Teachers’ Classroom Language In Primary Chinese Classes

This thesis investigated, in terms of age, sex and work length, the classroomlanguage used by10teachers at the initial phase of the Comprehensive ChineseCourse sent from Xinjiang University to Confucius Institute at Humanities University,Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The data was collected by randomly recording class teachingsand classroom observations.We found that teachers accounted for a huge amount of classroom discourse talk atthe initial stage of Chinese teaching; experienced teachers did much better than theinexperienced in dealing with speaking speed, use of the medium language, use ofbeyond-syllabus vocabulary, and repetition of new words; younger teachers outdid themiddle-aged teachers in the use of non-verbal means and choice of topics inclassroom teaching; classroom discourse was also affected by differences in genderand textbook variations.In light of what was analyzed, this thesis suggests that language teachers inclassroom be concise in language use, be pertinent in applying non-linguistic methods,be reasonable in using medium language and textbooks, be appropriate in finely-tunedoutput, and stick to the principle of teaching only the essential and ensuring plenty ofpractice. This study is also a useful reference for choosing future volunteer Chineseteachers to Kyrgyzstan from Xinjiang University, and for Confucius InstituteHeadquarters’ volunteer training programs.