Research On Teacher Talk Repetition In Middle School English Class

This thesis attempts to study the features of teacher talk repetition in middle school English class. Since repetition is frequently used in people's daily communication, it is necessary for teachers to study the functions of repetition and then make good use of them in English class and improve the proficiency of teaching and learning English.The thesis first explains the definition and the categories of teacher talk and teacher talk repetition. Then the author focuses on the descriptions of the types, functions and characteristics of repetition based on the observed classes. In the research, 40 periods of English class in Grades 1 and 2 in junior high school are audio-recorded, observed and analyzed. Through the observation and analysis, the author finds, according to the form and timing of repetition, the types of the teacher talk repetition in English class are total repetition, partly repetition, repetition of meaning, immediate repetition and delayed repetition. And also, the author illustrates the functions of it based on the observed class. They are adjusting utterance, emphasizing utterance, accepting utterance, verifying utterance, clarifying utterance and rectifying utterance. Then the author finds that teachers prefer a lot of self-repetition to express emphasis, on the other hand, teachers seldom make repetition for clarification in class. At last, the author proposes the suggestions on how to make teacher talk more comprehensible and effective and reduce the unnecessary rigid repetition. The author thinks teachers should create a wide variety of language situations in class and offer more opportunities for students to produce more target language output and thus promote students' language acquisition.There are four chapters in this thesis: Chapter 1, the instruction, states the background of this study, the purpose and the intention of making a comprehensive research on teacher talk repetition in middle school English class. Chapter 2 introduces the brief definition, categories of teacher talk and teacher talk repetition, and in this part, it still states some famous theories. Chapter 3 provides a detailed description of the observation and analysis of teacher talk repetition in English class to get the results and findings of types, functions and characteristics of words repetition in teacher talk, and propose the ways of making it more effective in class. Chapter 4, the final chapter, gives a brief summary of the whole thesis. It sums up the major contributions and implications of the research and points out its limitations.