Analysis Of Attitude In Teacher Talk

Teacher talk is closely related to teaching effect. Proper use of teacher talk shortens the distance between the teacher and the students and creates harmonious atmosphere for better teaching effect. Until now, little attention is paid to the influence of the interpersonal meaning and the attitudinal factors of teacher talk on the interaction between the teacher and the students as well as on the teaching process and effect. Rooted in the Systemic Functional Linguistics, the Appraisal theory by J. R. Martin constitutes a new developmental area on the interpersonal function. The theory consists of three systems:Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. Each system can still be divided into its own subsystems. However, not much study has been found about teacher talk with the Appraisal theory as a guiding theory.With the Attitude system as the general framework, and with both quantitative and qualitative research methods, this research analyzes the Attitude resources embodied in eight classes delivered by an excellent English teacher and finds out how the teacher uses the Attitude resources to shorten the distance with students, inspire their motivation, and achieve more active class atmosphere for better teaching effect.This research arrives at the following conclusions:(1) Rich Attitude resources exist in the teacher talk.(2) Among Attitude resources:Affect resources are basically for the teacher’s personal attitude revelation while Judgment and Appreciation resources are for the evaluation of the students’behavior and achievement.(3) The teacher uses Affect subcategory resources, Dis/inclination, Dis/satisfaction, In/security and Un/happiness to express her own feelings and views; uses Judgment subcategory resources, Capacity, Tenacity, Propriety, Veracity and Normality to evaluate her students’ abilities and characteristics; uses Appreciation subcategory resources, Reaction to evaluate her students’performance while Composition and Valuation to evaluate the teaching content.(4) The teacher uses positive Attitude resources to praise students in an explicit way while using negative Attitude resources to criticize them in a mild or implicit way. Therefore, this research is expected to be pedagogically significant as a guiding reference for teacher talk.