An Empirical Study Of The Influence Of Classroom Teacher Verbal Feedback On Senior Middle School Students' Affective Factors And English Learning Achievements From An Adaptation Perspective

In the filed of English teaching, teacher talk has aroused curiosity of many researchers in the recentdecades. Among them, some researchers showed their interest in one of its components—teacher feedback.Most of their studies showed that teacher feedback can promote the development of teaching activities.However, there are not enough studies on classroom teacher verbal feedback in the affective domain.The theoretical framework of the present study is based on Yu Guodong's adaptation model on codeswitching (2000), utilizing Jef Verschueren's theory of linguistic adaptation (1999). Teacher verbalfeedback in the present study is defined as a kind of linguistic choice and a strategy that can be exploited byforeign language teachers to achieve some pedagogical goals. Speakers may adopt relevant feedbackstrategies according to the dynamic classroom context mainly for realizing adaptability, specially speaking,for making adaptation to linguistic reality, social conventions and psychological motivation.By reviewing the related studies aboard and at home, the author conducts this research from pragmaticperspective, SLA perspective, and psychological perspective. This study aims to investigate the influencesof classroom teacher verbal feedback from an adaptation perspective on students'affective factors and theirEnglish learning achievements in the senior middle school. The present study was undertaken to answerthree questions:Question 1: Can classroom teacher verbal feedback from an adaptation perspective promote students'English affective development at different language proficiency levels in the senior middle school?Question 2: Can classroom teacher verbal feedback from an adaptation perspective improve students'English learning achievements at different language proficiency levels in the senior middle school?Question 3: Do senior middle school students at different language proficiency levels need differentclassroom teacher verbal feedback strategies?In this study, independent variable is classroom teacher verbal feedback from an adaptationperspective, while the students'affective factors and their English learning achievements are dependentvariables. Instruments for data collection include questionnaires, tests, interviews, classroom observation,students'diaries and teacher's log. In the control class, the teacher adopts the traditional teacher verbalfeedback strategies as usual: simple affirmation and correct for the incorrect answers. In the experimentalclass, the teacher adopts different kinds of classroom teacher verbal feedback from an Adaptationperspective to satisfy students'needs at different language proficiency levels.The results showed that classroom teacher verbal feedback from an Adaptation perspective could enhance the affective development and improve their English learning achievements for students at lowlanguage proficiency level and students at medium language proficiency level, while it had no significanteffect on promoting students'affective development and improving their English learning achievements forstudents at high language proficiency level. Senior middle school students who are at different languageproficiency levels need different feedback strategies. Therefore, in order to promote students'affectivedevelopment and improve their English learning achievements, teachers should improve classroom teacherverbal feedback strategies, develop a positive and supportive classroom atmosphere and give more affectiveconcerns to all the students, especially for the students at low and medium language proficiency levels.The present study has its own limitations because of the author's limited educational andpsychological knowledge, but it provides some reference value on how to make better use of teacher'sfeedback strategies in classroom to foster the English teaching.