| As a tool language to describe and interpret language,metalanguage plays a crucial role in foreign language teaching.It is the main approach for teachers to interpret teaching contexts in English curriculum and organize the teaching activities.Also it can help students to develop their metalanguage awareness as well as comprehensive language competence.Along with deeper exploring of metalanguage theory in recent years,the studies have been emphasized on teachers’ behaviors about metalanguage in ELT classrooms.However,rare researches have paid attention to teachers’ perceptions about the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms.A large amount of researches have indicated that there are certain connections between teachers’ ideas and behaviors.In this way,teachers’ use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms is no exception.How do junior high school ELT teachers understand and make use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms? And what’s the relationship between teachers’ perceptions and behaviors of the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms? This study attempts to explore those questions.This paper researched six junior high school English teachers in Grade One of Y Middle School in Chongqing University Town.The means of questionnaire,interview and classroom observation were used to collect the data.And software SPSS19.0 was also used to analyse the data.The results are summarized as follows:1.Teachers’ perceptions of metalanguage and its use in ELT classrooms:(1)as for the definition,language forms and strategies of metalanguage in ELT classrooms,the teachers have a correct understanding.They believe that teachers’ metalanguage in ELT classrooms is the language for teachers to describe and interpret teaching language in classrooms,which is presented with verbal forms(such as English,Chinese and thecombination of the two)and non-verbal forms(here mainly refers to body language).Also they suppose that the strategies they used to interpret linguistic knowledge include examplification,translation,paraphrase,definition and situational explanation etc.With regard to the terms,functions and types of metalanguage,the teachers’ perceptions are not so comprehensive and in-depth.First,most of the teachers have no clear idea about the terms of metalanguage.Second,although the teachers generally mentioned the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms to explain the teaching content of language courses and to promote the teaching organizations and management,they totally ignored its significance of developing students’ metalanguage ability.To some extent,teachers’ professional titles,teaching ages and professional backgrounds influence their perceptions about metalanguage and its use.2.Teachers’ behaviors of the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms: From the overall perspective,there exist some similarities among their metalanguage behaviors in ELT classrooms.First,the metalanguage used to interpret different teaching contexts is more frequent than that to clarify the discourse in organizing and managing the classroom.The former is mainly reflected on the teaching of linguistic knowledge,typically with vocabulary and grammar teaching contexts.And the latter is usually shown in the discourses of instructing,questioning and connecting.Besides,in the form of language expression,the teachers prefer to use Chinese and English-Chinese conjunctions to make repetitive explanations for the target language in practical teaching.What’s more,the strategies of the use of metalanguage such as translation,ex amplification and paraphrase are frequently used in teachers’ talk.Finally,teachers’ use of metalanguage in ELT can receive satisfactory teaching results in most cases.But some problems still exist,such as lack of accuracy,simplicity and cultural depth,etc.Teachers’ genders,professional titles,teaching ages and professional backgrounds affect their teaching behaviors.3.The relationship between teachers’ perceptions and behaviors of the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms: To some degree,the teachers’ behaviors of the use of metalanguage in ELT classrooms are consistent with their perceptions.However,due to teachers’ professional competence,their students,teaching objectives and many other factors,there are also some differences between teachers’ perceptions and behaviors.Based on the above research findings,the author puts forward some suggestions for teachers and schools respectively,which are expected to provide some implications for the practice of and research on this area in the future. |
