An Investigation Into Teacher Talk Of English Teachers At Primary Schools In China

Along with entry into the WTO and the globalization of economy, China faces a growing demand for trained talents with a good command of English. The importance of English teaching in primary school has received more and more attention accordingly. For most English language learners in China, teacher talk is the main source of target language input as English learning usually takes place in classroom environment. Teacher talk, the medium of information delivery and the model for students to imitate, carries great weight in language teaching class, especially in primary schools. The present study aims to explore how teachers actually use their language in primary school English classes.The present study is based on a large body of data which comes directly from classes and which are representative of the present condition of language teaching and learning in Shanghai primary schools. The author of the present thesis makes a quantitative and descriptive analysis of teacher talk in primary school English classes from two perspectives: input and interaction. To put it more specifically, the amount of teacher talk; speech rate; adjustments on the level of vocabulary and syntactic structure; frequency and types of teacher questions, feedback on learner's performance and ways of error treatment. The major findings are summarized as follows:1. The results of the study reveal that the situation in which teacher talk takes more class time is changed. Students are given more opportunities for language production. In addition, rate of speech tends to be slowed down in order to facilitate learners'comprehension, but it still appears to be a little fast for the beginning learners.2. Adjustments occur at vocabulary level and sentence level. Teachers tend to simplify their language through using more basic but less varied vocabulary and shorter sentences. However, teachers do not succeed in varying their adjustments to suit the linguistic competence of the classes they are teaching. They prefer to use a considerable number of words and syntax that are far beyond students'proficiency limits.3. Most of the questions asked by teachers are display questions rather than referential questions. As for the feedback provided by the teachers, teachers seldom resort to negative feedback. They prefer positive feedback than negative feedback. The result concerning error treatment demonstrates that teachers always give explicit correction immediately.Findings of the present study may be taken as references in English teaching and a mirror which may help language teachers to reflect on their own teaching and enhance their understanding of the important role teacher talk plays.