An Adaptation-based Study On English Teacher’s Speech Acts In The EFL Classroom

Since China’ entry into the WTO, there is increasingly frequent communication in trade, culture,academy, etc. between China and other countries in the world. English is the most widely usedlanguage in the world, and its significance has been shown increasingly. Therefore, a lot ofpeople are working hard on it and applying it. For most college students, the direct method tolearn English is to acquire knowledge from English teachers in the EFL classroom. Thus, asEnglish teachers, it is significant to adopt the approaches to teach English well. In China, wherethere is no satisfactory and mature pattern for English language acquisition, English teacher’sspeech acts play an important role in learner’s learning attitude, the performance in theclassroom and language output. What’s more, their speech acts can influence the learner’swhole learning process. Therefore, it is of great theoretical and practical value to study teacher’sspeech acts in college English classrooms in China.The importance of English teacher’s speech acts in the foreign language learning has attractedmuch researchers’ attention. Considering the significance of teacher’s speech acts in the EFLclassroom, it is amazing that so few academic works focus on the teacher’s speech acts in Chinawhere a lot of people are crazy about learning English. The existing researches pay littleattention to the application of pragmatic theories to the teachers’ speech acts in the EFLclassroom. In this paper, the author will study the teachers’ speech acts in the EFL classroombased on the adaptation theory.English learning is a continual process of making linguistic choices for the purpose ofadaptation. Based on the antecedent studies, the current study utilizes Verschueren’s linguistic adaptation theory, carries on a qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to present thedynamic features of teacher’s speech acts. According to the linguistic adaptability, teacherscould manipulate their words, express their ideas and interact with the students efficiently. Asfor linguistic adaptation, teachers should select the appropriate language to meet the purpose ofcommunication. Based on the previous theoretical and empirical research the author analyzesthe application of the adaptation in the EFL classroom through the observation, thequestionnaire and the interview. This paper focuses on the analysis of the adaptation to thestudents’ emotive elements, to the students’ physical feedback, to the English teachingobjectives and to the positive and active classroom atmosphere. At the same time, this studyalso reveals the importance of adapting to the specific situations.Although there are limitations and problems in the present study, it has its own value andsignificance. The present study will help set up a better understanding of the whole teachingprocess in the EFL classroom. It can also give some directions to the English teachers whenthey arrange their teaching in classroom. The author hopes that the results of this research canstrengthen the consciousness of adaptability, and thus provide more effective and specificspeech acts to meet students’ different needs for language.