A Study Of Teacher Talk In College English Classes On The Basis Of Politeness Strategy

Teacher talk has attracted the researchers‘ attention since 1970 s. It is of great importance in the classroom interactions and the improvement of teaching and learning. It is also significant in classroom organization and language acquisition of learners(Nunan,1991).Teacher talk is not only a way to impart knowledge from teachers to students but also a kind of resource for students to imitate for communication. The amount and quality of it would affect and even decide whether the class teaching is successful or not(Hakansson,1986).As a social principle, politeness is of significance in daily communication. There also exists politeness in the classroom interaction between teachers and students. Thus, the combination of teacher talk and politeness strategies would be of immense significance. On the basis of the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson, the study is carried out with the purpose of finding out the frequency of using politeness strategy in teacher talk,teachers‘ attitude towards face wants of learners and the effect of politeness strategy on learners‘ initiative and interest. Thus the three research questions are put forward and listed as follows:(1) What is the frequency of politeness strategies employed in teacher talk in college English classes?(2) What is the teachers‘ attitude towards the face wants of learners?(3) What is the effect of the use of politeness strategy on students‘ English learning?On the basis of the three questions and the purpose, the research is carried out in Hohhot Vocational College of Business and Trade. 30 teachers and 213 students in the college are involved in the research. The research instruments including recording pen and questionnaire are used to achieve the goals and answer the questions in the study. The teacher talk in college English classes is recorded with recording pen and transcribed. Blum-Kulka‘s three levels of directness are used to categorize the politeness strategy used in teacher talk in class. The questionnaires for both teachers and students are adopted from the previous scholar and modified according to the actual conditions. For data analysis, the software SPSS is used to get the percentage and means for some items.After the research, the results are obtained. The data of the transcribed material in teacher talk reveal that direct strategy is the most frequently used among the three levels of strategies. The first reason is that the directive strategy is easy for students to accept and the other reason is that it is time-saving in the limited time of one class. The data of the questionnaires for both teachers and students reveal that most teachers can be aware of the face wants of learners. And most of them are trying to save learners‘ face during the class. Besides, because of the polite and appropriate language, students‘ motivation can be stimulated and the interests in learning English can also be improved. And the use of politeness strategies in teacher talk can create a harmonious atmosphere in the classroom, which would enhance learners‘ enthusiasm of learning English. Thus the learners may be more active in class. The teaching and learning would be more effective. In short, the usage of politeness strategies in teacher talk does have profound effect on the teaching and learning. Therefore, the teachers should lay emphasis on the usage of politeness strategies in order to improve English teaching and learning.There are five chapters in the thesis. Chapter One focuses on the introduction of the study. Chapter Two is the literature review of Teacher Talk and politeness theory. Chapter Three and Chapter Four focus on the research methodology, the results and analysis of results. In Chapter Five, the main conclusion is presented.