On The Functions Of English Teacher Talk In Junior High Schools

In English classroom teaching, teacher talk refers to "the term used to describe the register whichteachers use in class with learners."(ed. Johnson and Johnson1998:320) Teacher talk is not only a meansfor teaching, but a major resource for the learners to take in the target language, and what is moreimportant is that teacher talk influences the learners' competence in real communication.(CompulsoryEducation) English Curriculum Standards (2011) states clearly that the ultimate goal of basic Englisheducation is to help the learners acquire their integrated linguistic competence (MOE,2011).In the context of English as a foreign language, it is difficult for Chinese students in junior highschools to be exposed to authentic English context. English class is the main place for Chinese students tolearn and use English, which means the cultivating of students' pragmatic competence mainly take place inclassroom teaching. Therefore, English teachers in junior high schools should pay more attention on thequality of teacher talk. The quantitative method is usually employed on the previous researches of teachertalk. The quantity of teacher talk, the type and frequency of question, the way of interaction and the way offeedback are mainly discussed through statistics. Some researches go into the phonologic, lexical andsyntactic features of teacher talk. The qualitative method is employed on few researches of teacher talk.The researches on the major problems with English teacher talk in junior high schools are even less.Therefore, the research aims to study the problems existing in the realization of the functions of Englishteacher talk in junior high schools and the causes for the problems, so as to provide some pedagogicalimplications to enhance the effect of functions of English teacher talk.By means of classroom observation,8junior high school English teachers' talk in the Affiliated Middle School of Henan Normal University was involved in the study. According to the results of the study,the problems with the functions of English teacher talk in junior high schools are as follows:(1) Ways ofgreeting are not flexible or of less varieties. Some teachers greet students with no facial expressions andsome employ the unauthentic context.(2) Patterns of directing are mostly imperative, which may bore thestudents and press them hard.(3) Display questions are much more than referential questions.(4) Accuracyof semantics, the creating authentic context and the appropriateness of language use while explaining are ingreat need.(5) Positive feedback is not flexible or effective enough. The major causes for the problems arefrom two aspects: sociocultural context and the teachers.Based on the findings of the study, three suggestions to promote the effect of functions of Englishteacher talk are provided here:(1) Raising English teachers' cultural awareness by way of understandingthe cultural values, norms, customs and social systems on both Chinese and British.(2) Enhancing Englishteachers' awareness on pragmatic functions by way of improving pragmatic competence.(3) FosteringEnglish teachers' awareness of reflecting on their own teaching, thus carrying out action researches, andrecharging themselves for lifelong education.The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter1introduces the research background, researchmotivation and the layout of the thesis. Chapter2presents the literature review. Chapter3provides theresearch design, including research questions and objectives, research subjects, research methods andprocedures, and data collection. Chapter4shows the analysis of the transcribed data. Chapter5summarizes the major findings of the study and implications for promoting the effect of junior high schoolEnglish teacher talk. The limitation of the study and prospects for further research are listed here as well.