A Research On The Status Quo Of Teacher Talk In MED Practicum

With the dramatic development of globalization, as an international language,English plays an important role in Chinese educational system. Schools, where most Chinese students learn English, are dedicated to cultivate their language competence.Thus, in English high school class, teacher talk, as a most critical component, is applied in different teaching stages. Since former studies of teacher talk mainly focus on in-service teachers, this study will explore the status quo of teacher talk in English teaching practicum from the perspective of English M. Ed. interns. English M. Ed. students are both advanced English learners who learn how to teach and student teachers or pre-service teachers, whose training program includes teaching practicum. This study aims at investigating the status quo of teacher talk of English M. Ed. interns in teaching practicum, analyzing their characteristics and reasons of their using of teacher talk and helping them realize the significance of teacher talk to enable them complete the transition from student teachers to professional teachers and improve their teaching ability. Meanwhile, it will provide practical guidance and inspiration for the education of English M. Ed. interns.The purpose of this study is mainly investigating the following three questions:1. What is the status quo of teacher talk of English M. Ed. interns in teaching practicum? The analysis of their teacher talk includes the following five aspects:amount of target language, syntactic features, discourse quantity, teacher feedback and interactional modification. 2. What are the attitudes and expectation of students towards the teacher talk of English M. Ed. interns? 3. What are the attitudes and expectation of English M. Ed. interns towards their own teacher talk? The study takes 4 English M. Ed. interns who will graduate from Central China Normal University in 2017 as participants. The author adopts naturalistic inquiry, which includes questionnaires, classroom observation and interviews to explore English M.Ed. interns' teacher talk in teaching practicum. The research results are as follows: 1)English M. Ed. interns' using of target language is more than first language. 2) They tend to use simple sentence, and apply more declarative sentences than interrogative sentences and imperative sentences. 3) Their teacher talk is more than student talk in their classes. 4) They make full use of positive feedback, but it is simple and general.5) They use more comprehension check than confirmation check and clarification request. Considering the results mentioned above, the author put up with the following implications for English M. Ed. interns' profrssional development: 1) Use first language appropriately; 2) Try to lessen teacher talk; 3) Diversify the teacher feedback; 4) Appropriate use of interactional modification.