A Comparative Study On The Cognitive Orientation Of Teacher Talk Between Expert And Novice Teachers In Junior High School English Teaching

Teacher talk is considered as the language that the teacher speaks in the class. It plays an important role in the teaching process. It is not only used for organizing class and maintaining disciplines. What’s more, teacher talk can be used for guiding students to think. In the recent years, teacher talk has been widely researched by scholars. The researches mainly focused on the following aspects: pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax characteristics of teacher talk; the amount of teacher talk; features of interactional modification; questions, and feedbacks. After summarizing the previous researches, the author finds that there are not many researches on the cognitive orientation of teacher talk. Teacher talk has effect on the development of students’ thinking ability. Besides, with the deepening of the education reform, the National English Curriculum exerts higher demand on developing students’ thinking ability. Therefore, it is vital and necessary to make a research on the cognitive orientation of teacher talk.Two questions are researched in this thesis: 1. What are the different features of teacher talk in terms of its cognitive orientation between expert and novice teachers? 2. What are the factors that lead to the differences? To answer the two questions, two expert teachers and two novice teachers in the junior department of a middle school in Chengdu are chosen to be the subjects. Directive words and questions are researched. Data have been collected by semi-structured observation and semi-structured interview. All the data after being summarized and analyzed indicates that there is significant difference between expert and novice teachers’ teacher talk in terms of its cognitive orientation. Expert teachers use more directive words that can stimulate students’ high-level thinking process. And they ask more referential questions. Novice teachers adopt more directive words that can stimulate students’ low-level thinking process. They use more display questions. Teaching experience and teachers’ belief are the main factors that lead to the differences between expert teachers and novice teachers. Expert teachers are superior to novice teachers in understanding students’ real needs and organizing class. Besides, expert teachers have better understanding of teacher talk theories.Therefore, some suggestions are put forward by the author: teachers should pay more attention to developing students’ thinking ability; “student-centered” teaching model should be stressed and popularized; the mechanical drilling should be used less in English class; expert teachers should give novice teacher elaborate instructions on guiding students to think. The author hopes that this research could raise English teachers’ attention to developing students’ thinking ability in junior high school and reflect how to guide students to think actively with the assistance of teacher talk. Meanwhile, it is also expected that the insights of this research will contribute to novice teachers’ professional development.