Multidimensional Analysis Of Non - Verbal Behavior Of Classroom Discourse Of Junior Middle School English Teachers

Teacher’s talk is a means of transmitting knowledge, regulating learner’s behaviorand exchanging views between teachers and students. However, as for English class-thespecial subject, most of the comprehensible target language input of learners comesfrom teacher’s talk. In addition to this, teaching content and teaching strategies areconveyed effectively by teacher’s talk. The success or failure of a class depends on theefficiency of teacher’s talk. In order to understand teaching process and improve theteaching quality, more and more linguists and classroom participants turn to analyzeobjective analysis of English teacher’s talk.Most studies reveal that teacher’s talk integrates verbal and nonverbal dimensions.Verbal behavior can convey the meaning clearly and directly, but sometimes it maycause misleading and confusion to students. Whereas, nonverbal behavior can expressand reflect the speaker’s emotional state clearly, so in English class, teachers should paymore attention on their talk, especially their nonverbal behavior, in order to express theirviews and pass on knowledge.However, most studies are only confined to the verbal behavior of teacher’s talk,such as the amount of teacher talk, teacher’s questions and feedback on learner’sperformance, teacher speech repairing and modifications. Although verbal behavioraccounts for most part of teacher’s talk, it is not the only. The Multimodal DiscourseAnalysis, which consists of visual image, sound and other semiotic resources statesclearly that nonverbal behavior such as gesture, facial expressions, postures andproxemics can also convey information. This will break the limitations of previousstudies.Nevertheless, studies on teacher’s nonverbal talk are not too many, and mostlyfocus on senior high schools and universities, but fewer studies touch on junior highschools. What’s more, studies from the perspective of the Multimodal DiscourseAnalysis to analyze teacher’s nonverbal talk are rarely. Based on previous studies,drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Paralinguistics and MultimodalDiscourse Comprehensive Theoretical Framework, this thesis devotes to study onteacher’s nonverbal talk by using two junior high school English teachers’ teaching videos. Qualitative research-based method is mainly used here and quantitative researchis subsidiary, this thesis aims to solve the following questions:1) What are the mainmodes involved in junior high school English teachers’ nonverbal talk?2) What is therelationship between these modes?3) How does English teacher combine with differentmodes to construct meaning and accomplish teaching objectives more effective?As it is shown by the study, teacher’s talk mainly consist of visual mode andauditory mode. The relationship between different modes are coordination andcooperation. In the classroom teaching, according to different tasks, teachers willchoose certain mode.