A Comparative Study Of Teacher Talk Between Honors Class And Average Class In English Classroom Of High School

In the teaching and learning of English classroom, teacher talk is focused by more and more scholars. Teacher talk not only organizes the teaching in classroom, but also is crucial for second language acquisition (Nunan,1991:189). Therefore teacher talk plays an important role in language teaching. In our country, the New Curriculum Criterions mentioned that different teaching methods and activities are chosen according to the students’different levels. In most senior high school, students are divided into different classes, students who perform well in the Honors Class, students who perform generally in the Average Class. That avoids a problem-the big gap in students’ competence causes difficulties in English teaching. This gap between students’different competence leads to advanced students consider that the content is too easy, the other students feel the content is difficult.This study aims to present the recent state of teacher talk in Honors Class and Average Class in senior high school, to compare and analyze the differences between Honors Class and Average Class, and to explore the features of teacher talk in Honors Class and Average Class. The study is based on the following four aspects: the amount of teacher talk, teachers’questioning behavior, interaction modification, and teachers’feedback. Through the classroom recording and transcription, classroom observation, interviews and questionnaires, the main findings are concluded as follows: Significant differences have been found in terms of the amount of teacher talk in Honors Class and Average Class. The amount of teacher talk in Average Class is a little more than in Honors Class, but the amount of teacher native language talk in Average Class is more than in Honors Class. In questioning behavior, the referential questions in Honors Class are used a little more than in Average Class. In the aspects of interaction modification, the teacher in this study almost used the same ways. In the aspects of feedback, the teacher mainly used simple feedback (simple praise, and repetition with simple praise) in these two classes. But for Other class, the teacher adopted more specific feedback than Honors class.According to the analysis of the results, the current high school English teachers are trying to make students as the center of classroom, but the teacher-centered classroom is still the main teaching form. Although the teacher uses different teacher talk for students in different levels, the English classrooms are still short of real meaningful communications. This research provides a number of revelations and suggestions. Teachers should pay full attention to the importance of teacher talk. In order to make students understand and absorb the learning contents, teachers should carefully use suitable teacher talk. Furthermore, teachers should create more opportunities for students to practice language.