A Case Study Of Teacher-student Discourse In Junior High School Reading Class From Views Of Turn-taking And Conversational Repairs

As an integral part of conversational analysis theory,the theory of turn-taking and conversational repairs are more and more widely used in various aspects.English classroom discourse,as a carrier for promoting verbal communication,knowledge transfer,ideological communication,and conversational ability between teachers and students,plays an indispensable role in promoting classroom curriculum reform and student growth.With the research and emphasis on the cultivation of students' communicative competence,more and more attention has been paid to the influence of teacher-student discourse on English classroom teaching.Based on this background,this study focuses on two questions:1.What are the ways and characteristics of turn-taking in the discourse between teachers and students in junior high school English class?2.What are the modes and characteristics of conversational repairs in the junior high school English teacher-student discourse?In this study,eight reading classes are selected from the 12 th National Highquality Course Competition in 2017,which is observed and transcribed and then organized into a small corpus.Through in-depth observation and analysis of the teacher-student discourse in high-quality reading classes,the author gives solutions to the above research questions.There are three ways of turn-taking which are asking for turns,keeping turns and giving up turns.In English reading classes,the teacher controls the turn of conversation most of the time,with absolute distribution rights.Compared with teachers,students have little desire to keep the turns.In order to control the progress of the class or repair the mistakes of students,the teacher may ask for turns when students express their opinions.There are four modes of conversational repairs which are self-initiated self-repair,self-initiated other-repair,other-initiated selfrepair and other-initiated other-repair.Self-initiated self-repair is the most favorite mode for both teachers' discourses and students' discourses.The study gives some implications for teaching.Firstly,teachers must give students certain clues and time when students answer questions or they will not take the initiative to take and keep their turns.Secondly,teachers should pay attention to the use of body language in turn-taking to give students signals,so that students are ready to get the turn.Finally,teachers should try to give students opportunities to repair their own mistakes rather than directly help them repair their mistakes.