information in the text. One example of a question is this: How can food help a person's performance?
In the second column, there are questions about how the information in the story connects to students' lives. For example,
"how do I feel and act when I don't eat well?"
In the third column, there are questions about abstract ideas that build on questions in the second column. The question "Even though people know some foods are unhealthy, why do they eat them?" is one example.
These questions, and other questions listed in the table, are examples of how to develop questions.
You should, of course, create your own questions!
Meyer says that when teachers tell students which questions to answer, students are less likely to be creative about the types of questions that they ask.
So, practice developing your own questions!
Try making a list of questions that go from concrete to abstract, like the steps outlined above.
Check with your teacher to make sure that your grammar is correct, and try to practice in the classroom.
参考译文：
学习如何提问
田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校英语语言学院助理主任苏珊娜·迈耶说，许多学生需要培养批判性思维能力。
换句话说，学生需要学习如何收集信息，然后评估信息并将其应用到新的环境中。
她说:
“我们需要让学生积极参与探究，从初级阶段开始，一直到他们真正接近专业和大学背景的阶段。”
迈耶说，培养批判性思维能力的一种方法是教学生创造性地提出他们所提出的问题类型。
迈耶说，对英语学习者进行提问活动有很多好处。
提问活动帮助学生成为更好的语言学习者。
她说:
“提问总体上有助于学生成为更好的语言学习者。不是显而易见的，因为你问了问题就有了答案。通常，问题是第一个接触点。因此，如果我的问题不好，那么这将指导我们对话的水平。”
迈耶还表示，通过允许更多的互动，提问可能有助于培养批判性思维技能。
“会问问题的人非常自信。当你自信的时候，你可以有更多的互动。这种额外的互动可能会导致批判性思维。因为如果你是在ESL课程中，你更有可能以某种方式融入一个新的环境。所以，我认为总的来说，整个提问的想法有很多好处。”
有很多策略可以提高提问能力和培养批判性思维能力。
迈耶说，一种可能的策略是使用提问模式，从具体问题开始，然后转向抽象问题。
例如，如果学生正在阅读一篇新文章，他们会用三个不同的步骤设计一系列问题。
在第一步中，学生就他们所阅读的文本中的信息提出问题。
在第二步中，学生就文章中的信息如何与他们自己的生活联系起来提出问题。
在第三步中，学生们提出关于抽象概念的问题——这些概念是在关于他们自己的问题中出现的。
如果学生遵循这三个步骤，他们不仅练习了创造性的提问方式，他们也开始练习批判性思维。
Meyer举了一个例子来说明这个活动是什么样子的：
在活动中，学生朗读故事的一部分。
在这种情况下，这个故事是关于不同的食物如何影响一个人。
第一栏是关于课文信息的问题。一个问题的例子是：食物如何帮助一个人的表现？
在第二栏，有关于故事中的信息如何与学生的生活联系起来的问题。例如,
“当我吃得不好的时候，我的感觉和行为是怎样的？”
在第三栏，有一些关于抽象概念的问题，这些问题建立在第二栏的问题之上。“即使人们知道有些食物不健康，为什么还要吃？”这个问题就是一个例子。
这些问题，以及表中列出的其他问题，都是如何提出问题的例子。
当然，你应该提出自己的问题！
迈耶说，当老师告诉学生要回答哪些问题时，学生就不太可能对他们提出的问题类型有创造性。
所以，练习提出自己的问题吧！
试着列一个从具体到抽象的问题清单，就像上面列出的步骤一样。
让你的老师检查一下，确保你的语法是正确的，并试着在课堂上练习。