Teacher Talk Analysis In English Language Classroom Of Ganzhou Primary Schools And Its Implications

According to the document made by the National Educational Department, from the autumn of 2001 on, English would be taught to the pupils from the third year in the towns and cities of the whole country. In September of 2001, a new English Curriculum Criterion in Compulsory Education Phase (for experimental use) had been published. The popularization of the Basic Education Curriculum experimentation embarked on the way. Therefore, a higher demand on English teaching in primary schools is bound to get teacher familiar with pupils'mental and physical characteristics and to teach English language for the aim of communication. Theoretically and practically, the approach of cultivation of learning interest matters a million among others.Of the late ten years in tests and trials, English teaching in Ganzhou area has ascended to a whole-promotion stage. So far, there are 88 urban schools and 324 suburban schools launched primary English subject in a various scales and degrees. The result, however, found out that most of their English teaching still remains budding period and, in fact, the effect is not as satisfactory as expected.As a common inner-land area located in the southern part of Jiangxi province, the geographical situation confines the daily use of English as a foreign language. Regarding that the pupils are around tender ages and unable to carry independent learning, the role of teacher shares a dominant part in their English learning and classroom teaching in particular. Teacher talk is the main part of classroom instruction, which includes both the comprehensible input and the source of target language. Teacher talk goes through whatever teaching approaches, classroom activities as well as teaching materials. This research on teacher talk is intended to get the true glimpse of the classroom work that mirrors the de-facto problems, making some contributions, though it maybe little, in this field for the improvement as a whole.This study, based on the applied linguistic theories of Krashen, Long and Swain, and the psycholinguistic theories of Piaget and Vygotsky, carries out a survey and relevant analysis on teacher talk in English class of local common primary schools through classroom observation, tape recording and questionnaire survey, focusing on its formal features and functional features respectively in six dimensions—amount and quality, formulaic sequences, questions, modifications, feedbacks as well as non-verbal language. Comparing with the construction of optimal teacher talk in the paper, this research that conforms to pupils'characteristics and aims at cultivating learners'communicative ability will present some suggestions and ideas for a further implication of better English teacher talk in the long term.