Analysis Of Teacher-Student Interaction In College EFL Classroom

Interaction between teachers and students is an essential part of teaching-learning process, and there has been an increasing amount of studies on classroom interaction by linguists and educationlists in the world. However, little has been done in the China context to examine the features of interaction between teacher and students. The recent limited studies have mainly focused on the elements of teachers, such as teachers’ talk and teaching strategies or researches on teacher-students interaction are carried out from the view of discourse analysis on western theoretical basis. This thesis sets out to make a study of interaction between teachers and students in EFL classroom in China, with the aim to examine the characteristics of teacher-students interaction, such as interaction patterns, interaction strategies, etc.The author observes five periods of five courses in English department of Huazhong Normal University, adopting the method of natural inquiry. Then, the author transcribes the recorded and collected materials. With the Principle of Goal-direction formulated by Professor Liao Meizhen as the theoretical basis and analytical framework, the author makes a tentative analysis of the transcriptions. This thesis adopts a descriptive and analytical way to examine features of teacher-students interaction in EFL classroom by exploring aspects of goal relationship analysis, goal and interaction strategies, goal and power analysis, and eventually goal realization analysis, choosing five study courses, namely, Intensive Reading Course, Listening Course, Oral English Course, Intensive English Course and American Literature as the study courses.Based on detailed analysis and discussion of the collected data, the author makes a list of findings on the features of teacher-students interactions. Through the analysis, the author also proves the applicability of the Principle of Goal-direction in the analysis of teaching-learning process. And moreover, some pedagogical implications are also found, such as inequality between teacher-students interaction, excessive teaching lectures etc.The analysis in this thesis does not only enrich the principle of goal-direction theory and relevant study in the field of teacher-students interaction, but also has its pedagogical and practical implications. However, due to the deficiency in terms of the research method, the collection and transcription of the materials, the author cannot avoid subjectivity in the thesis. The research in the thesis is only confined to limited periods of lessons and students of sophomores and juniors.In terms of the suggestions for the future study, the author suggests that the following aspects should be paid attention to:firstly, the recording materials or the transcriptions serving the thesis should be more representative; secondly, if necessary, the quantitative analysis and the qualitative analysis should be scientifically and closely combined in the related studies in the future. Furthermore, in the process of transcription and analysis, the author should try to be as objective as possible. Only in this way can the thesis become more persuasive and valid.