A Study On Pre-service Teachers’ Transitional Discourse In Junior High School ELT

Classroom is the most important context for students to learn English.Teachers and students interact with each other through dialogues in classes.Due to the particularity of English teaching,English teacher talk plays double roles of language input and students’ guidance.However,in actual teaching situations,many junior high school English teachers neglect the use of transitional discourse when they move into next activities and links,which makes various sections of the teaching content disconnected.The problem of the overall coherence of classroom teaching is prominently reflected in the teaching practice of pre-service teachers.Therefore,according to the principles of purposive sampling(Patton,2002)and convenience sampling(Creswell,2013),this study makes an analysis of the transferred materials of classroom teaching videos of six pre-service English teachers in junior high school through classroom observation,questionnaire survey,interview,etc.The following questions will be discussed: What is the status accorded to using the transitional discourse in pre-service teachers’ awareness? What are the characteristics and problems of transitional discourse in their classes? What is students’ feedback on different kinds of transitional discourse? Besides,the study,with the help of NVivo12,describes the characteristics and distribution of the transitional discourse.The types of transitional discourse are generally divided into three categories: interrogative,imperative and declarative,including Question-based,Function-based,Let’s structure,In euphemistic way,In direct way,Summary,Plan,Obligation,and Advice and permission.Then the characteristics of transitional discourse are summarized based on this categorization.After analysis and investigation,the following conclusions are given.First,preservice English teachers are developing an awareness of designing transitional discourse,and they even write them down in the form of verbatim script before class.However,most teachers unilaterally regard classroom instructions as the transitional discourse,leading to the problem of inefficient discourse.Second,pre-service teachers’ transitional discourse used in classes where there are problems such as ambiguous definition of transitional discourse,fixed patterns of transitional discourse,and unawareness of natural transition,is characterized by imbalance,monotonicity and low interactivity,which cannot meet the needs of junior high school students for transitional discourse with less new words,concise and diverse sentences,and changeable tone and intonation.Third,junior high school students prefer simple language rather than simple imperative patterns only,so declarative and interrogative patterns with modifications in speech and discourse are also favored by students;The demand for transitional discourse is dynamic,and students need more help from teachers in reading,grammar,and reading and writing classes;The use of transitional discourse should be assisted by body language,facial expressions,and mother tongue if needed.Hence the following suggestions against these problems are as follows.To use different patterns of discourse purposefully to meet the needs of students’ development.To maintain the basic discourse skills of English and balance the construction of rich structures and meaning of transitional discourse.To enhance the liveliness and artistry of discourse based on the uniqueness of the English course.In order to create a better language environment for students,this study explores the current situation of transitional discourse used by pre-service teachers in junior high school,which improves the classroom discourse used by them,and has implications for promoting sustainable professional development of English teachers.