The Features Of The Teachers' Classroom Discourse

Classroom discourse is the main source of comprehensible input,and it is an indispensable part in the English class teaching and language acquisition.English classroom discourse differs from other subjects'discourse.Teacher talk plays an important role in spreading knowledge,improving the communicative ability,and acquiring target language.Thus,the classroom discourse attracts many scholars attention home and abroad.However,there are few studies about classroom discourse in middle school.To enrich research on teacher talk in middle school,this research bases on the 3 major hypotheses in second language acquisition,Long's Interaction Hypothesis,Krashen's Input Hypothesis,and Swan's Output Hypothesis.It tries to to find out answers to the following three research questions:(1)What are the features of teachers'classroom discourse?(2)what is the present situation of classroom interaction?(3)What are the problems existing in teachers'classroom discourse?First,the author observed and recorded classes in P middle school in Shenzhen.It lasted 3 months.Then the author transcribed them.Thirdly,the author handed out the questionnaires to students.Finally,the author from four perspectives to analyze the classes.The author found out that:(1)comparing with the quantity of student talk,teacher talk still takes a large part of the class,which dominates the class,students'time is confined in a certain degree;(2)about the question type,teachers tend to utilize more display questions,rather than referential questions,and most of time,teachers are willing to give 1-2 minutes to students.(3)about feedback,the amount of positive feedback is more than negative feedback.According to the research,there are still some problems in the middle school classroom discourse,(1)the feedback tends to be monotonous.(2)when answering the questions,teachers tend to call the"familiar students",without giving everyone same opportunity.Based on the findings and problems,the author gives four suggestions:(1)Teachers try their best to expand the opportunities for students,making them communicate in English;(2)About questioning,teachers try their best to put up more referential questions than display questions,for making students communicate in English.(3)Teachers should try to make every students have the same opportunity to answer the questions.(4)Teachers could use multiple ways to give feedback,not just simple praise.