A Study Of Silence On English Majors In Junior Teachers College English Classroom

Language is a communication tool,the ultimate aim of learning a language is to communicate and exchange information with others. Therefore, the task of English teaching is not only to teach students the basic knowledge of English, but also to develop their ability to use this knowledge to communicate. In China, classroom is the main place for students’ learning English and communicating with others in English due to environmental restraints. Therefore, classroom interaction plays an important role in English classroom teaching in Junior Teachers College. However, in the actual English teaching, only a small number of students can participate in classroom activities voluntarily and speak actively, most of the students often use silence as a response to teachers’ questions. This negative classroom silence severely prevents the teaching activities from going smoothly, and also seriously affects the improvement of students’ oral ability and communicative ability, furthermore it has a serious negative influence on teaching. The phenomenon has aroused the widespread attention in the educational field, previous studies abroad about students’ silence are based on the multicultural background; most of studies in China have the tendency to review literatures concerning theories, few of researchers apply theories to actual classroom situations and explore the specific reasons for students’ silence in English classrooms of Junior Teachers Colleges, so the study of silence on English majors of a Junior Teachers College English classroom has an important practical significance.In order to improve the efficiency of English classroom teaching and provide some suggestions and reference for other English teachers, the thesis starts from the actual situation of teaching in a Junior Teachers College to study the present status of English classroom silence and the reasons for students’ classroom silence.The research tries to answer the following two questions:1. What is the present status of students’ English classroom silence in Junior Teachers College?2. What are the reasons leading to students’ English classroom silence in Junior Teachers College?On the basis of the Affective Filter Hypothesis and Constructivism Theory, the author uses the quantitative and qualitative research methods, combines the questionnaire surveys, interviews and classroom observation together to study silence in English classrooms. The subjects include 272 English majors in Grade One and Grade Two and 24 English teachers of Tangshan Teachers College, Yutian Branch. The purpose is to try to further understand the current status of English majors’ classroom silence in Junior Teachers College English classroom and explore the varied reasons for students’ classroom silence.The results of the research show that(1) severe silent phenomenon exists in English classes in Junior Teachers College.(2) The reasons for students’ classroom silence could be attributed to teachers, students and context respectively. On the teacher’s part, the traditional teaching methods, inappropriate questioning strategies, improper feedback and inharmonious teacher-student relationship are the main factors for students’ English classroom silence. While on the student’s part, poor English proficiency, lack of positive English learning motivation and confidence, passive learning habits, high anxiety and group of psychology are the primary reasons. As far as the context is concerned, classroom silence is mainly related to Chinese traditional culture such as face concept, politeness strategy and traditional values as well as dull classroom atmosphere.Based on the findings of the research, the author puts forward some pedagogical implications to deal with students’ classroom silence from the perspectives of teachers and students in the last chapter of this thesis. On the teacher’s part,teachers should improve their teaching methods, improve the questioning strategies so as to activate the classroom atmosphere, provide enough wait time after questioning, provide proper feedback and establish equal and harmonious teacher-student relationship at the same time. On the student’s part, students should reduce anxiety, boost self-confidence,adjust the learning strategies, actively participate in classroom teaching and cast off the face concept.