A Case Study Of Teacher Talk In Junior High School English Classroom

The ultimate aim of English teaching is the improvement of communicative competence, and comprehensible input is the precondition for language acquisition. It is through teacher talk that teaching content and teaching strategies are conveyed effectively, and teacher talk itself sets an example of using target language.Currently the studies of teacher talk focuse mainly in senior high schools and universities, while few researches concern about teacher talk in junior high schools. Thus this research focuses on exploring the features of teacher talk in English class in a junior high school, with specific purpose to provide some pedagogical suggestions to English teachers on what types of teacher talk would optimize learners’language acquisition.In this research, six teachers and244students in Grade7from Nanjing privately-run Yuying Foreign Language School are treated as participants. This research, based on the comprehensible input hypothesis, interaction hypothesis and critical discourse analysis, adapts way of case study.6classes are audio-recorded as the analysis data. The features of teacher talk are analyzed from aspects of quantity, questions, feedback and turn-taking. The research result shows that teacher talk occupies64.6%of class time on average; display questions take about81.7%;81.6%of feedbacks are short and simple praise and repetition followed by praise; and teachers have initiated98%of turn-taking, which indicates absolute control of the class.Due to the features of teacher talk in junior high school classes, teachers should fully aware of the importance of teacher talk for students’language acquisition, create more opportunities for students to participate in classroom activities. Besides, English teacher education should contain course related to teacher talk, cultivate student-teachers’ability to deal with interpersonal relationship and their fair awareness, and attach more importance to the teaching practice.