Influence Of Teacher's Class Performance On The Development Of Learner's Oral Ability

The present study attempts to seek the common principles of teacher抯 class performance, which bring about positive influence to the development of learner抯 oral ability. These principles must as well be acceptable to various kinds of participants in English classroom in China. The study focuses on four major factors of teacher抯 class performance--amount and type of teacher talk, modifications of teacher talk, teacher questions, and teacher feedback. It aims at bringing about positive influence on the development of learner抯 oral ability. The ideas of the foreign teachers are collected by means of interviews, and questionnaires are distributed among some other teachers of English and the students for their ideas on teacher抯 class performance. An experiment implementing two types of teacher抯 class performance to two classes is conducted for the present author抯 observations in teaching practice. The results of two oral tests for these two classes and the feedback of the students to the teacher抯 class performance is compared for data collecting. Then the outcomes of the above-mentioned investigations are compared with the theoretical findings stated in Literature Review. Finally all the outcomes are compared with each other for the principles acceptable to all the participants. It was found that even though different participants have very different ideas on teacher抯 class pefformance for promoting learner抯 oral ability, there are many common points that are acceptable to all the participants in English classes. The most acceptable amount of TT is around a half of the total class time, and the proportion of Chinese in Yf should be around 20%. Most of the participants agree that more elaboration than simplification is demanded for providing with learner more comprehensible input. To meet the needs of the majority of the classroom participants, more referential questions than display questions are to be asked. Even LI ~? MASTER S THESIS though it does not prove when is appropriate for the teacher to correct errors, the majority of the participants do agree that teachers should identify errors only and leave them for learner抯 self-repair. Positive feedback is widely accepted as effective, but in the experiment it is suggested that negative feedback is also necessary in certain occasions. It is suggested that some principles of teacher抯 class performance aiming at promoting learner抯 oral ability can be acceptable to both the teachers and the students. These principles include: 1) The shorter TTT than usual is necessary. 2) More questions should be asked in TT. 3) Teachers should ask more referential questions than display questions. 4) Teacher抯 speech is not necessarily be simplified but focus more on elaboration for providing more comprehensible input. 5) Teachers may leave more errors for learner抯 self-repair.