Promoting Student Participation in Seminar Courses: A Case Study

Using a conversation analysis approach, the present study investigates the teacher-led question-answer sequences of one successful seminar course (Short Stories and Western Culture) within the curriculum reform for English majors in Beijing Foreign Studies University, aiming at uncovering an effective way of integrating disciplinary learning with language skills development. The result of the analysis shows that the teacher of the course, who perceives student participation as an indispensable ingredient of his class, often uses more divergent, opinion-seeking questions to initiate discussion and uses four types of expansion question on his turns to promote student participation, namely, probing questions (PQ), clue-giving questions (CQ), elaboration requests ( ER), and agreement checks (AC). The study also generates an I-R-(E)-F-FC [Initiation-Response-(Evaluation)-Follow up-Further Contribution] model, in which the teacher attempts to promote student participation and guide the construction of students' understanding.