A Comparative Study Of Teacher Talk Between Novice And Expert English Teachers In Junior High Schools

Teacher talk has been widely considered crucial in language teaching.Such a fact results from the close relationship between teaching and learning.Scholars who focus on teacher talk hold that instructors can be motivated to improve their teaching if the relationship between language,interaction and learning is understood.The consensus not only reveals the deep connection between classroom discourse and teaching but particularly shows the importance of research on teacher talk for teacher education and professional development.The previous research has analyzed the characteristics in terms of discourse quantity,questioning,and feedback explored the issues regarding the phonetics,vocabulary,and grammar of teacher talk.However,on one hand,most of the studies were set in senior high schools or college classrooms,a few of which was conducted in junior high schools.As junior high school is crucial for second language acquisition and students tend to be more distinctively differentiated,classroom language input at this period plays a vital part.On the other hand,the previous research hasn't placed much emphasis on discourse structures,which is of significance for teacher talk.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the teacher talk in junior high schools by making a comparative study between novice and expert teachers in terms of discourse structures,questioning types and feedback manners.This study provides a comprehensive account of current perspectives on discourse structures,questioning types and feedback manners,aiming to promote a fuller understanding of teacher talk.This thesis employs a mix of qualitative study and quantitative study to analyze teacher talk based on recording transcription.According to the criteria of Lian Rong in 2004,three novice and three expert teachers have been chosen from an eastern city of China for classroom observation and interview by purposive and convenience sampling.Furthermore,196 students are involved in this research to complete the questionnaire.Research questions are designed as follows:(1)What are the similarities and differences between novice and expert teachers in terms of discourse structures?(2)What are the similarities and differences between novice and expert teachers in terms of questioning types?(3)What are the similarities and differences between novice and expert teachers in terms of feedback manners?EXCEL and SPSS22.0 are exploited to analyze the data.The results are as follows:(1)Both novice teachers and expert teachers tend to employ IRF discourse structures,but there is a significant difference between them in terms of variant discourse structures,and they employ the most structure is[I~nR~n]F.(2)In terms of questioning types,two groups of teachers are prone to initiate display questions in class rather than referential questions.However,the differences demonstrate that the total number of questions designed by expert teachers is much more than novice teachers.And novice teachers raise less referential questions than their counterparts.In comparison,expert teachers tend to propose more questions to get learners involved in classroom activities.(3)Two groups of teachers tend to offer simple praise to learners,like good,well done.No significant difference is found between novice teachers and expert teachers in terms of negative feedback,and the most negative feedback they adopt is correctness in grammar.Nevertheless,the expert teachers offer significantly more feedback than novice counterparts,and the reason of such a difference is that expert teachers motivate learners to output target language as much as possible and stimulate their creativity.And the feedback of expert teachers is almost positive,while their counterparts employ the positive and negative feedback approximately.This present study is made for a need not only to explore teacher talk,but to ensure teachers can develop interactional competence,which would create a more engaged,lively and dynamic classroom where students can actively participate in the teaching process.Furthermore,it can provide a relevant and useful knowledge to educators of junior high schools and make this research as a sustainable path to professional excellence for teachers.