Narratological Analysis Of Teachers’ Discourse In College English Classroom

Being an important tool, teachers’ discourse possesses significance in teaching,and teachers’ language competence becomes one of the main measurements in their teaching quality. Numerous previous researches on teachers’ discourse in classrooms at home and abroad have been conducted from the perspectives of discourse analysis,pragmatic application and second language acquisition, and it has been found that the quality of teachers’ discourse exerts strong influence on teaching effects. The application of narration to English teaching brings the research focus to the macro system of teachers’ discourse.This study takes teachers’ discourse in college English classroom as the research subject from the perspective of general narratology. And it aims to explore the characteristics and the existing problems of narration in teachers’ discourse based on the theory of post-classical narratology. The research also intends to provide some references and suggestions to improving teachers’ discourse in their future college English teaching to achieve better teaching effects.In this thesis, teaching videos of six different teachers have been collected from www.icourses.cn. The data have been analyzed in a qualitative way from the view of narrative discourse and narrative behavior. And a study of the narration of teachers’ discourse have been conducted in terms of their explanation of the texts, presentation of the background information and explanation of the key points. Analysis of narration in teachers’ discourse also includes aspects of the narrative structure,narrated time, voice and focalization. The research questions are listed as follows:(1) What are the features of teachers’ discourse in college English classroom in its quantity, components and its narrative style?(2) What are the problems of college English teachers’ discourse in their narrative structure and narrated time, and what are the possible reasons for that?(3) What are the problems of teachers’ discourse from the perspectives of narrative voice and narrative focalization? And then what are the causes of these problems?Based on the data analysis, the research results demonstrate that(1) teachers’ discourse takes up 30 to 70 percent of the whole class according to the course type,and narration occupies 70 to 90 percent of teachers’ discourse. As for the narration in teachers’ discourse, the methods of description and explanation are usually employed;(2) the narrative structure of teachers’ discourse is modularized, mainly manifested in its lack of flexibility in narration, and teachers’ discourse takes up over half of the whole class time, which breaks the balance between teaching and learning;(3) a large amount of overtness of teachers’ discourse exists and this straight narrative way makes it less pertinent, and its fixed narrative focalization is not helpful in arousing students’ interests in knowledge comprehension.Through this study, it can be deduced that(1) an insight should be given into the teaching design to promote the transformation of teaching structure;(2) the flexibility of narrative voice in teachers’ discourse should be enriched, and more “voice” should be given to students;(3) attention need to be paid to the covertness of teachers’ discourse, which can improve the narratability of teachers’ discourse by creating more“conflicts and suspense”;(4) the monotonous narrative style should be transformed to multiple one with the full use of teachers’ discourse to stimulate the students’ learning interests, and create the harmonious relationship between the teacher and the students,thus ultimately achieving the teaching objectives.