Practice Exploration on Enhancing the Effectiveness of Classroom Interaction in Junior High School Chinese Teaching

Guo Yingjie  【China】

Abstract

This paper, based on the first-line teaching practice, addresses the current issues of insufficient student participation and formalistic interaction junior high school Chinese classrooms. Through the method of action research, this study explores the application effects of strategies such as hierarchical questioning, situational creation, and diversified evaluation. The shows that systematic interaction design can significantly enhance students' mental activity and language expression ability, providing practical references for building efficient Chinese classrooms.

Keywords: Classroom interaction; Junior school Chinese; Hierarchical questioning; Situational teaching; Evaluation mechanism

1. Introduction

The new curriculum reform emphasizes the "student-centered approach," advocating for fullization of students' enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity in the teaching process, making students the masters of learning. However, in actual classroom teaching, especially in junior high school Chinese classes the phenomenon of "teacher-led, student-passive" still prevails. That is, teachers take up most of the class time for explanation and questioning, while students are in a state of listening and taking notes, lacking opportunities for in-depth participation and autonomous thinking. According to classroom observation data, about 60% of junior high school students speak up less than once in Chinese class, and classroom interaction is often limited to simple question-and-answer forms such as teacher questioning and student answering, lacking effective interaction between teachers students, between students, and between students and texts. This inefficient interaction mode not only fails to stimulate students' interest in learning but is also not conducive to cultivating students language expression ability, thinking ability, and cooperative inquiry ability, which is far from the core concept of the new curriculum reform.

This paper, combined with the author's many of experience in teaching junior high school Chinese, deeply analyzes the specific causes of the low efficiency of classroom interaction in junior high school Chinese classes, such as the outdated teaching concepts of, the lack of hierarchical questioning design, the unreasonable allocation of classroom time, and the weak student participation consciousness, and proposes a series of improvement strategies with operability on this basis such as optimizing questioning design, building an open interactive platform, implementing hierarchical interactive teaching, and creating a democratic and harmonious classroom atmosphere, aiming to provide useful references for improving the quality classroom interaction in junior high school Chinese classes and promoting the all-round development of students.

2. The Core Issues of Ineffective Classroom Interaction

2.1 Monous interaction structure

Current situation: 75% of classroom interactions follow the pattern of "teacher questioning—individual student answering," lacking group collaboration and in-depth debate. monotonous interaction structure leads to an uneven level of classroom participation, with most students passively listening to the lecture, and only a few students having the opportunity to express their views making it difficult to form an interactive atmosphere that involves all students. At the same time, due to the lack of group discussions, cooperative inquiry, and other diverse interactive forms, students training in knowledge construction, thinking collision, and problem-solving ability is limited, and the depth and breadth of classroom interaction are obviously insufficient.

Case: In the teaching of "Back View", eight consecutive factual questions (such as "What did author's father buy?", "How many times is the back view mentioned in the text?", "What are the actions of the father when climbing the platform?, etc.) failed to evoke emotional resonance. These questions mostly remained at the level of extracting superficial information from the text, and students only needed simple recall or search to answer, unable to touch upon the deep themes contained in the article, such as the deep father-son affection and family relationships under the backdrop of the times. The teacher failed to designening and open-ended questions for debate, such as "What kind of fatherly love is reflected in the father's behavior of buying oranges? How has this fatherly changed in modern society?", "Why does the author emphasize 'When I read this, in the glittering tears, I saw again the plump, blue cotton-pad coat and black gauze caped back view' at the end?", resulting in the students' emotional experience and value identification not being effectively guided, and the classroom interaction at a superficial level of information exchange, failing to achieve the goal of emotional attitude and values.

2.2 Lack of Timely Feedback

Issue: Teachers often to students with general comments such as "Very good" or "Wrong" without providing specific improvement guidance. For example, after students complete classroom exercises, they fail to promptly out the specific knowledge points where errors occur or the deviation in problem-solving thinking, and also fail to provide the next step of improvement direction and method, resulting in students being to accurately understand where their problems lie and find it difficult to make targeted corrections and improvements. Data: Student surveys show that only 32% believe that classroom feedback is helpful for. This indicates that most students do not receive effective feedback to meet their learning needs in the classroom, lacking timeliness, specificity, and constructiveness, thus affecting students' learning and the improvement of learning outcomes.

Lack of stratified design is a common issue in current teaching. Specifically, it is manifested by students with learning difficulties choosing silence because the are too difficult, unable to participate in classroom discussions and learning activities, resulting in their further frustration in learning enthusiasm and difficulty in keeping up with the teaching progress. At the same, for students with strong learning abilities and good basic skills, due to the lack of sufficient challenge in teaching content and problem setting, they often find the learning process too simple, unable meet their curiosity and spirit of exploration, and thus gradually lose interest in learning, resulting in insufficient learning motivation. This lack of stratified design means that the learning needs of students at levels cannot be met specifically, the overall teaching effect is greatly reduced, it is not conducive to achieving the teaching goal of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and also affects the overall learning atmosphere of the class and the improvement of students' comprehensive abilities.

3. The Practice Path of Effectiveness Interaction Strategy

3.1 Theined Construction of Hierarchical Questioning System

Hierarchical questioning needs to be based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, combined with the cognitive differences of students design a ladder-like chain of questions. The following is an example of a system upgrade based on the teaching of "Kong Yiji"：

Deepening Implementation:

Dynamic Stratification Mechanism: Grouping is adjusted monthly based on classroom performance and assessment to avoid labeling.6 Specifically, by collecting multi-dimensional data such as students' participation in classroom interactions, the quality of homework completion, and unit test scores, a comprehensive evaluation conducted using educational data analysis tools, and students are divided into three dynamic groups: basic consolidation layer, capability improvement layer, and expansion innovation layer. Each group sets different teaching objectives task difficulties. For instance, the basic consolidation layer focuses on character understanding and paragraph main idea grasping, the capability improvement layer emphasizes text detail analysis and emotional experience, and the expansion layer encourages students to engage in cross-text comparison and critical thinking. A comprehensive assessment is conducted once a month, and the grouping is fine-tuned based on students' learning progress new assessment results to ensure that every student receives effective learning support at the most suitable level, thus avoiding the labeling phenomenon caused by fixed grouping and stimulating students' learning enthusiasm and potential

Cross-Text Problem Transfer: The stratified model of "Kong Yiji" is transferred to "Fan Jin's Imperial Examination Success", and the "Imial Examination System Criticism" question chain is designed to enhance the universality of the strategy. In the teaching of "Kong Yiji", the established basic layersuch as sorting out plots, understanding character personalities), capability layer (such as analyzing the role of environmental description, discussing theme thoughts), and expansion layer (such as reflecting on disadvantages of feudal ethics in connection with reality) problem design framework has been successfully applied to the teaching of "Fan Jin's Imperial Examination Success". The "Imper Examination System Criticism" question chain is designed for "Fan Jin's Imperial Examination Success": basic layer questions include "How does Fan Jin's situation change before after his imperial examination success? How does the author reflect this change through specific details?" "What social phenomenon is reflected in the plot of 'going crazy after imperial examination success'"; capability layer questions include "Compare the tragedy of Kong Yiji in "Kong Yiji" and the comedy of Fan Jin in "Fan Jin's Imperial Examination", and analyze the similarities and differences of the imperial examination system's impact on intellectuals of different social classes?" "What kind of critical attitude does the author Wu Jzi express through the character of Fan Jin?"; expansion layer questions include "In the historical context of the imperial examination system during the Ming and Qing Dynast, discuss what enlightenment the social issues revealed in "Fan Jin's Imperial Examination Success" have for contemporary education?" "If you look at the imperial examination system from modern perspective, what do you think are its references and what needs to be abandoned?" Through this cross-textual problem transfer, not only is the original stratified teaching strategy, but students are also able to integrate learning methods from different texts, enhancing the universality and transfer application ability of the strategy.

Word Memory Integration: Basic Level Problem Embedding Literature [8]’s “Radix Association Memory Method, such as analyzing the original meaning and contextual meaning of characters like “踱” and “绽”. In basic level teaching, for key Chinese characters in the text, especially those the same roots or radical-phonetic structure, guide students to use the “Radix Association Memory Method” proposed in literature  for memory. For example, when learning character “踱” in “Kong Yiji”, first explain the combined meaning of its roots “足” and “专”. “足” indicates something related to the, and “专” means “specifically, back and forth”. Therefore, the original meaning of “踱” is “slowly walk back and forth”. Then, with the context, analyze how the character “踱” in “踱到柜台前说” reflects the hesitation and uneasiness in Kong Yiji’s heart, as as his helplessness as a scholar who is not successful. For the character “绽”, also start with the roots, the “糸” side indicates something related to silk fabric and “亶” represents the sound, which means “split, open”, such as “bloom” and “break”. In the sentence “绽出几粒青的长牙” in “Kong Yiji”, guide students to understand that “绽” is used here to describe the shape of teeth that are exposed due to long-term of brushing, which is accurate and vivid. Through this memory method that combines the original meaning of characters with contextual meaning, it not only helps students firmly grasp new characters but alsoens their understanding of the content and character emotions of the text, achieving the simultaneous improvement of language knowledge accumulation and text interpretation ability.

3.2 Diversified Development of Sitational Interactive Carriers

Break through the single role-playing, and construct a three-dimensional situation of “life-drama-dialectical”:

3.21 Life-oriented situation transfer

Case upgrade: Interpret “The Roadside Pear Blossoms” by connecting the social phenomenon of “Delivery person’s reverse delivery” and guide students to write “The Contemporary Lei Feng Spirit Initiative”. In the classroom, the teacher can first play a short video about a delivery person briefly reversing in rain to save time, in the video the delivery person is soaked but still insists on moving forward, the background sound is the hurried phone ring and the sound of rain, whichrouses students’ preliminary thinking about “responsibility” and “rules”. Then, the teacher guides students to read the plot of “The Roadside Pear Blossoms” characters help others silently and without seeking a return, and compare and analyze the inheritance and evolution of Lei Feng spirit from ancient to modern times, such as the commonality of characters’ good deeds in the text, such as the old branch secretary and the pear flower girl, and the professional behavior of the delivery person. On this basis, students discuss in “How to practice Lei Feng spirit in modern society”, combined with their own life experience, such as helping classmates solve learning difficulties, participating in community volunteer services,., and finally write “The Contemporary Lei Feng Spirit Initiative” together by the class, covering specific action suggestions such as “obey traffic rules and deliver safely”,actively help people in need”, and “start with small things around you to spread warmth”, etc., and read it through the campus radio station, so that the initiative an emotional bond connecting text learning with real life.

Key Points of Operation: Adopt a three-stage framework of "Phenomenon Observation → Textual → Action Design" to strengthen the internalization of values. In the "Phenomenon Observation" phase, guide students to keenly capture the moral highlights and争议 points in hotspots through multimedia materials and group discussions, cultivating their observational skills and critical thinking; in the "Textual Association" phase, with "The Roadside Pear Blossoms as the core text, the abstract "Lei Feng Spirit" is concretized into perceptible and understandable behavioral norms through plot comparison, character analysis, and theme distillation, that students can deeply experience the practical significance of values such as "helping others for pleasure" and "selfless dedication"; in the "Action Design" phase, encourage students transform what they have learned and thought into practical action plans, such as designing campus public welfare activities and formulating personal morality cultivation plans, to achieve the internalization and sublimation values through "the unity of knowledge and action", and let situational learning truly serve the character growth of students.

3.2.2 Dramatic Role ReconstructionCourt Debate 2.0 Model:

Process Refinement:

A [Evidence Collection Phase - Close Reading of Text] --> B [Summation Phase - Character Psychology Analysis]

C [Free Debate - Theme Deepening] --> D [Jury Verdict - Value Summary]

Case Expansion: AdaptMy Uncle Hule" into a "Family Relations Trial", students need to quote legal provisions and literary details to argue for the duty of support, such as in the evidence collection, students need to carefully study the details of Uncle Hule's experience of getting rich and going bankrupt in America, the change of expressions of the Philip couple before and after learned about Uncle Hule's news (such as "the long-sick face regained its ruddy color"), and Clarisse's greed and fear of oy, etc., as "evidence" presented in court; in the summation phase, students need to deeply analyze the psychology of the Philip couple, discuss how their extreme emphasis money distorts the family affection, and the inner world of Uncle Hule as the abandoned person; in the free debate session, both sides can fiercely debate around themes such "whether family affection should be kidnapped by money" and "the boundary between the legal duty of support and the moral affection of the family", quote the relevant provisions of the "ivil Code" on the duty of support between family members, and combine the key sentences in the text, such as "we will take the St. Malo boat when we come, so as not to meet him again", for argumentation; finally, in the jury verdict phase, the "judge" (teacher or designated student) summarizes the core of the case, and guides students to think about how to balance material interests with emotional responsibilities in real life, so that classic literary works can glow with new educational significance in dramatic of simulated courts.

3.2.3 Situational Creation with Dialectical Thinking

Design "Cultural Conflictate Hall": In the teaching of "Back View", a debate is conducted around "Traditional Father-Son Relationship vs Modern Parent-Child Communication", referencing the training method expressing positions in the interactive discourse of literature [4]. In the specific implementation process, students can be guided to deeply analyze the deep and implicit way of father's care for son in "Back View", and contrast it with the parent-child communication mode in modern society, where parents tend to express their emotions directly and emphasize equal dialogue. Through roleplaying, students are required to play the roles of fathers and sons in traditional society and parents and children in modern society, simulating the verbal interaction in different situations, such as theumsiness and persistence of the father buying oranges for his son, and the rational discussion and negotiation of modern parents planning the future for their children. On this basis, combined with training method of expressing positions proposed in literature , students are required to clearly state their own views in the debate, and use appropriate arguments to support them, such as quoting ethical concepts from the "Analects of Confucius", such as "Observe his aspirations when the father is alive, and observe his conduct when the father is dead, as well as modern psychological research results on effective parent-child communication, such as the four-step method of non-violent communication. At the same time, students are encouraged think about the impact of cultural changes on the model of interpersonal relationships, and to explore how to build a more open, equal, and understanding modern parent-child relationship while inher traditional filial piety culture, so as to deepen the understanding of the text's connotation in the process of deliberation, and to improve critical thinking and language ability.

3.3 Closed-loop Optimization of a Three-level Evaluation Mechanism

Construct a "real-time-process-termination" dynamic evaluation system:

A.Standardization of Real-time Evaluation

Develop a "3C Feedback Phrases Library":

Clarify (Precise Correction): "Your summary omits the motivation of the merchant's profit-seeking, which can be found in the text through the detail of 'calculating how to earn a few more words'."

pliment (Specific Appreciation): "You inferred the social class of the character from the details of dress, such as the contrast analysis between "blue cloth long shirt" andshort clothes group", which reflects the ability to read the text carefully, and this kind of interpretation perspective from things to people is very unique."

Challenge (Cognitive Challenge): "If KONG Yiji were to travel through time to the TikTok era, what would be the reaction to his 'zhi hu zhe ye'? he become a knowledge blogger or be labeled as an 'old antique'? Please speculate based on the current characteristics of online culture."

B. Digitalization of Process Evaluation

roduce "Interactive Growth Radar Chart":

title Monthly Interactive Ability Assessment

axis Speaking frequency, depth of thinking, contribution to collaboration, innovation, emotional investment

    "Li Student" [5,7,6,8,4]

    "Class Average" [6,5,7,5,6]

C .Arch of Terminal Evaluation

Portfolio Content:

Transcribed Classroom Recordings with Highlighted Moments

of Brilliance This section should include typical transcribed text from classroom discussions, group collaborations, or independent speeches by students, with a focus on highlighting moments of brilliance where students demonstrate innovative thinking, reasoning, critical thinking, and knowledge transfer and application, such as unique problem-solving approaches in complex math problems, precise grasp of the deeper meaning of texts in language reading comprehension experimental designs in scientific inquiry, etc. Each highlighted point should be accompanied by a brief explanation of its cognitive value and growth significance.

Peer Feedback and Improvement Proposals Students should

submit written improvement proposals to their peers based on classroom performance, homework completion, project collaboration processes, etc., with specific and constructive suggestions. The suggestions should revolve learning methods, knowledge mastery, skill development, cooperative attitude, etc., such as "It is recommended to strengthen pre-class review to participate more actively in classroom discussions" andYou can take on more coordination roles in group projects to improve teamwork efficiency." The students being evaluated should also respond to the suggestions, explaining the adoption status and improvement measures.Self-Reflection Videos (once a month): Students should record a self-reflection video every month, with a duration of no less than 3 minutes, which should include completion of learning goals for the month, the main difficulties encountered and the resolution process, the adjustment and optimization of learning methods, the understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and the month's learning plan. The video can be narrated with specific learning cases to demonstrate the students' metacognitive ability and self-regulation ability.

Case: A record evolution from "Silent Observer" to "Opinion

Provider" in a student's portfolio: This case details the growth journey of a student who initially participated very little in discussions and had low engagement, gradually transforming into an active opinion provider who participates in interactions. The portfolio contains representative classroom recording transcriptions from different stages of the student, with early mostly involving passive answers to teacher questions and brief content; later recordings show the ability to actively initiate discussion topics, propose in-depth viewpoints, and engage in effective debates with classmates. the peer feedback and improvement proposals, the students in the early stage mostly suggested "more participation in classroom interactions," while in the later stage, they gave affirmation to theality and logic of the student's views. In the self-reflection video, the student clearly described how they gradually overcame psychological barriers and enhanced expressive confidence through thorough preparation class, active participation in group discussions, and consultation with teachers and classmates, as well as the significant enhancement of interest and confidence in learning during this process. This evolution record fully demonstrates comprehensive tracking of students' learning processes and the precise presentation of personalized growth through the portfolio-based terminal evaluation.

4. Practice Effectiveness and Reflection

4.1 Multimensional Effectiveness Verification

.Quantitative Data Significantly Improved

Experimental Class (n=45) vs. Control Class (n=43)：

Long-term tracking findings: Hierarchical questioning strategy increased the participation rate of students with learning difficulties from 3% to 78%, and the completion rate of advanced students' extension tasks remained above 90%. This tracking was conducted over a full semester, and it was through weekly classroom observations, quantitative statistics of student engagement, and comparative analysis of stage test scores that the hierarchical questioning strategy significantly enhanced the classroom engagement of students at different levels. For with learning difficulties, the step-by-step questions designed by the teacher according to their cognitive level lowered the participation threshold, allowing them to gradually build confidence and actively participate in classroom. For advanced students, hierarchical questioning provided a more challenging space for thinking, prompting them to delve into the essence of knowledge and thus maintaining a high quality and efficiency of extension task. The mid-term report detailed the specific data changes and teaching intervention measures during this process.

Qualitative outcomes emerged in depth

Student level:

"The 'C Debate on "The Drunkard Yi"' made me realize: criticizing social injustice requires not only anger but also rational evidence."

--Reflection after class by, a student from the experimental class (who used to be silent in class). In this interdisciplinary teaching activity integrating "The Drunkard Yi" as the text, was assigned the role of the "defense party," which required him to defend the behavior of The Drunkard Yi from a legal and sociological perspective. To complete the, he actively consulted relevant historical background materials, analyzed the impact of the feudal imperial examination system on individual destinies, and tried to construct his own viewpoint using the argumentation learned in class. This process not only deepened his understanding of the text but more importantly, he experienced the joy of expressing viewpoints through rational thinking and logical expression, changing his previous state in class. Similar qualitative outcomes were widely seen among students in the experimental class, such as another student who wrote in their diary: "When we cooperated in groups to explore 'Blessing,' we divided the work of collecting different perspectives on Xianglin's tragic fate, and finally formed a multi-dimensional analysis report. This collaborative learning me feel the power of collective wisdom."

Teacher level: "Hierarchical task sheets increased the preparation time by 40%, but the amount of students active questioning doubled—this is the real mutual growth of teaching and learning." --Record of an interview with a teaching staff (June 2025)

Parent feedback: "My child began to actively analyze news events and quote golden quotes from the text to debate, and Chinese has truly entered their life." --Excerpt from the homeschool contact notebook.

4.2 Future Optimization Path

Technological Empowerment Boundary:

Use non-AI voice tools (such as recording pen transcription software with high-precision voice recognition function) to count the distribution of individual speaking time, automatically capture the speaking segments in classroom dialogue, accurately the speaking time of each student, and generate visualized data charts to avoid inaccurate data caused by subjective judgment or memory deviation during manual recording, and provide objective basis for teaching feedback.Urban-Rural Differentiated Practice:

Rural schools can switch to "low-cost situational props": such as using waste newspapers, colored chalk, tape and other materials to make "the splendid invisible suit" in "The Emperor's New Clothes", and through students' hands-on folding and decorating newspapers, simulating the texture and of the suit, breaking the teaching barriers brought by resource constraints, stimulating students' creativity and sense of participation, and presenting abstract literary plots concretely.

Evaluation Mechanism Up:

Incorporate the "Radar Chart Growth Trajectory" into the mid-term and final overall evaluation, which dynamically records the development changes of students in the from multiple dimensions such as knowledge mastery, ability improvement, cooperative performance, and innovative thinking, forming a visual growth curve, accounting for 30%, making the evaluation more and developmental, helping teachers accurately grasp the individual differences of students, and guiding students to focus on the improvement of their comprehensive quality.

5. Conclusion

Effective classroom interaction be based on the cognitive differences of students, and through structured design, real situation empowerment and dynamic evaluation tracking, to achieve the transformation from "formal participation" to "thinking participation" Teachers need to continuously optimize the problem chain design and feedback accuracy in practice, so that interaction can become the source of nourishing language literacy.

References

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