A Study Of Teacher Talk In The English Classroom Of Senior High Schools

Teacher talk refers to the language used by teacher in classroom teaching. Theearliest research about it can be traced back to ancient times. But until the1960s, itbecame an independent study field. In recent decades, more and more linguists andeducators at home and abroad give it universal concerns. Especially the importance ofteacher talk for learners’ learning in the second language classroom gets publicattention.In our country, the second language learners learn is mainly English. Learners’learning place is just in the classroom. Learners depend much upon the classroom. Butfor many years, our English teaching classroom is the "learning centered class" whichpays more attention to the acquisition of knowledge but ignores the learning process andthe training of study method as well as the development of the learner itself.In recent years, in the promotion of English teaching reform, many Englishteachers try to change the traditional teaching idea and teaching methods. Teachertalk--an important part in the process of teaching deserves enough attention. This studyis based on the theory of Roger, Krashen, Long and Swain. And it chooses the seniorhigh English teacher as research objects. The aims are to find the present characteristicsof teacher talk in senior high English classroom and provide some guidance andsuggestions for the current high school English teaching and English teaching reform.The subjects of this study are five English teachers and their students in senior twoof Chongqing NO.8middle school. Every teacher’s class is observed and recorded for40minutes.120students of the five classes are investigated through a questionnairesurvey. In this study, I analyze teacher talk from five aspects: the amount of teacher talk,the amount of the target language, teachers’ classroom questioning behavior, frequencyof interaction modification and teachers’ feedback. The main results are as follows:Firstly, as for the amount of teacher talk, the amount of teacher talk is far morethan that of student talk. Secondly, in terms of the amount of target language in teacher talk, the use of English is far less than that of Chinese. Thirdly, concerning teacher s’classroom questioning behaviors, display questions are used more frequently thanreferential questions. After the teacher gives a question, the wait-time is generallycentralized in one to three seconds. And in classroom, the distribution of teachers’question displays some tendencies. Fourthly, referring to frequency of interactionmodification, comprehension check is used the most frequently in the classroom. Fifthly,for teachers’ feedback, all teachers prefer positive feedback over negative feedback.And the main treatment of students’ mistakes or errors is explicit correction.Based on the results of the study, this paper provides some suggestions for Englishteaching in senior high schools in china:1. The teachers are expected to control the amount of teacher talk and change theirtraditional roles as well as encourage students to join in the class activities.2. The teachers are encouraged to use the native language appropriately;3. The techniques of asking questions are to be optimized. The specific methodsmainly include:1) the teachers are expected to combine the display questions andreferential question and then try to increase the referential ones.2) To give studentsenough time to think.3) Questions should be asked to the whole class. But the methodof questioning for different level students should be different.4. The interaction modification between teacher and student should be improved;5. The teachers should use the feedback strategies properly.