A Case Study Of The Features Of The Teachers' Classroom Discourse In English Classes Of Junior Middle School In Underdeveloped Area

Teachers' classroom discourse in English teaching not only is the important media teachers employ to transfer information and organize classroom activities,but also the main resource the comprehensible input the students can receive in learning English,especially for the students in underdeveloped area.This research aims to investigate the features of junior middle school English teachers' discourse in the amount,interactional modification,questioning,feedback and discourse structure,and acquire the status of the features of teachers' classroom discourse in underdeveloped area.This study chose five English teachers in Grade 8 in Neixiang Experimental Junior Middle School(where the author interned for three months)as the subjects,collected five classroom teaching totally,adopted the methods of classroom observation and interview to collect data,and then conducted a qualitative analysis on the collected materials.The study findings shows that teachers didn't talk too much in classroom teaching,they offer students chances for group discussion and doing exercises.Teachers' questions are mostly display questions,the students' language form are the teachers' main focus,nominating and students' chorusanswering are the main questioning mode.Comprehension checks are the main form of interactional modification,and mainly occur after teachers explain language knowledge and give directives.Teachers don't adopt confirmation checks and clarification requests in the their classroom discourse.Evaluative feedback is the common feedback teachers employ,which has connection with teachers' frequent use of display questions.And simple praise and simple approval are most frequently used positive feedback.In terms of discourse structure,the teachers' preference is IRF pattern,teachers dominate the class and students merely receive language knowledge passively.Based on the research findings in the above,it is suggested that junior middle school English teachers should balance the teachers talk time and students' time of practicing language in the activities according to the difference of learning groups and individuals,different tasks,class types and topics.The questions the teachers ask should both include the ones focusing on language knowledge and form,and the ones developing students' communication ability.When giving feedback,it should be accurate and flexible so as to increase students' confidence.Finally teachers should promote students' language output with various means of teacher-student interaction.