A Positive Discourse Analysis Of Teachers' Classroom Discourse For English Majors Based On The Appraisal Theory

Teachers' classroom discourse(hereafter TCD)is one of teachers' main channels of transferring information to students and an important way of students' language input,also a significant means to regulate and control students' classroom behavior,therefore,significance of studying TCD is self-evident.Australian linguistics scholar J.R.Martin et al.advocate doing positive discourse analysis(hereafter PDA)to demonstrate how textual voice builds a harmonious and friendly relationship.This study attempts to do a PDA on TCD for English majors to probe distributional characteristics of three systems of appraisal theory,which are attitude,engagement and graduation;to analyze ways in which teachers build a friendly teacher-student relationship and a harmonious classroom atmosphere via appraisal resources;to analyze effects of appraisal resources in TCD on students' language learning.In the study,classroom observation and recordings of six thematic reading and writing classes for English majors in a university of Liaoning Province were made,in which 3 teachers and 114 freshmen participated.TCD in recordings was transcribed into text,annotated and statistically analyzed,through which distributional characteristics of three sub-systems were found.Next a discourse analysis of TCD was conducted,through which ways in which teachers employ appraisal resources to build a friendly student-teacher relationship and a harmonious classroom atmosphere were expounded.Third,after analysis of results of questionnaires distributed to students,effects of teachers' classroom appraisal discourse on students' learning were discovered.Through the study,some conclusions have been drawn as follows:First,in TCD,engagement resources occupy largest proportion and graduation resources occupy second largest proportion,while attitudinal resources take up least.In engagement sub-system,dialogic expansion resources are applied more than dialogic contraction resources.In graduation sub-system,force resources outnumber focus resources.In attitude sub-system,affect resources occupy the first place and judgement resources occupy the second while appreciation resources take up the least proportion.Second,appraisal resources are employed by teachers to show friendly attitude,share emotional attitude with students,deepen communication and understanding and make agreement with students.Besides,students' learning behaviors,abilities or ethics are praised or appreciated via appraisal resources.What's more,more dialogic space for students are provided and wish of negotiation is shown to arouse students' classroom participation.And teachers' authority,professionalism as well as responsibility are shown.In this way appraisal resources are conducive to a friendly teacher-student relationship and a harmonious classroom atmosphere.Third,students believe all three systems in teachers' classroom discourse are conducive to a friendly teacher-student relationship and a harmonious classroom atmosphere.In terms of dialogic contraction feature in engagement system,some students hold it reveals teachers' authority and professionalism,which is beneficial to language learning.However,some students argue it will lead to disappointment and frustration,which is not good for language learning.