Teacher Talk And Classroom Second Language Teaching

This article is about teacher talk as both a medium and language input for language teaching, especially for the teaching of English. Second language acquisition takes place only when the learner has access to the second language input, that is, the learner must be exposed to the target language. Learners encounter language input from different sources. Nevertheless, the collected research data shows that teacher talk, the special language the teacher uses when addressing the students in the classroom context, provides the chief amount of input.This article tries to have a general look at teacher talk both from theoretical and practical standpoints, by referring to relevant research results in second language teaching and doing field work. The talk of 6 teachers (research subjects) in Chongqing Educational College, who teach College English to the second-year and third-year English majors, is recorded and transcribed. Teacher talk is important, because in second language teaching classroom, it functions not only as a major source of language input, but also as a tool by which the second language is taught. Teacher talk is a special variety of language, because it is especially associated with teaching profession. A careful look at teacher talk from both theoretical and practical standpoints may help better understand teacher talk. Through a better understanding of the use of language as a pedagogical tool, teachers can help students improve their learning, and students can make a better use of teacher talk to learn the target language.