A Research On Teacher Talk In The Second Language Classroom

The research on teacher talk first appeared in the 1970s. Some researchers, such as Gaies, Henzel, Krashen, Chaudron, Richards were among those who first started to study teacher talk. As we all know that one distinguishing feature of language classroom is that language is usually both the goal of the lesson and means by which this goal is achieved. By using teacher talk, teachers can plan activities designed to facilitate the learners' acquisition and use the target language. At the same time, the teachers can use the target language as the principal means for giving instructions and directions, modeling target language patterns and giving feedback on student performance. No matter how teacher talk was divided, it did not make a big difference. The most important thing is the characteristics and influences of teacher talk, that is:(1) How teachers modify their language in order to make themselves understood.(2) How teachers use questions and the questions skills.(3) How teachers give feedback.(4) Teacher talking time.The definition of teacher talk is very simple and self-evident. But the ways of teacher talk and its influences on the students are the most important. We try to answer the following questions by using recording and questionnaires.(1) What is the common way for a teacher to carry out teacher talk?(2) What is the role of teacher talk?(3) How does a successful teacher speak to his students?(4) And how about the unsuccessful teacher? How does he hinder the students' study in the classroom?Through the recording and questionnaires, we concluded that successful teachers emphasize the creation and maintenance of a positive classroom climate by using teacher talk in order to produce optimum learning. They always retain control in the classroom; They present work in an interesting and motivating way; On the other hand, unsuccessful teachers often use uncomprehensible language to tell pupils what to do and achieve,especially when giving instructions. They don't often encourage pupils and usually use criticizing language. They talk too much in class and seldom leave as much time as possible for students to think or to communicate and so on.And the author also listed some problems that language teachers should pay more attention to in class.The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One is an introduction, which gives a brief account of the background of the researches concerning with this topic. It also gives a very short description of the literatures published in China in this field. Chapter Two mainly builds up the theoretical position of teacher talk. Chapter Three provides a detailed discussion about teacher talk. Chapter Four is about the application of the research. Chapter Five is the conclusion of the research.