Engaging students in dialogic interactions through questioning.

This study investigates how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in a central Chinese university use questioning to successfully elicit student dialogic talk, addressing the cultural reticence of Chinese learners to be the first to speak. Based on observations of forty-nine classes with eleven instructors, two effective questioning patterns were identified: (1) a series of display or convergent questions to build dialogic momentum before posing exploratory questions, and (2) persistent use of explorative questions combined with techniques such as rephrasing and simplification to encourage student participation. The findings highlight that eliciting the first student dialogic turn requires greater teacher effort, while subsequent turns flow more naturally, and emphasize the importance of contextualized, patient questioning strategies to foster dialogic teaching in culturally reserved classrooms.