Inclination Difference In English Teacher Talk Between Liberal Arts Students And Science Students In High School

Teacher talk (TT) is of great importance, not only for organization of the classroom, but also for its function as a medium to facilitate the processes of student learning. In recent years, great focus has been put on the use of teacher talk by many researchers. Many researches have been made to find out how to use teacher talk properly so as to improve English teaching effectively, and great achievements have been made. However, studies on the need of teacher talk from the perspective of students are few, and inclination difference of different types of students in teacher talk is even fewer.This paper aims at exploring the inclination difference in teacher talk between liberal arts students and science students in high school in order to improve teaching effectively, and provide practical bases for researches of teacher talk in class. For this purpose, this study seeks to answer five research questions:(1) What is the inclination difference in terms of the amount of teacher talk?(2) What is the inclination difference in terms of the use of mother tongue?(3) What is the inclination difference in terms of the teachers’questioning?(4) What is the inclination difference in terms of the interactional modifications?(5) What is the inclination difference in terms of the teachers’feedback and error correction?The theoretical framework adopted in this study was based on the social constructivism&humanism and theories related to L2teaching and learning. This study is conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative study involves the questionnaire.200students from grade two of Tianchang Senior High School are chosen to participate in the questionnaire,100of whom are liberal arts students and the rest100are science students. Then, these data have been analyzed by SPSS17.0. Mean and standard deviation are compared and independent t-tests are run to test the difference. The qualitative study involves the interview.10students including5liberal arts students and5science students, are chosen at random as the interviewees.Major findings of the study can be summarized as follows:(1) Science students prefer more teacher talk time in class and get used to listening to teachers and taking notes, hoping that teachers can convey more language points while liberal arts students prefer more student talk time and relatively less teacher talk time in class. They hope to participate in more classroom activities.(2) As regard to the use of mother tongue, science students hope that teachers can add more native language in class, because it is difficult for them to understand the teachers only using the target language. Liberal arts students prefer less first language used by teachers for they are eager to get input of the target language as much as possible so as to improve their language acquisition.(3) Both science students and liberal arts students agree that teacher’s questioning is very important in EFL classroom. Science students tend to prefer more display questions, because display questions are relatively easy to answer. While liberal arts students prefer referential questions, for they are eager for more communication with teachers. As for students’ inclination to teachers’ answer-seeking strategies, science students prefer teachers’ self-answering, while liberal arts students like volunteering.(4) As for the solution to the communication difficulties with the students, science students prefer comprehension checks, for comprehension checks are relatively simple and are more suitable for them. Liberal arts students show more preference for clarification requests. In their opinion, clarification requests convey teachers’ respect to students and improve the relationship between teachers and students. There is no obvious difference in confirmation checks between the two groups. In addition, all the students wish teachers to show positive attitudes when they answer the questions.(5) Liberal arts students and science students show similar preference for teachers’ repetition of responses followed by praises. Science students show greater interest in short and simple praises, which do not take too much time and teachers can spend more time in explaining language points while liberal arts students are more inclined to praises followed by evaluable remarks for they believe that this kind of praise offers them more opportunities to communicate with teachers. As for error correction, science students have a tendency to rely on others to correct errors for them, because it is hard for them to correct errors themselves. On the contrary, liberal arts students prefer self-repair, for it offers them chances to correct their words, so as to improve their English ability.The major findings generated from this study may have some pedagogical implications: English teachers should transfer to student-centered teaching and be aware of the inclination difference in teacher talk between science students and liberal arts students, and adjust question types according to students’ inclination. They should offer science students relatively simple referential questions to arouse their interest, meanwhile use more confirmation checks and comprehension checks in order to enlarge their language output. As for liberal arts students, teachers should use more referential questions and clarification requests for more communication in class. Teachers can help students build up confidence in second language learning by positive feedback. By applying different positive feedback according to students’ inclination can get positive results. To sum up, from students’ perspective, teachers should adjust the use of teacher talk according to different student’ inclination to enhance teaching effect.