| Secondary fundamental education is a key stage in which students develop their language competence, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. For most secondary students, English language teaching(ELT) classroom is the main place in which English is involved and used. English teacher talk (TT) determines to some extent whether the teaching to be successful or not: firstly, the organization and control of the classroom take place through TT; secondly, it is the actual subject matter that is being taught. TT is the medium, the content and the target language students imitate. Until now, secondary English teachers in China have made great efforts to discuss which approach should be adopted in the classroom. However, many of them have long neglected the quantity, quality, content and form of TT. Being Chinese, most secondary English teachers are English learners as well and they are required to speak English in their classes. Without the knowledge and awareness of effective TT, most of them lack competence to adjust their speech consciously. The learner-centered approach has been advocated in modern English teaching for years. Is it out of date in the new reform of curricula? The new English Curricula Standard clearly states that teaching should be based on learners'development and the learner-centered approach should replace the teacher-centered approach. In the past, teachers only paid attention to the teaching content, which helps students get good results in examinations, but never observed what students really wanted or needed. However, the learner-centered approach requires teachers to adjust their pedagogy and TT according to learners'reaction and needs, and to emphasize learners'activeness and creativity. Because of the uneven English proficiency of secondary students, teachers should pay attention to the form and techniques of their TT. Teachers, who only depend on their English proficiency and experience but lack the study and practice of TT, cannot meet the needs for teaching. Therefore, it is of practical significance to do research on TT in different classes whose learners are at different levels of proficiency.In this article, the author first introduces the nature and the scope of TT and then defines TT as the language which English teachers use when managing their classes and giving lessons. This language includes teachers'speech in instruction and class management, their questioning, their feedback and their negotiation of meaning. Teachers'body language and written language do not belong to TT here. This article also introduces the research on TT in and out of China in detail.This paper will research and analyze the comparison between the expectation from the students of different level and the teacher talk in the English class to find out the actuality and difference of teacher talk for middle school English teachers and also prove the importance of the development for teacher talk in the new curriculum revolution based on"learner centre". Rogers'Humanistic and the theory, Structurism , which is popular in 90s, provides the evidence to support the study of the learner-centered teaching approach. Swain's Comprehensible Output theory and Long's Mutual Hypothesis lay the theory basis to analyse teacher talk.The following aspects will be analyzed and compared in this paper: 1. Analyze and evaluate the teacher talk amount, questioning method, content, type, orientation of the question, waiting time, how to lead students to ask, method of feedback of the middle school English teachers, etc. 2. Analyze how the students of different levels take part in the class activity and their response and evaluation. 3. Research the effectiveness of how to improve teacher talk. The class record, questionnaires and systematically observation of three levels senior two students in one middle school in Wenzhou are used to collect information in the research for this paper.This paper also gives some suggestions for teacher talk especially for middle school English teachers. The suggestions are as followed: 1. To control the amount of teacher talk and enhance students'practice. Decreasing TTT and increasing STT do not only talk about the quantity but also the quality. To make the talk more understandable is more important. 2. Pay attention to the interaction in the classroom and set the communication environment. 3. Combine the ushering questions and reference question then try to increase the reference one. Encourage the students to ask. 4. Questions should be asked to the whole class and try to increase the waiting time after questioning. But the questioning method for different level students is necessary. 5. Pay attention to the feelings of the questioned students and use the feedback which should be controlled in time and proper.Teachers are suggested to know the importance of the teacher talk for the communication in class and also the student's language study. At the end, the author put forward the conclusion: Teachers should increase their own knowledge of the aim language and also change the teacher-centered teaching method to the learner-centered one. We'd better improve the self-learning ability of the students and make the students more sensitive on teacher's talk. Only if we use teacher talk better can we develop our English teaching. |
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