| Teacher talk is a special register that teachers use in class. For the secondaryschool students in China, English language teaching (ELT) classroom is the mainplace where English is learned and used, so teacher talk in English classroom has itsspecial forms for it functions not only as a teaching tool but also as an importantsource or way of students’ language input. The quantity and quality of teacher talk notonly has a great effect on students’ language acquisition and their psychological,emotional state, but also affects or determines the classroom teaching. Therefore,more and more scholars focus on the study of teacher talk. However, there still existsmany problems in teacher talk in secondary English classroom. Teachers and studentshave more great expectations on teacher talk, but they’re not reflected in the realclassroom. Therefore, the survey and study of teacher talk in secondary schoolEnglish classrooms has a positive practical significance.Based on Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, Comprehensible Output Hypothesisand Interaction Hypothesis, four English classes in Shandong jigang senior highschool were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The study tries to explore the state ofteacher talk in secondary school. At the same time, questionnaires are employed by12English teachers and238students, in order to explore the state of students’ andteachers’ attitude and expectations on teacher talk from four aspects: the amount ofteacher talk, teacher questioning, interactional modification and teacher feedback. Theempirical study hopes that it can contribute to improve teacher talk, facilitate Englishteaching and promote second language acquisition.According to the survey and data analysis, the study shows the following results:(1)Most teachers spends more time talking in class, which covers about20-30minutesof the whole class time. Furthermore, the students expect teachers can control andadjust the amount of classroom discourse reasonably, to give students more chance toparticipate in class.(2)When questioning, English teachers in secondary schools put forward more display questions and less referential questions. Most teachers prefer touse nominating and chorus answering. After questioning, most teachers give studentsappropriate time to think over. Meanwhile, students expect more referential questions,encourage volunteering, and enough post-question waiting time.(3)When negotiatingand interacting with students, instead of confirmation checks and clarificationrequests, teachers prefer to use more comprehension checks. However, higher leverstudents expect the former way to create a more natural language learningenvironment.(4)Most teachers adopt positive feedback and students expect theirteachers often encourage and guide students to self-correct, if there is an error.On the basis of the findings, the author concludes some implications for teachingand learning and puts forward some suggestions to improve teacher talk in secondaryschools. Suggestions are as follows:(1) controlling the amount of teacher talk andchanging the teacher’s role in English classroom;(2) using question strategies andstimulating students to think actively;(3) using interaction modification strategies tomaintain interaction;(4) improving the way and quality of feedback. |
