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ns the teacher asks have close connection with students' output. Barnes (1969, 1976) distinguishes four types of questions according to his observation: (1) Factual questions (`what'), (2) Reasoning questions (`how' and `why'), (3) Open questions that do not require any reasoning, and (4) Social questions (questions that influence student behavior by means of control or appeal). Barnes made much of the distinction between two types of reasoning questions: those that are closed are framed with only one acceptable answer in mind and those that are open because they permit a number of different acceptable answers.柳cord to Hakansson and Lindberg (1988), questions can be categorized to three sorts: (1) Nexus questions (questions that can be answered `yes' or `no'), (2) Alternative questions (that provide the Chapter Five a Productive Environment in Oral Class Interaction 35 responder with an alternative to select from), (3) X-questions (wh-questions), (in Ellis, 1994: 588). Still, there are much other taxonomy of questions from different perspectives. Taking the nature of questions into consideration, we may find that questions are either fact-based or thought-based. In Barnes words, questions are either closed or open. Fact- based questions or closed questions only act as checking device. The role is to check learners' comprehension and seek for information provided in the materials, while thought-based or open questions often act as thought-training trigger. These questions generally have various answers based on learners' experience and knowledge. To encourage learners to open their mouths and participate in interaction, both fact-based and thought-based questions are needed. However, to involve learners' active interaction in oral class, thought-based questions are more effective and helpful since thought-based questions mainly focus on the negotiation of meaning. They provide learners more opportunities to use language and thus supply them with more comprehensible input. Just as what Ellis says "Much of research has been informed by the assumption that L2 learning will be enhanced if the questions result in active learner participation and meaning negotiation" (1994: 589). As for the teacher, "An analysis must go to carefully examine the purpose and the effects of questions, not only in terms of linguistic production, but also in terms of cognitive demands and interactive purposes" since "the practice of questioning in L2 classrooms pervasive though it is, has so far received only superficial treatment" (Van Lier, 1988: 224). This implies that the teacher need to know what he is attempting to do with the learners when he asks questions. Questioning in classroom ought to be constructive and cheerful experience, in which the learners' opinion and ideas are elicited, respected, their interests stimulated, and the their minds challenged. 5.2 Focusing on Learner-centered Method As we have discussed in Chapter One, Both Grammar-Translation Method and Audiolingual Method have been influencing the foreign language teaching in China greatly. They are typically teacher-controlled methods. Although students acquire quite a solid knowledge of grammatical rules and idiomatic usages of some words and their competence in reading to some extent get developed, these methods often overlook students' oral communicative competence, which is becoming more and more important at present. Taking oral class obje