A Classroom-Observation-based Study On The Thinking-oriented Function Of Teacher Talk In Middle School English Class

Teacher talk refers to the speech a teacher uses to complete the teaching tasks in class, which is not only the main tool to handle the process of teaching, but also the media to impart knowledge to students. The quality of teacher talk has an important influence on the result of teaching. Therefore, teacher talk is considered to be the core of research on effective teaching. In recent years, teacher talk has been a study hotspot both at home and abroad. Most of the studies focus on the amount and type of teacher talk, the role it plays in language learning and so on, and few articles study the thinking-oriented function of teacher talk——to stimulate students'thinking ability.With an understanding of previous studies, the present study assumes that teacher talk, as one of the media of the classroom teaching and the main interactive language input for students, plays an important role in helping students'learning and developing their thinking ability. So it is imperative to analyze the thinking-oriented function of teacher talk.This paper has adopted different research methods such as classroom observation and interview of teachers. The analysis is based on the classroom recording often periods of English teaching in Fuzhou Foreign Languages School. The author transcribes the recording and classifies the valid data into different thinking levels guided by Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in cognitive domain, and then a quantitative and descriptive analysis of middle school teacher talk are conducted from three aspects:use of directive words; use of question; use of feedback. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the following research questions:(1) What's the thinking-oriented function of middle school teachers as reflected in their talk in a complete teaching unit? Are there any differences between junior and senior middle school teachers in this aspect? (2) What are the differences among teachers in the same segment teaching in terms of the thinking-oriented function of their teacher talk?Three findings are concluded from the present study:(1) The thinking-oriented function of teacher talk related to the three aspects is gradually weakened from senior middle schools to junior ones, and it is generally at the lower thinking level; (2) Most teachers are not aware that training students'thinking ability is one of the educational objectives, so they do not prepare related classroom questions and activities to develop students' thinking ability; (3) The thinking-oriented function of teacher talk varies from teacher to teacher, which is due to the dissimilar teaching ideals they hold.The quantitative and descriptive analysis of middle school teacher talk and its thinking-oriented function can to a certain extent provide language teachers with concrete language facts and data about features of middle school teacher talk and classroom language teaching. Meanwhile, findings of the present study may act as a mirror which can help language teachers to reflect on their own teaching and enhance their sensitivity and recognition of the thinking-oriented function of teacher talk, so as to improve the quality of their teaching.