Case Study: Descriptive Research Of Classroom Discourse In Rural Secondary Chinese Classroom

The present case study looks at a female Chinese teacher's teaching performance through her classroom discourse in a rural junior high school. First, a literature review on classroom discourse offers this research an ethnographic perspective and a conversation analysis approach. Then, the real situation of junior high Chinese classroom discourse is described in terms of development, content and suspension. Finally, suggestions are raised for the junior high classroom discourse research.The thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is an introduction. The second develops a conceptual framework for the case study. The implementation of case study is described in the third part. The fourth part outlines the findings of this case study. The fifth part comes to a conclusion of the present study.The case study shows the dominant of a teacher when it comes to development, content and suspension of classroom discourse. It is especially the case with the development of classroom discourse which is mainly initiated by teacher, with his/her habitual teaching practice, individualized teaching method, and idiosyncratic language use. The content of classroom discourse covers a wide range, from knowledge and concepts, process and methods, emotion to attitude. Moreover, the content of classroom discourse is closely relative to teacher's teaching methods. The suspension of classroom discourse is initiated by teacher, involving teacher's waiting time and anger. Students' response to teacher's talk-either a positive one response or a silent response one, in a sense contributes to development of classroom discourse.Finally, this research implies the needs of increased experiences. It is also pointed that cross-cultural studies are to be emphasized with a special focus on words meaning and function, and a practical research and self-research methods.