A Comparative Study On Teacher Talk Between Novice Teacher And Expert Teacher In The Classroom Of Senior Middle School

In the recent years,the study on teacher talk in the classroom has been one of the hot topics of foreign teaching research.Nunan(1991)holds that teacher talk is not only a tool for implementing teaching plans,but also an important source of language input for students,so it plays a vital role in the process of organizing classroom teaching and learners' language acquisition.What's more,quantity and quality of teacher talk tend to affect or even determine the success or failure of classroom teaching(Hakansson 1986),so the effectiveness of classroom teaching is largely determined by the effectiveness of teacher talk.However,in our country,the study on teacher talk is mainly conducted in the universities,rarely is research on teacher talk carried out in senior middle school,let alone in the hierarchical classes of senior middle school.Therefore,the study on teacher talk in the hierarchical classes contributes to better understanding the real classroom situation,further improving the effectiveness of English teaching.In order to explore the features,functions,current situation and existing problems of teacher talk in the classroom teaching of senior middle school,this thesis is designed to compare teacher talk between a novice teacher and an expert teacher in terms of the amount of teacher talk,teachers' lead-in,teachers' questioning and teachers' feedback.The present study selected a novice teacher and an expert teacher from a senior middle school in a county in Hubei Province as subjects.With classroom observation,recording and collected data of transcription,the main findings are as follows:Concerning the amount of teacher talk,for novice teacher and expert teacher,teacher talking time surpassed student talking time by far;however,novice teacher provided students with more opportunities to input and output target language than expert teacher;the two teachers mainly employed native language to present new knowledge.As for teachers' lead-in,novice teacher used more methods of lead-in than expert teacher;novice teacher liked pictures for lead-in activity most while expert teacher loved reviewing and direct lead-in most;the total number of lead-in principles employed by novice teacher was larger than that of expert teacher,both of the teachers employed the most purposeful principle whereas they used the least brief principle;the most frequently employed function of lead-in by novice teacher was arousing students'interest whereas the most commonly applied functions of lead-in by expert teacher were constructing a connecting link and explicating learning tasks.In terms of teachers'questioning,novice teacher posed more questions than expert teacher,both of the teachers employed more display questions than referential ones;novice teacher applied more questioning forms than expert teacher,both of the teachers liked "wh-" questions most;novice teacher used more ways of eliciting answers to teachers' questions than expert teacher,novice teacher loved chorus answering most whereas expert teacher favored teachers'self-answering most;novice teacher employed more questioning strategies than expert teacher,the most frequently used questioning strategies by novice teacher were simplification and repetition while expert teacher loved simplification and probing most;novice teacher employed more questioning functions than expert teacher,both of the teachers used diagnostic function most and motivational function least.In regard to teachers,feedback,novice teacher used more feedback types than expert teacher,novice teacher employed more positive feedback while expert teacher used more negative feedback;novice teacher employed a great deal of positive feedback while expert teacher used no positive feedback,in positive feedback,novice teacher used repetition most;novice teacher applied more negative feedback than expert teacher,novice teacher used the most correction or interruption plus teachers' answering while expert teacher employed repetition or ignorance plus redirecting most;novice teacher applied more functions of feedback than expert teacher,novice teacher liked affirmation or praise most whereas expert teacher loved correction most.