An Analysis Of Teacher Talk In Quality Courses Of College English From The Perspective Of Register Theory

For the English learners in China, English language teaching(ELT) classroom istheir main or even the only place to learn and use English. Teacher Talk (TT), whichis used throughout the whole process of classroom teaching, has been an importantfocus of English teaching researches. TT is not only indispensable for the teachers toorganize classroom activity but also significant for them to impart knowledge. Thewestern scholars began to systematically observe and study the classroom in the1950s, focusing on the classroom discourse pattern, which has a profound influenceon the late study of classroom discourse. In the field of Second Language Acquisition,the scholars has made a lot of researches on teachers’ discourse strategies, teachers’feedback, classroom interaction and negotiation model etc, and has achieved a greatdeal. However, the previous studies have been done mostly from the perspective ofSecond Language Acquisition or Pragmatics. Few scholars have studied CollegeEnglish Teacher Talk from the perspective of Register Theory.Register Theory is one of the most important theories in Systematic FunctionalGrammar (SFG), including three situational variables and their correspondingMeta-functions. Based on Register Theory, the thesis attempts to study registerfeatures of TT and their realization in two Quality Courses of College English. At thesituational level, register features of different situation variables are examined fromthe perspective of field of discourse, tenor of discourse, mode of discourse, and at thelexico-grammatical level, the specific realizations of register features are explored bymeans of multiple realizations corresponding to three Meta-functions. Bothqualitative and quantitive methods are adopted in this study, however, a qualitativeparadigm based on Register theoretical framework is chosen as the principal methodto analyze TT register features and their realizations.The result shows that at the situational level, from the perspective of field ofdiscourse, teachers in the classroom sampled use more referential questions thandisplay questions, for the former can not only make students understand deeper aboutthe theme they are learning but also encourage students to express their ideas freely. Secondly, from the perspective of tenor of discourse, it’s seen that from the verybeginning both teachers show their friendliness to the students by means of theircordial greetings in order to enhance the intimacy between teacher and students. Inaddition, they are always in high spirits and smile when they are faced with thestudent. Their feedbacks to the students’ answers are very positive. Even if theanswers are just so-so, the teacher will give good comments, such as well-done, verygood and so on. At last, from the perspective of mode of discourse, teachers in theclassroom sampled fully prepare the lesson, give immediate feedbacks to the students’answers, and properly use all kinds of teaching media to design the teaching, but withlittle negligence of textbook and blackboard writing.At the lexico-grammatical level, there are two register types in the TT sampledfrom the perspective of Transitivity System. One is regulative register and the other isinstructive register. Furthermore, there are many interplaying phenomena in thepedagogical activity, describing the extent to which the student study and the way inwhich they learn. The second aspect is that teachers use more declarative sentencesand interrogative sentences than imperative sentences in terms of Mood System, forthe latter is not favorable to establish equal relationship between the teacher and thestudent. In addition, teachers are apt to use more modalization expressions thanmodulation in terms of Modality System, for it is useful to use modalizationexpressions to ease the classroom atmosphere. The last aspect is that teaching-activityin the classroom sampled is a successful new information-giving activity from theperspective of Theme Structure and Information Structure. It is the teacher’sresponsibility to design the teaching according to the theme of the text and determinehow to properly ask the question and ingeniously end the lesson.It is suggested that this thesis not only enriches the application of RegisterTheory but also gives insights into how to properly use register choices to improvethe quality of TT and effectively design, organize and conduct the English class.However, for the complexity of the Register Theory, which includes three situationalvariables and their corresponding Meta-functions, the limitation of the corpus chosenand also some other reasons, the research content and methodology still needs furtherstudy and improvement.