An Analysis Of Teacher-student Verbal Interaction In English Classroom Of University Based On Improved Flanders Interaction Analysis System

Teacher-student verbal interaction is the interaction and influence between the teacher and students through speech acts in classroom.Most of the previous research on teacher-student verbal interaction in English classroom mainly focus on that in elementary and middle schools,while there are relatively few studies on teacher-student verbal interaction in undergraduate English classes in universities.The quality of teacher-student interaction in English classrooms in universities directly affects its teaching quality,so it also has the same great research value.Therefore,this research attempts to study verbal interaction between English teachers and students in the classroom of English majors in Ningxia university.The thesis makes use of classroom observation,interview and questionnaire to study the teacher-student verbal interaction.This research randomly selects 4 English teachers of different courses and 120 students from English major in the university,and observes a class of each teacher.Then the thesis analyzes 4 sample classes with the Improved Flanders Interaction Analysis System(iFIAS),and it interviews the research subjects and lets the students finish the questionnaires.The research tries to answer the following four questions:(1)What are the English teachers’ and students’attitudes towards their verbal interaction?(2)What are the characteristics of the verbal interaction between English teachers and students?(3)What are the problems in their classroom interaction?(4)How to improve their verbal interaction to achieve better teaching effects?After analyzing the data from observation through Improved Flanders Interaction Analysis System(iFIAS),the thesis concludes five characteristics of teacher-student verbal interaction in the 4 sample classes.Firstly,from the perspective of emotional atmosphere in the classroom teaching,these four classes all have a harmonious emotional atmosphere between teachers and students.Secondly,from the perspective of class structure,the class structures of sample classes are teacher-centered.Thirdly,from the perspective of characteristic of classroom control,three teachers tend to have direct control over the classroom while only one teacher likes to control students through indirect ways.Fourthly,from the perspective of the characteristics of teaching style,all the teachers are good at using positive influences on students,and tend to implement positive reinforcement on students.Fifthly,from the perspective of the characteristics of questioning and answering of teachers and students in the classroom,one teacher uses an innovative mode of questioning and answering,other 3 teachers use a more traditional training mode of questioning.Based on results of the study,the thesis found some problems in classroom interaction between English teachers and students,such as the proportion of the students’ talk is small,the form of verbal interaction is limited and fixed,and the needs of the students cannot be fully satisfied.In order to solve these problems,the thesis provides some implications based on the results and discussions of analysis.Finally,the thesis discusses the limitations of the research from three aspects.