A Study On Teacher Talk In English Classroom Of Senior High School

As the primary source of students' comprehensible input in foreign language teaching,teacher talk is an indispensable part of English classroom teaching and the process of language acquisition.Teacher talk in English classroom is different from other subjects' teacher talk.On the one hand,it works as a tool to help teachers convey knowledge to learners.On the other hand,it plays an important role in cultivating the students' language acquisition and communicative ability.Therefore,teacher talk has attracted many scholars' attention at home and abroad.Most of relevant studies are concentrated on university classroom in China,while the studies related to senior high school are relatively few.Through studying on teacher talk in English classroom of senior high school,this paper aims at revealing the current situation of teacher talk in English classroom of senior high school and exploring the reasons for it.Based on the study,the author tries to offer some suggestions for the English teaching in senior high school.Four senior one English teachers and their students,who are from a Middle School in Chengdu,are chosen as research objects.First,the classroom observation and tape-recording last about three months,and then the author transcribes the tape-recordings into words.Second,the author hands out questionnaires to students and makes interview for teachers.At last,this paper studies the following four aspects of teacher talk in English classroom of senior high school,which are the amount of teacher talk,teacher questioning,interactional modification and teacher feedback.The author finds that:(1)Compared with student talk,teacher talk still takes up a large proportion in English classroom of senior high school.Teachers still dominate classroom and the time of student talk is limited.(2)Compared with referential questions,teachers are more likely to adopt display questions in teacher questioning.Teachers are more likely to name students to answer question and give three to five seconds to students after asking questions.(3)The teachers are more likely to use comprehension checks in English classroom of senior high school.Confirmation checks and clarification checks are seldom applied by teachers.(4)The adoption of positive feedback is more than negative feedback in English classroom of senior high school.According to the above conclusions,the researcher discovers some implications on English teaching:(1)Teachers should reduce teacher talk appropriately and create a student-centered classroom.(2)Teachers should apply more referential questions to help students to output more target language;Teachers should respect the individual difference and give equal opportunities for students to answer questions;Teachers should offer proper waiting time for students to think about the answer.(3)Teachers should use interactional modifications properly in English classroom to deal with difficulties in communicating with students.(4)Teachers should adopt more diversified feedback and use positive feedback as much as possible.