A Comparative Case Study On Teacher Talk In Public Primary Schools And In Private English Training Schools

In recent years, teacher talk and classroom discourse have been the focus of study for both teachers and researchers. Quite a large number of researchers have made empirical researches on teacher talk. They have proved in their study that teacher talk plays a significant role in language teaching. Teacher talk, the speech made by teachers in classroom, is of crucial importance, not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the efficiency of second language acquisition. The quantity and quality of teacher talk in language classrooms have a great effect on classroom teaching and are even a decisive factor in the success or failure of it. With proper teacher talk, teachers can carry out the designed activities more efficiently to facilitate the learners’ acquisition.Research on teacher talk and classroom discourse has begun to catch the attention of scholars in China since the 1990s. Although there are many researches on teacher talk, we found much less research that examines empirically the efficiency of teacher talk of primary school English teachers or the learning effectiveness of pupils in English class in China, let alone the English classes in private English training schools. That is precisely the reason the present study is conducted and where the significance of the current study lies.With the help of the previous study of teacher talk and the theory of classroom discourse analysis, the present study intends to explore the features of teacher talk of two teachers in the city of Fuzhou. One of them, Teacher A, is from a public primary school. The other one, Teacher B, is from a private English training school. Both teachers are one of the best among young teachers in their respective schools. Classroom observation was used as the research method and, the data were collected with the aid of a digital voice recorder. Through a close analysis of the audio records and their transcripts, similarities and differences of the two teacher talks are found and summarized as follows:In terms of the quantity of teacher talk, the talks of both Teacher A and Teacher B are more than those of the students. Comparatively speaking, in Teacher B’s class, students’ talking time is longer than that in Teacher A’s class, the main reason being the different interactive modes adopted in class.The quality of the teacher’s use of English language was analyzed from the aspects of accuracy, fluency, diversity, comprehensibility and the use of L1. The accuracy for both teachers is not very satisfactory. A total of 22 mistakes are detected in teacher A’s talk while 20 in Teacher B’s talk. As for the fluency of their language, both of the two teachers performed well. They adjusted their speed to meet the students’ language level. But they performed differently in the diversity of teacher talk. Teacher A had too many mechanical repetitions, while Teacher B had a higher level of diversity in her teacher talk by emphasizing the key language points in various and more meaningful ways. As for the comprehensibility of teacher talk, both of them simplified their language to meet the students’ level, but according to Kreshen’s theory on "Comprehensive Input", Teacher A’s language was mainly "i", while in Teacher B’s language, there were "+1" elements. For the use of L1, Teacher B tried much harder than Teacher A. She adopted many effective ways to make her students understand her utterance better without resorting to Chinese.Concerning the element of questioning, both of the teachers raised much more display questions than referential questions. As for negotiation of meaning, comparatively speaking, Teacher B adopted more comprehension checks and confirmation checks than Teacher A, but no clarification request was put forward by either of them. In terms of feedback, both Teacher A and Teacher B employed much more positive feedback than negative one. Teacher B adopted more praises with comments than Teacher A.It is also found that teacher’s interactive modes, questioning and feedback have a great impact on students’ output. Through analysis, S-S, S-Ss and Ss-Ss modes and referential questions can push students to produce more output. Positive feedback, especially positive feedback with comments, plays a crucial role in encouraging students to use the target language.Finally, it is indicated that the difference of the school contexts is also a reason for the different performances on teacher talk of the two teachers.To summarize, teachers in both kinds of schools should improve their class effectiveness by paying more attention to their language accuracy, providing more time for student talk and raising more referential questions. Due to the fact that Teacher A performed better in applying various interactive modes and using a wider range of vocabulary in classroom input, it is suggested that public primary schools should provide better trainings for their English teachers to upgrade their teaching methodology and to enhance their teaching competence. Third, it is also recommended that public primary schools gradually reduce their class size in order to improve the effectiveness of English teaching.