A Study Of The Effects Of Teachers’ Metadiscourse On The Interaction In The Chinese As A Second Language Classroom

With the influence of Communicative Educational Principle and Social ConstructivistTheory, China advocates learner-centered interactive teaching in Chinese as a secondlanguage class. With the development of empirical research, it becomes popular nowadaysto study interaction and the role of teachers or students in classrooms through classroomenvironment inventories. However, most of the conclusions of these studies, whichmeasure the interaction from pure quantity perspective, are too ideal to be convinced.Few issues are concerned with how to realize the ideal interactive class. Consequently,some scholars in China realize the importance of quality rather than quantity of teacher talkand call for real, but not formal, interaction in the classroom. The present study attempts toexplain the real interaction in Chinese as a second language class from the perspective ofteacher’s metadiscourse.The research collected data from two intensive Chinese classrooms in a universitywith a classroom environment inventories. In one teaching unit, the two teachers werestatistically different in terms of quantity of teacher talk, of types of questions, of modes ofinteraction. The quantity statistics shows that Class One was a typical learner-centeredinteractive class. However, it was proved, through students’ apperception questionnaire andinterview, that the students of Class Two were more satisfied with their class and teacherthan Class One. The multiple regression analysis proved that the teacher’s metadiscourse isthe vital predictor variable of real interaction of the class. In particular, the subcategories ofmetadiscourse such as, topical structural metadiscourse markers, hedges, engagementmarkers are useful strategies to improve the art of teaching.