A Study On Teacher Talk In The English Class Of Senior High School

Classroom teacher talk refers to the language used by the teacher in the classroom, It can help teacher not only organize and manage the classroom effectively, but also complete the task of teaching to achieve the desired purpose. In China, students do not have too many opportunities to contact with the target language. And they may largely depend on what language is used by the teacher in the classroom. Therefore, classroom is an important place for students to contact and use English. On one hand, senior high English Teacher Talk is not only the main source of comprehensive target language, but also a medium to facilitate the process of teaching. Therefore, it plays an important role in language teaching and acquisition. English teachers need to fully realize the importance of Teacher Talk and strengthen it.The present analysis is under the guidance of second language acquisition theory such as Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis, Swain’s Comprehensible Output Hypothesis and Long’s Interaction Hypothesis. In order to identify the distinction of Teacher Talk, four English teachers and their 255 students in Grade 2 from Yan’an Middle School are chosen as the subjects. Then corpora and data are collected through classroom observation, questionnaires and interviews. The present writer tries to explore the state and features of English Teacher Talk in senior high schools from four aspects:(1) the amount of Teacher Talk, and proportion of teachers in the use of English and Chinese(2) features of teachers’ questioning(3) teachers’ feedback to students’ performance(4) interactive adjustment between teacher and students in the hope of helping to improve Teacher Talk in classroom as well as English teaching and acquisition.After the investigation and data analysis, the findings are summarized as follows:(1) although most teachers are aware of the importance of students in the class, teacher’s talk quantity is still much more than students’ taking account of class type and other issues. The amount of teacher’s talk and students’ talk in English are both more than 50% and provides much language input and output. But overall the quality of teacher talk is not high.(2) "Yes / No form" and "wh- form" are used more than other ways and the proportion of display question is higher than referential question. So referential questions should be added and questions should be allocated appropriately. The participation and flexibility of questions are low and could not improving students thinking.(3) most teachers use positive feedback to stimulate students’ interest and their participate in classroom. Positive feedback is not just a simple recognition, and teachers also use repeated praise and recognition. Negative feedback is little used.(4) the highest use frequency of the three interactive modifications is comprehension checks.According to the study, the present author proposes the following pedagogical implications and feasibility suggestions:(1) control the quantity, and meanwhile improve the quality of teacher talk and use the mother tongue properly(2)improve the form of questioning(3) diversify ways of feedback(4) strengthen the interactive consultation(5) fully realize the importance of teacher talk in class(6) improve teachers’ quality and strengthen teachers’ basic quality(7) change the role of teachers and establish a “student-centered” teaching philosophy.