The Effects Of Humanistic Care In Teacher Talk On Middle School Students' English Learning

Nunan, a well-known linguist and foreign language educator, once said: "Teacher talk (TT) is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of acquisition. It is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive" (Nunan 1991: 178). The newly-promulgated "Criteria for the English Course" characterizes the English course as "a unity of tool and humanism". Teacher talk should not only be a tool for imparting truth, conveying knowledge and explaining questions, but it should also be full of respect, trust and love for students.At present, most of the researches on TT at home and abroad only pay attention to its characteristics as language input and are confined to the traditional teacher-centered classroom. There have been few systematic empirical researches on 'I''I' in middle school English classrooms, and fewer on the influence of humanistic care in TT on middle school students' English learning. This thesis has made a study of the content and function of humanistic care in TT.The thesis holds that TT includes not only the oral language the teacher uses in class but also his/her body language in class. It is a major source of comprehensible target language input the learner receives in class. The thesis provides a new definition of humanistic care in TT, according to which humanistic care in TT includes not only the teacher's care, respect, love and equal treatment to the student reflected by the teacher's negotiating, enthusiastic, affectionate and encouraging verbal behavior and body language, but also the beauty, encouragement and model function the student receives from the teacher's standard, lively, fluent and diversified English. On the basis of sufficient discussion of humanistic care in TT, the thesis presents the hypothesis that humanistic care in TT can have an effect on middle school students' English learning, and validates it through questionnaire and classroom observation. Finally, the thesis puts forward some constructive suggestions on how to enhance humanistic care in TT.This research verifies the important role of humanistic care in TT in the course of language teaching. It has positive significance on encouraging all English teachers to pay more attention to TT, enhance humanistic care in TT and improve the quality of their teaching.