A Research Into Teachers' Evaluative Speech Acts In The Context Of Classroom Instruction

In the context of classroom instruction in elementary and secondary schools, especially in elementary schools, teachers' evaluative speech acts play an important role in teachers' teaching behavior, and they are of great importance to promote pupils' study motive and 'self-concept' . However, teachers nowadays in elementary and secondary schools have no sense of this, and the systematic research for this can't even be found in the educational theory field. After summarizing the related previous research results, I chose 'Teachers' Evaluative Speech Acts in the Context of Classroom Instruction' as my research theme.Before conducting the research, 'teachers' evaluative speech acts observation inventories' and 'students interview outlines' were designed. Based on a large number of the classroom observations of teachers' evaluative speech acts in several elementary and secondary schools, especially in elementary schools, and interviews to the pupils in one of the elementary schools observed, a systematic description of teachers' evaluative speech acts in the context of classroom instruction were given. Moreover, the various problems which exist in teachers' evaluative speech acts, and the bad influences they may cause to pupils were disclosed. According to my observations, positive evaluative words, such as 'right', 'good', 'very good' were be frequently used in the classroom instruction by teachers, which mainly pointed to individual students and the whole class , students' language intelligence and classroom behavior. The basic problems of teachers' evaluative speech acts were scarce, flat, non-specific, non-sincere, improper, and lacking justice.To provide strategies and suggestions for improving teachers' evaluative speech acts, three areas where I saw possibilities for improvement were referred to in the last part of the paper. The first point, I analyzed three important factors including teacher, student, and conversational context, which affect the efficacy of teachers' evaluative speech acts. Secondly, I tried to come up with five characteristics-contingent on the student's answer, be specific, be sincere, be precise, be proper, which I personally think, effective evaluative speech acts should possess. Finally, I provided teachers with some far more specific requests and suggestions for the purpose of improving their evaluative speech acts:( 1 )designing the teaching plan carefully before instruction; (2)listening to and observing students', delaying evaluation, giving opportunities for students' to participate in evaluation in instruction; (3)enhancing reflection and study after instruction.