A Study On The Construction Of English Teacher's Pragmatic Identity In Senior High School From The Perspective Of Semantic Waves Theory

Teacher classroom discourse and the construction of teacher's identity are research topics that domestic scholars,especially educators,have paid close attention to.Most scholars are devoted to the study on characteristics of classroom discourse,mainly including the amount of classroom discourse,questions and feedback.In classroom teaching,teachers construct different pragmatic identities through classroom discourse and have an impact on teaching effects.Many scholars have studied them,mainly exploring the construction of different teacher's identities,the reasons and influencing factors,such as Chen Xinren and Xu Min.They have analyzed the teacher classroom discourse and obtained knowledgeable identity,authoritative identity and amiable identity and they explain these identities from the perspective of Adaptation Theory.However,relatively few studies have been carried out based on Semantic Wave Theory.This paper intends to explore the characteristics of teacher classroom discourse in different class types and different teacher pragmatic identities from the perspective of Semantic Wave Theory,and then puts forward corresponding teaching suggestions.Semantic Wave Theory was proposed by Australian scholar Karl Maton in 2013.The theory believes that the process of knowledge construction involves ups and downs of semantics where the change of semantic density and semantic gravity forms semantic waves.Semantic density refers to the degree of different semantics condensed and semantic gravity refers to the degree of semantic depending on context.At the same time,Maton pointed out that the formation of semantic waves is conducive to improving the teaching effect.In classroom teaching,there are some abstract and technical words and grammar which are called power words and power grammar.The effective organization of the two concepts forms the power composition.Teachers usually use definitions,examples,and other methods to explain the power words and power grammar.In this process,the semantic density decreases and the semantic gravity increases to complete the unpacking of knowledge.Then teachers summarize these concepts.At this time,the semantic density increases and the semantic gravity declines which forms the repackaging periods and continuous unpacking and repackaging forms a semantic wave,which is also conducive to improving the understanding and mastery of knowledge.Based on this theory,this paper uses teacher classroom discourse as an example to explore the following problems:1)What effect does the class type have on the construction of teachers' pragmatic identity?2)How teachers construct pragmatic identity in reading class and writing class?3)What kinds of pragmatic identity teachers construct in unpacking period and repackaging period?4)What are the implications of Semantic Wave Theory in classroom teaching?From the perspective of Semantic Wave Theory,this paper analyzes teacher classroom discourse in reading class and writing class from levels of vocabulary,sentences,and discourse content,and explores the construction of teachers' pragmatic identity in different classes and also in the unpacking period and repackaging period.The following conclusions were found:1)Different class types have great impact on the construction of teacher's pragmatic identity.In reading class,teachers pay more attention to words,reading skills and the ability to finish exercises,so the professional identity and relational identity is more typical in reading class.However,in writing class,teachers focus on keep students involved in classroom teaching and encouraging students to express themselves bravely with English.Therefore,the authoritative identity and amiable identity are more typical in writing class.2)In reading class,Teachers mainly use person-referencing ‘I',representatives and introduce extracurricular knowledge to build professional identity.And hedges,inclusive ‘we',and polite directives are used by teachers to construct relational identity.In writing class,teachers often use person-referencing ‘I',directives and controlling the discourse content to build authoritative identity.And inclusive ‘we',indirect speech act,shared topic and jokes are used to construct amiable identity by teachers.3)The pragmatic identity teachers constructed in unpacking period and repackaging period is different.In the unpacking period,teachers mainly construct professional identity,relational identity and amiable identity.The professional identity and authoritative identity are constructed in the repackaging period.4)Based on the above analysis,this paper puts forward corresponding suggestions for classroom teaching.In the classroom teaching process,teachers should establish their own authority to ensure the orderly conduct of classroom teaching.At the same time,teachers should also strive to become friends with students in order to improve the effect of classroom interaction.In addition,teachers need to pay attention to the formation of semantic waves,especially the repackaging period of knowledge,in order to reduce the impact of context on the use of knowledge.The research contributions of the paper mainly include the theoretical and practical aspects.In terms of theoretical contribution,this paper is helpful to expand the applicative scope of Semantic Wave Theory and provide a new theoretical perspective for the study of teacher's pragmatic identity.In terms of practical contribution,this paper explores the construction of teacher's pragmatic identity in different English classes and different periods which has some enlightenment to English classroom teaching.If teachers can construct reasonable pragmatic identity,the teaching effect will be improved.