Teacher Talk And Its Effect On Learner Output

Teacher talk is very important to classroom teaching, especially EFL classroom teaching, because the sharp difference between EFL classroom teaching and other classroom teaching is that language is not only the objective of the course, but also the medium of teaching. In China, English teacher talk is not only the tool for teachers to carry out the teaching schedule, but also the major source of learners' English language input. Therefore, it plays a critical role in the process of language teaching and learning. And it has a direct effect on learner output. The traditional teacher-centered methodology and teaching content have long been the focus of concern to the teachers, but teacher talk, especially the effectiveness of teacher talk, has not been stressed properly. This affects learner output seriously.In the traditional teacher-centered approach, teachers only emphasize the pure class teaching and adopt examination as its dominant means to judge the teaching and learning results. Teachers try to put everything into learners' minds and learners are seen as receptacles to be filled with knowledge, thus, learners' ability to use the target language (i.e. English) is neglected and both their response and need are neglected, too. Therefore, learner output is not fully developed, which indicates that in foreign language classroom teaching, teachers who only depend on their English proficiency and experience, but lack the study and practice of linguistic theories, especially teacher talk, cannot meet the needs for teaching and learning. As a result, a systematic study on teacher talk will contribute to the practice of English teaching and learning. At present, the researches abroad on teacher talk have only dealt with the analysis or comparison of all kinds of phenomena about teacher talk, but have not considered the different environment of their mother language and second or foreign language. In China, only a few papers have been written on this subject.The rationale for this thesis is Krashen's theory of comprehensible input and Long's interaction hypothesis. Krashen claims that understanding messages or receiving 'comprehensible input' is the most basic way to acq uire language. Therefore, the most important means of language teaching is to make learners receive 'comprehensible input' as much as possible. Long also stresses the importance of 'comprehensible input' in language acquisition, but he emphasizes in particular that negotiation of meaning can promote language acquisition. Long claims that 'two-way communication' is more helpful to language acquisition than 'one-way communication', because in 'two-way communication', when one person cannot understand the other, he may have opportunities to tell it to the other person. This will encourage the two persons to negotiate and interact with each other. Thus comprehensibility of language input can be promoted. Long's interaction hypothesis is more advanced than input hypothesis because it emphasizes the actual use of language. Another difference between them is that the input hypothesis emphasizes roughly-tuned input (namely, language at a level slightly above the learners' abilities); while the interaction hypothesis attaches importance to finely-tuned input (namely, language selected very precisely to be at exactly the learners' level). In fact, only the combination of the both can contribute to language acquisition. Furthermore, high quality input also should be simplified, interesting and/or relevant.Based on the theories mentioned above and main findings in teacher talk, the analysis of the definition, categories and characteristics of teacher talk is presented. The comparison between teacher talk and some related concepts (caretaker talk, foreigner talk and interlanguage) is made. This thesis also explores the nature of teacher talk and puts much weight on the important role that teacher talk plays in English language classroom.The kind of language used by the teacher for instruction in the classroom is known as...