A Study Of Teacher Feedbacks And T-S Interactions In High School English Classrooms

This study investigates teacher feedbacks and T-S interactions in common English classes of high schools. The study chose five classes of grade two as the objects of this research. Four teachers and five class-students are involved in it. The audio material is from the database of School of Foreign Languages in Northeast Normal University. This essay takes the stand of social interaction theory elaborating that all cognitive development, including language development, arises as a result of social interaction between individuals (Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada: 2002:44). The key construct of Vygosky's interactionist theories is Mediation. The role of the teacher is a mediator in the classroom through teacher's question, teacher's feedbacks towards students, to help learners to produce linguistic forms that lie outside their existing competence. The main questions addressed are: (1) what kinds of teacher feedback the high school English teacher constantly use? (2)What is the proportion of these types of teacher feedback? (3)How does the teacher feedback influence the interaction of the EFL?The study highlights how the teacher feedback affects the classroom T-S interaction. Qualitative and quantitative methods are both used in the study. Through the analysis of the data from a social interactive theoretical perspective, three tables were formed and based on the generated data three questions were answered and the relevant findings are summerized as the following:1) In all the five classes to the answers of the students most of the teachers provided feedbacks. Most teachers have noticed the importance of teacher feedback and have contributed an appropriate portion of teacher feedbacks in the classroom interaction.2) From the data of the proportion of each types of teacher feedback in the classes, the author found the expansion or elaboration type of discoursal feedbacks unexpectly occupies the greatest portion of the teacher feedback moves. By contrast recast which was considered as the most preferable one in language study abroad took the least amount of the ratio. The explicit correction was least used next to recast by teachers in the class which suggests that as the previous research showed that it is less favored by teachers compared especially with the positive feedbacks for being less courageous to motivate students. The cases in which this kind of feedback usually happens are when the teacher tries to correct pronunciations or grammars. In the classes that the students for most of the time can handle these problems, so there are few explicit corrections in all these classes. With regard to positive feedbacks the author divided it into simple approval and approval with repetition. And the result shows that the latter one is more preferred by teachers. It suggests that in most of the teachers' mind that approval with repetition is not only an evaluation of the answer to the inquired students, but it also functions as an emphasis and a certain comprehensible input to the rest of the class.3) From the analysis of the relation between the amount and types of teacher feedbacks in classes and the time of the T-S interaction, the author finds generally that the more the teacher chose the discoursal feedbacks, the more the T-S interactions are there in classes. And the more various types of teacher feedbacks the teachers applied the more T-S interactions it will create in classes.4) The author illustrated the affect of different teacher feedbacks on T-S interaction through a qualitative method elaboration, and discussed the disadvantages and disadvantages of certain teacher feedbacks in the data. Based on all these analysis and findings several implications are proposed and suggestions for future studies. There are generally three policies drawn from the research: (1) the teacher protects the motivation of the students as much as possible. (2) the teacher can be selective in correcting the errors and mistakes of the students in different types of classes. (3) the teacher takes the students as the center of the classes and create more chances for students to participate in classes. (4) the teacher can apply various types of teacher feedbacks, especially the discoursal feedbacks to stimulate the motivation of students. With the guidance of these policies a teacher may get a better T-S interaction in an English class and create a harmonious and active atmosphere which will benefit the second language of the students.