A Study On Interaction-level Discourse In The College English Teachers Professional Learning Community

Based on psychology and social constructivism,English Teachers Learning Community was first announced by Hood in 1997.He agreed that it was a learning group of teachers who had the same teaching problems.The conversations happening during the activity are the key parts of it whose aims are exploring the answers to the topic teaching problem.This paper aims at studying the teachers' interaction-level discourse in ETLC.The topic of ETLC is to find a teaching model of intensive reading class.And the study happened in normal English classes conducted by professor Gao.The analysis is based on the records and videos of the studying classes.The paper altogether concludes six parts: the interactive model of the teachers' conversations;the turn-taking of the teachers' conversations;the theme of the teachers' conversations;the types of the teachers' conversations;how the shared cognition happens;and the change of the teachers' knowledge during the activity.We are to answer two questions.They are how the interaction between the teachers happen and what the details of the interactive conversations are.Classroom observation and teaching evaluation methodologies are used in the study to help with analyzing.Here are the research findings:The interactive model of the conversation is changing obviously during the study.It is unilateral at the beginning,and becomes bilateral.The discourses of IR gradually decrease and this promotes the active behaviors of the teachers.The number of all teachers' turn-taking increases a lot rapidly.And the individual's turn-taking changes at the same way.There are more optional topics than selected topics,which reveals that the teachers are more and more active in the activity.There is a obvious individual difference on the theme of the discourse and they are in integrative developing trend.It seems that the teachers pay more attention to the topic of ETLC at the end than at the beginning.And the teachers attach more importance to the teaching influence on the students than to the students' behaviors atthe end of the study.There are always more conversations of qualifying somebody,rehearsing and suggesting an idea in each conversation.And the teachers use more and more exploratory talk,disputational talk and managing understanding.The teachers concentrate more and more on finding a teaching model of intensive reading class.And the teachers' intellectual content changes a lot and it is more useful.During the whole study,there are more and more new thoughts and findings,which help the teachers develop the positive new understanding about the intensive reading class teaching.The happening of the shared cognition promotes the professional development of the teachers.And we can see obviously that PCK increases most.