Teacher Talk And Comprehensible Input In English Class-From The Perspective Of Discourse Analysis

In basic English teaching fo(?) Chinese students, English teachers always pass on knowledge mainly by teacher talk. Teacher talk, the medium of information delivery and the model for students to imitate, carries great weight in language teaching class. Therefore, teachers should not only pay attention to the teaching content which could help students acquire knowledge, but also adjust their pedagogy and teacher talk according to the students' reaction and need. Teachers who only rely on their language proficiency and experience but lack the study of teacher talk cannot convey knowledge effectively to language learners. The forms and techniques of teacher talk should be taken into consideration; accordingly, a claim for improvement of teacher talk in English class is put forward.The research on teacher talk in English class is of crucial importance for English teaching and learning. To this day, the researches abroad on teacher talk mainly deal with comparison of all kinds of phenomena about teacher talk without further exploring the relationship between teacher talk and comprehensible input. In China, a few articles concern about some aspects of the research on teacher talk and systematic research on teacher talk for English teaching and learning still stays in its infancy.This dissertation focuses on the analysis of characteristics and modification of teacher talk, tries to detect the inner relationship between teacher talk and comprehensible input from the perspective of discourse analysis and discusses some ways to make teacher talk more effective in language class. The analysis of characteristics and factors affecting teacher talk is presented on the basis of experiment and discourse analysis. According to the factual English teaching and learning condition in China, five characteristics of teacher talk (eg.questioning, generation, selection and control, redundancy, authentic and non-authentic language) and five ways of modification of teacher talk (negotiation of meaning, simplification, elaboration, repetition, non-verbal language) are discussed. Besides, some factors affecting teacher talk are analyzed from the aspects of students, teachers and social context respectively. Krashen's monitory theory incorporates that the best input at least requires: (1) input should be rich; (2) input should be comprehensible; and (3) input should be interesting and relevant. Accordingly, six ways of making teacher talk more comprehensible are provided from the author's humble opinion (dealing with language variables, making use of appropriate code, using techniques of questioning, employing both English and Chinese, making teacher talk more effective and correcting errors properly). At last, a conclusion is arrived at from all discussed above: with full study and understanding of the characteristics, modification and affecting factors of teacher talk and conscious improvement or exploration on teacher talk in practice, teachers can greatly enhance their teacher talk, make language teaching more effective and create a positive, supportive and relaxing climate of English class for language learners.