An Investigation On Teacher Talk In English Classroom In Senior High School

As a main place of learning,classroom makes a crucial difference.Most of teaching actions in class are completed by teacher talk.Undoubtedly,teacher talk,as a vital element of classroom,not only boosts students learning,but also plays a crucial role in teachers' professional development.Hence,researching teacher talk in classroom has great significance to improve the quality of teaching and prompt the sustainable development of teachers.At present,most studies about teacher talk mainly focus on the college classroom,while a little fraction of them focus on the classes of middle school.Therefore,on the basis of abundant investigations and researches of teacher talk in senior high school,the author hopes to provide some valuable references for the further research.Based on Krashen's Input Hypothesis(1982),Swan's Output Hypothesis(1985)and Long's Interaction Hypothesis(1983),this thesis aims to study the current situation of teacher talk in senior high school.Three teachers and 192 students from their three classes in Luoyang No.1Senior High School are chosen as subjects.Classroom observation,questionnaire and interview are the three research instruments adopted to conduct the research completed successfully.This study aims to explore the following three questions:(1)What are the features of teacher talk in English classroom in senior high school? The author explores this question in terms of the quantity of teacher talk,teacher questioning and the types of teacher feedback.(2)What are the students' and teachers' attitudes towards teacher talk in senior high school?(3)What are the problems existing in teacher talk in senior high school? Firstly,the author recorded and observed the classes for the three teachers in Senior Grade One to obtain the first-hand material for this research from September to December in 2018.Secondly,the author handed out and completed the questionnaires to make clear the students' attitudes towards teacher talk in English classroom in December,2018.Thirdly,the author interviewed teachers and students in December,2018.And then teachers' attitudes towards teacher talk will be presented.At the same time,the author made a further investigation about students' views on teacher talk by means of conducting an interview for students.(1)Through the investigation and analysis,the features of teacher talk in high school Englishteachers are as follows: The quantity of teacher talk is higher than the students',which accounts for more than 50% of the whole classroom activities;Teachers tend to raise display questions in class.Meanwhile,adequate waiting-time is provided by students when they answer questions;In terms of classroom feedback,teachers are usually apt to give the simple positive feedback for students.(2)Moreover,as for the attitudes towards teacher talk,most students affirm the positive role of teacher talk,but they also believe that teachers ought to provide students more opportunities to express themselves freely.Three teachers in this research also elaborate their own understanding of teacher talk and they also put forward their opinions about the current situation of the usage of teacher talk in senior high school.(3)The problems of teacher talk in senior high school can be summarized: The distribution for the quantity of teacher talk is unbalanced,the quantity of teacher talk is larger than student talk;The form of classroom questioning is too monotonous and the display questions occupy the primary position;Teacher feedback is mechanical and the individual needs for students don't take into account.The pedagogical implications in this research are as follows: Firstly,teachers should reduce the quantity of teacher talk and assist students in expressing themselves as much as possible;Secondly,teachers need inquire questions in a rational way and attempt to adopt multiple ways for asking questions;Last but not least,teachers should strive to provide the appropriate feedback to students and focus on the diversity of teacher talk methods.