An Analysis Of College English Teachers’ Classroom Language Use From The Perspective Of Teacher Language Awareness-a Case Study

Teacher talk is widely studied by linguists. It is extremely important fornon-English-speaking countries for teacher talk is not merely one of the primarymeans of controlling learner behavior，but also the main sample when students areexposed to the target language in classroom setting. Recently studies on teacher talkflourished and enriched the theoretical development. Numerous researches domesticand abroad largely focus on the following fields:(1) studies on teacher talk as asource of input for students (Krashen,1980a, b.1982a; Long,1980);(2) studies onteacher talk as a method of classroom management(Ellis,1990,1993; Long,1983;Nunan,1987,1991; Prodromou,1991). Seemingly, these are studies concerning thefeatures and functions of teacher talk. However, studies on teacher talk concerningTeacher Language Awareness (TLA) have been little investigated in EFL classroomcontext, which study teacher talk from teacher’s inner consciousness. Thefast-developing society poses great challenge to teachers’ knowledge as well as theirteaching method. Teachers should be conscious of how to provide effective input forstudents. Secondly, in the field of teacher language awareness, the mainstream focuseson the investigation of metalingual knowledge of teachers. However, researches of theimpact of TLA on teachers’ actual practice in class are ignored.The present study aims to investigate college English teachers’ languageawareness in China. Current state of college teachers’ TLA is described, and factorswhich may affect the degree of TLA are studied. Also the relationship between TLAand the effectiveness of teaching is explored.In this study, teacher talk recorded from6teachers’ classes in a comprehensiveuniversity in northern China is treated as the subjects. The classes observed areIntensive Reading in non-English major class of Grade One. Teachers involved havedifferent education background, teaching experience and age. Major researchinstruments such as classroom live observation, interviews, field notes andquestionnaires are applied. Students’ questionnaires provide their expectations andevaluation of teacher talk, which are the statistical basis for the analysis on the impactof TLA upon students’ learning.Based on the results and analysis, the present study found that most collegeteachers’ self-consciousness of their language use in class is largely consistent withtheir actual performance in classroom setting and students’ evaluation. They are aware of their language choice and the amount of target language input. However, it seemsthat they are lack of awareness of students’ specific learning difficulties and students’learning interests are not given enough attention either. The amount of teacher talkstill largely overpasses that of the students, thus time for students’ activity is notenough.Comparison results of the3groups of teachers indicate that young teachers tendto have a higher degree of TLA than elder ones. For the instructional language choice,novice teachers whose teaching experiences are less than10years applied much targetlanguage and provided the students with sufficient opportunities to expressthemselves. Concerning the knowledge of learners’ target language difficulties andinterlanguage development, novice teachers did show some efforts in getting them. Interms of teaching content arrangement, cultural background information gained moreattention from novice teachers. Results of senior teachers are the opposite.Moreover, data analysis shows that there is no significant causative connectionbetween TLA and learning outcomes since in the process of foreign languageacquisition a number of variables affect students learning achievements directly orindirectly. TLA is just one of them. This finding is consistent with the research resultof Andrew (Andrew,1996). However, a high degree of TLA does have positive effectupon the quality of teacher talk and motivate students’ learning.As indicated by the research results, TLA is not static. It is developing andchanging all the time. The degree of TLA can be improved and strengthened withteachers’ more attention and career training. The findings in this study provide anumber of implications for pre-and in-service teachers’ training and teaching practice,both theoretically and practically.Based on the findings from research, some suggestions on college Englishteaching practice are offered finally. Firstly, it is advisable to combine target languagetogether with the native language and find a balance between the two in order to offerthe most appropriate target language input. Secondly, teachers should learn moreabout the students’ current language level, learning difficulties and also students’interests in the class, like culture background information of the learning material.Besides, students need to be provided with sufficient time for activities in class suchas short play, free debate, and report and so on. In addition, reflections of theeffectiveness of teacher performance after class are necessary, which will benefitteachers in career development. Last but not the least, it is of great significance to take TLA into consideration inpre-teacher training. Understanding how TLA works in teacher’s talk will benefit theteacher in class design and classroom management. It is more advisable to providein-service teachers with some training to improve their teacher language awareness.