Study On Teachers' Use Of The Target Language In Chinese Elementary School English Classes

Researchers in second language acquisition field agree that input of the target language (abbreviated as"TL"below) is rather crucial for successful second or foreign language learning. As foreign language learning usually takes place in classroom environments, teachers'use of the TL becomes an important source for students to obtain the input of the TL. The present study aims to explore how teachers actually use the TL in elementary school English classes. Five research questions were addressed in the study. To put it more specifically, the amount and accuracy of the TL use in the total teacher talk, the percentage of the TL use in different function categories of teacher talk, comparison of different percentages of the TL use in teacher talk when different classroom activities are carried out, measures taken to make teachers'TL use comprehensible to students as well as the factors influencing teachers'TL use in FL classes are studied.The participants selected for the study were 54 English teachers of elementary schools (4 for classroom observations and 50 for questionnaire study) and 203 students of the four teachers under observations. A naturalistic inquiry approach was adopted, and the results were analyzed statistically. Totally, the investigation, including classroom observation, interviews and questionnaire studies spanned 2 months.The results of the study revealed that there were considerable variations in teachers'use of the TL. For most of the teachers, the TL use was not satisfactory because of the small amount, low accuracy and insufficient teaching measures. Furthermore, teachers'quality, diversified ability of the students, teachers'fatigue and the external expectation from school authority and students'families were found to be the four leading contributing factors that may influence teachers'effective use of the TL. The study is of great significance to Programs of Foreign Language Teaching in Elementary Schools (abbreviated as"FLES"below, from Bao, 2000, p.26) in that it can provide us an opportunity to see the real status of teachers'TL use in FL classes and propose some suggestions to improve the effectiveness of teachers'TL use in classes.