A Case Study On Low-silent English Classroom In Senior High School

English classroom silence phenomenon has frustrated English teachers for many years, which can not only spoil teachers’teaching enthusiasm but also have bad effects on students’ communicative ability. The silence phenomenon has attracted the attention of researchers both home and abroad. But most of the researches are conducted in a high-silent context. The aim of the researches is to find out the reasons for and solutions of classroom silence. But researches in low-silent context can hardly be found. This thesis aims to explore the solutions of breaking classroom silence from another different angle. The thesis concentrates on the low-silent class. By studying the low-silent English class, the author aims to find out the positive factors contributing to the high-engaged class and draw some implications to work out the silence problem.This thesis is a case study. Three low-silent English classes in senior high school grade two are chosen as the subjects, including three teachers and 165 students in total. The two research questions are as follows:1. What are the positive factors contributing to the low-silent English class?2. What pedagogical implications can we draw from the low-silent English class to solve the class silence problem?The research instruments in this thesis are classroom observation, questionnaire and interview. The major findings are as follows:The factors contributing to the low-silent English class can be divided into three aspects. Firstly, from the teachers’perspective, teachers’professional abilities and affective factors have great influences in the low-silent English. Teachers’ professional abilities include teachers’good questioning skills, tolerance with students’errors and appropriate corrective feedback. The affective factors refer to teachers’empathetic behaviors with students and sense of humor. Secondly, in the students’part, students have high integrative motivation and critical attitudes toward the traditional Chinese culture values. Besides, students in low-silent English class have good language proficiency and are more extroverted and less anxious. Lastly, form the pedagogical perspective, the language teaching reform brings the changes of teaching practice in class. In addition, the textbooks, the edition of Beijing Normal University, used in this school are authentic and interesting. Some assistant teaching materials are also adopted in class, which all create a pleasant classroom atmosphere.Based on the findings, the author concludes some pedagogical implications. For the teachers, they should improve the questioning skills and be tolerant with students’errors. Besides, teachers should empathize with their students and have a sense of humor in English teaching. For the students, they should build up the integrative motivation and look at the Chinese traditional culture values dialectically. Apart from the teachers and students, the teaching methods used in class should be appropriate and up to date. More assistant teaching materials are welcomed in class. The author hopes that the implications can have positive effects on classroom silence phenomenon.