A Comparative Study Of Teacher Talk Between Novice Teachers And Proficient Teachers In The EFL Classroom Of Senior High Schools

Of substantial classroom research, teacher talk has always been a major issue. Teacher talk is "of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of L2 acquisition" (Nunan, 1991:189). As the model of the target language in the language classroom, the amount and quality of teacher talk has a great effect on classroom teaching and is even a decisive factor of its success or failure (Hakansson, 1986). Since teacher talk plays such an important role in language teaching, a great number of scholars (e.g. Chaudron, 1983; Gaise, 1977, 1979; Henzl, 1979; Long, 1981, 1983) have made a lot of empirical research on it. On the other hand, many studies in SLA have brought to light the significance of "classroom interaction" since the 1980s (e.g. Allwright, 1984; Ellis, 1990; Long, 1983; Swain, 1985). The results from these studies show that teacher talk and classroom interaction are closely related to learners' target language acquisition process.The relevant studies abroad on teacher talk focus mainly on the amount and type of teacher talk, its effects on language comprehension, teacher questions, teacher feedback and error correction. Most studies and surveys carried out at home in recent years have laid more emphasis on the quantity of teacher talk rather than on the quality. On the other hand, only a few have been conducted at home to examine the features of teacher talk and classroom interaction in the Chinese context (e.g. Zhao Xiaohong, 1998; Wang Yinquan, 1999; Zhou & Zhou, 2002), and all the studies were conducted in colleges or universities instead of in secondary schools. The present study made a descriptive investigation on the two aspects in the secondary school.This research is conducted with a purpose to investigate the features of teacher talk and classroom interaction in the EFL classroom of senior high schools by comparing the resemblances and differences between the proficient teachers and the novice teachers. The subjects involved in this study were six teachers (three proficient teachers and three novice teachers) of English from three key senior high schools of a city in Shandong Province. The selection of the proficient teachers was based on the professional profile for effective EFL teachers proposed by Professor Wu (2005), together with the recommendation of the school authority and the students' evaluation. The data were collected based on the researcher's classroom observations and the transcripts from the audio-taped lessons. In addition, a questionnaire was adopted as a subsidiary tool of the research, and all the 243 first-year students of the six teachers were asked to finish it, of which 200 copies were considered valid. The data were analyzed by using SPSS from the perspectives of linguistic features and interactive features.This study has yielded the following results. From the linguistic point of view, significant differences have been found in terms of the average length of T-units, the ratio of T-units containing subordinate clauses and the amount of teacher talk and student talk. No significant differences have been found in the use of speech rate and vocabulary range. With regard to the interactive features, there exist significant differences in the complexity of interactional patterns and types of questions asked by the two groups of teachers. The proficient teachers tend to use more referential questions while the novice teachers ask more display questions. However, there exist no significant differences between the two groups in speech rate, vocabulary range and teacher feedback.The findings of the present study have implications on both teacher development and language teaching. First, it is suggested that teachers receive pre-service or in-service training in teaching methodology, and also be provided with such research methods as action research. Secondly, students ought to be provided with more opportunities to practice in order to improve their communicative competence. Thirdly, more referential questions should be asked in class, for these questions may not only stimulate students' thinking but also push more students' oral output and thus prompt their SLA.