A Study Of The Current Situation Of Teacher's Discourse In English Class Of Junior Middle School

Teacher's discourse is a sort of special language in actual teaching situations and process.For the current Chinese middle school students,English class is the chief place for them to achieve language acquisition and put what they have got into practice.Teacher's discourse in English has deserved its specialty since it serves not only as the tool for teachers to commit their teaching plans and accomplish their teaching task,but also as the important resource and major means for the students to acquire language input.The quantity and quality of teacher's discourse can not only greatly influence the students' language acquisition and learning psychology and emotion,but also affect or determine the success of class teaching.Therefore,more and more scholars and experts begin to focus on teacher's discourse research in English class.However,there are amounts of deficiencies of teacher's discourse in English class in China.This study tries to make a delicate research and analysis on the teacher's discourse in middle school English class from four aspects: quantity of teacher's discourse;teachers' questioning;interactive adjustment;teachers' feedback.Meanwhile it also tries to analyze the attitudes and expectations of the teachers and students towards teacher's discourse.In order to make the research findings more accurate and convincing,some necessary research instruments are applied including class recording,interview and questionnaire.The first-hand material comes from the observation and recording of four English teachers from No 1 middle school of Yantai.This research intends to put forward certain inspirations and aid to improve the teacher's discourse in middle school English class and enhance the students' language acquisition.Through careful investigation and data analysis,there are four findings:(1)The quantity of teacher's discourse in middle school English class usually occupies 25 to 35 minutes,which is much more than that of students' discourse.(2)Middle school English teachers usually raise more demonstrative questions than referential questions.(3)Middle school English teachers apply more comprehension checks than confirmation checks to communicate with the students in meaning negotiation and interactive adjustment.(4)Middle school English teachers apply more positive feedback in teachers' feedback.Based on the research findings,the author tries to put forward the following suggestions intending to help improve the teacher's discourse and promote the classroom teaching in middle school English class:(1)To control the quantity of teacher's discourse reasonably and change the role of teachers.Students should be given more time to practice what they've got from their teachers and the teachers should encourage the students to be attendants of the class instead of the listeners.(2)To apply the questioning strategy precisely to help students think positively.More referential questions are expected to be given instead of demonstrative questions.(3)To use interactive adjustment strategies appropriately to promote teacher-student communication.Teachers should use more confirmation verification and clarification request to adjust the interaction,trying to make the classroom environment more close to natural language environment.(4)To better feedback methods continuously and improve feedback quality.Teachers should not only apply positive feedback in classroom teaching only for saving time to accomplish the teaching task.Negative feedback also has the function of aiding the students to consolidate what they learn.