A Study On The Interpersonal Meaning Of Teacher Talk In College English Class Within The Framework Of Systemic-functional Grammar

In the field of teaching research,teacher talk is one of the concerns of researchers.The definition for teacher talk is not exactly the same in various studies.Generally speaking,teacher talk refers to the language produced by teachers in the process of classroom teaching,however,for the convenience of the study,consideration will not be given to teachers' body language,blackboard-writing,sentences in textbook or PowerPoint read out by teachers.Then teacher talk can play crucial roles in language learning process,in other words,it can function as both an instruction tool and language input in language class(Nunan,1991).Researchers at home and abroad have studied teacher talk from various aspects.Among these studies,the amount of teacher talk,the types of questions and teachers' feedback are discussed most frequently,while few are concerned about the interpersonal meaning of teacher talk.Through the analysis of the interpersonal meaning of teacher talk,the roles played by teachers in classroom can be reflected to some extent,which may help teachers to set up better relationship with students.Therefore,the present study tries to explore the interpersonal meaning of teacher talk by adopting the Systemic-functional Grammar as the theory framework.Besides,in recent years there are some researches that have compared the features of teacher talk of different genders and found the existence of differences.Thus,the present study also tries to discuss whether the differences exist in the interpersonal meaning of teacher talk of male and female teachers.Basing on the above,the research questions are presented as follows:In teacher talk,(1)What kinds of mood,modality and pronouns are used by college teachers to realize interpersonal meaning in teacher talk?What kind of teacher-student relationship is embodied?(2)Are there any differences between male and female teachers in the realization of interpersonal meaning by mood,modality and personal pronouns?If there are,what are they?(3)Are there any differences in the teacher-student relationship suggested by the teacher talk of different genders?If there are,what are they?In order to answer the above questions,firstly,observation is used as the fundamental instrument.Eight English classes are recorded and transcribed into written text.Secondly,the transcripts are analyzed with the theory of Systemic-functional Grammar by Halliday.Specifically,the declarative mood,interrogative mood and imperative mood in teacher talk are identified and then the frequency of each mood is calculated to show teachers' preference.And then each mood is discussed with the example selected from the transcript to illustrate the teachers' roles in class.Similarly,the modality of teacher talk is analyzed from the aspects of type,value and orientation.The frequency of each type,value and orientation is calculated and examples are also presented to figure out teachers'attitude and relationship with students.Then,the personal pronouns used in teacher talk are calculated and divided into the first person pronouns and the second person pronouns.The frequency of the personal pronouns may show teachers' preference and the interpersonal meaning embodied is also discussed with the examples.Through the analysis and discussion,the research finds that:(1)the declarative mood,the interrogative mood and imperative mood dominate in teacher talk.Teachers are inclined to use declarative mood rather than the other two,which means in class teachers are information providers and also indicates the authority of teachers.However,teachers also use the interrogatives to encourage students to think and check their understandings,which may show teachers play the role of helpers.And the imperatives used by teachers,on the one hand,show teachers' role as guiders and organizers,and on the other hand,the imperatives can also suggest teachers' willingness to be a partner of students.(2)In teacher talk,teachers tend to use the low value modal expression,such as can and may,which may reveal that the teachers try to construct an equal relationship with students,and then students can have more choices in the negotiation.And in terms of the orientation of the modality,implicit subjective forms and implicit objective forms are favored by teachers,which mean teachers tend to express their opinions in a more objective and acceptable way,and may help to maintain a strong connection with the students.(3)The second person pronouns,including you,your,and yourselves,are most popularly applied in teacher talk.And the plural forms of the first person,such as we,our,and us,follow.The second person pronouns are used to guide students in most cases,and encourage them to participate in class activities.Then the use of the plural forms of the first person can help to build a close relationship with students.(4)As for the comparison between female and male teachers,in terms of mood system,the results show female teachers prefer to use more interrogatives in class while male teachers are inclined to use the declaratives.And as for the modality system,the results show that both male and female teachers are inclined to use modal expressions indicating probability.Median-and low-value modal expressions are favored by female teachers,while high-value modal expressions take up more proportion in male teachers' language.Meanwhile,both female and male teachers tend to express themselves in an implicit way.Finally,as for the personal pronouns used in teacher talk,male teachers prefer to use more singular forms of first person,while female teachers prefer the plural forms.(5)There exist some differences in the interpersonal meaning expressed by teacher talk of different genders.Firstly,male teachers are more likely to be the leaders in class,whereas female teachers pay more attention to construct two-way interaction with the students.Secondly,male teachers tend to put themselves in the core position in class,but female teachers may try more times to lower their position.Besides,both male and female teachers are cautious about their words and they are also willing to make their explanation more debatable,acceptable and open to everyone.Thirdly,through the analysis of personal pronouns,results show that female teachers give great priority to the construction of equal and democratic relationship with students,while male teachers tend to act as the guiders in class.Finally,it is hoped that the readers may obtain some inspiration for the construction of harmonious student-teacher relationship and can arouse teachers'awareness to improve their teaching language.