A Study On Teacher Talk In The Excellent Reading Lessons Of EFL Classroom At High School

Teacher talk refers to the language in which teachers organize class and impart knowledge in the second language or foreign language research. Teacher talk is not only the media through which teachers impart knowledge to students, but also the aim of students' learning target language. As Nunan (1991) contends "teacher talk is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the processes of L2 acquisition. It is important for the organization and management of the classroom because it is through speech that teachers either succeed or fail to implement their teaching plans. In terms of acquisition, teacher talk is important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive"(Nunan,1991:18 9). Hakansson( 1986) also points out that the amount and quality of teacher talk has a great effect on and is even a decisive factor of the success or failure of classroom teaching." Therefore, how to improve English teaching effectively by reasonable use of teacher talk is concerned in the EFL classroom at present.As far as the research method is concerned, the author mainly analyzes high quality English classes—Shanghai Education Committee organized English teaching research competition in 2006. It belongs to descriptive analysis with qualitative research and case study. The author firstly changes the videos of six excellent English classes to the text. It mainly stated about the features of teacher talk in the high quality English classes and elaborative teacher talk strategies. Its aim is to inspect what features of teacher talk there are in EFL class at high school. Additionally, the author wants English teachers to realize the importance and complexity of teacher talk in classroom teaching, strengthen sensitivity about teacher talk, then improve their own English teaching efficiency.This paper stresses teacher talk during the interactive process of English class. As a result, when it comes to the features of teacher talk, it connects interactive features of teacher talk and emphasizes the features such as quantity of teacher talk, asking questions by teachers, teacher questioning and teacher feedback. When the author studies about elaborative teacher talk strategies, it mainly discusses interactive adjustment strategies when teachers impart knowledge, ask questions and give feedback. Here are the research results:1. The quantity of teacher talk is slightly more than student talk's. They respectively account for 65% and 35%. In the classroom interaction, obviously students have more chances to communicate in English.2. Teachers use more referential questions than display questions in the class. This indicates that teachers try to create more chances for students to improve their language skills, though students don't get answers to all the referential questions.3. As for teacher feedback, the research indicated that there are many kinds of teacher feedback. Teachers make comments on students' reply, and continue to respond to students' reply. These increase opportunities for students to express their ideas in English.4. Teachers use common adjustment strategies such as simplification, elaboration and illustration when they impart knowledge. They often use repetition, elaboration, simplification and prompt when they raise questions. Teachers often use positive feedback such as praise, acknowledgment, encouragement and repetition, and they hardly select negative feedback. In addition, in order to solve the problems that teachers meet when they communicate with learners, teachers use three interactive adjustment methods. Among the three interactive adjustment, clarification request is of high frequency, and the second one is confirmative check. Teachers seldom use comprehensive check. It indicates student-centered teaching pattern.Through the analysis to the video of high quality English classes, the study shows that teachers try to spend less time on teacher talk in the class and provide more opportunities for students. Teachers should use more adjustment techniques to change their methods of explaining, asking questions and giving feedback. In short, English teachers should strengthen sensitivity of teacher talk, and learn to use various techniques of teacher talk, lead students to involve in classroom activity to improve learning efficiency, and thus promote the quality and quantity of students' target language.