A Study On The Feedback Of Junior High School English Teachers In EFL Classrooms

Classroom discourse consists of teacher talk and students talk, the first of which is the main input of the target language for learners in EFL. According to I-R-F model for analyzing classroom discourse, teacher talk includes Initiation move and Feedback move. Students talk refers to all the output, including the response move and the immediate output brought about by teachers’feedback. Effective feedback can promote the output by encouraging students’participation in the interaction.Guided by the Input Hypothesis, Output Hypothesis, Interactive Hypothesis and Birmingham model, the present study will descriptively analyze ten observational middle school English classes, discussing the feedback patterns and distribution features of each pattern, so as to find out the effect of teacher feedback on students’immediate output.The questions attempted to be studied are as follows:(1) what feedback patterns are demonstrated in each class? What’s the distribution feature of each pattern?(2) What’s the effect of feedback quantity on the quantity of the immediate output? Does more feedback necessarily initiate more output?(3) What’s the effect of feedback patterns on the immediate output? How to apply appropriate pattern to improve the immediate output?The data is obtained through watching the visual-recordings repeatedly and transcribing them elaborately. Revised on the basis of Hu, etc.(2004) and Jiang(2010), the transcripts from10classes of five lesson types, which last450minutes altogether, are analyzed and discussed.The result shows that1) There are altogether13feedback patterns in the classes and the frequency of each pattern varies:the three most frequently applied patterns are acknowledge a correct answer, repeat the responses and praise, while recasts is the least frequently used.2) More feedback does not necessarily initiate more output.3) Students’ total output initiated by different pattern varies, further ask tops the list with314total output while explicit correction initiated the least with8words. Proper feedback pattern can promote the output.The implications are as the four aspects:Firstly, it is necessary for teachers to deliberately provide more opportunities for students to practice the target language and offer guidance and help when needed, so as to encourage their participation in the interaction. Secondly, importance should also be attached to the quality while emphasizing adequate feedback; teachers need attend students’responses and modify their talk accordingly, activate and consolidate the learners’performances while providing and supplementing the knowledge. Thirdly, it is necessary for teachers to skillfully use strategies and apply appropriate feedback patterns, so as to optimize the positive effect of teacher feedback and reach the ultimate understanding and mastery of the target language. Last but not least, considering students’mastery of the target language is still subjected to other factors, it is beneficial for teachers to coordinate these factors with teacher feedback, so as to improve students’comprehensive ability of the target language.The present study is only a tentative one and there are still some limitations. Some proposals are put forward so as to offer a modest spur to trigger more valuable contributions in this field.