A Study On Classroom Meta-discourse Of English Teachers In Junior High School

Meta-discourse usually refers to “discourse about discourse”,which strengthens the interactions between writers and readers or between speakers and listeners.It has been studied by scholars at home and abroad,which is based mainly on academic written discourses.Although the focus expands to non-academic written discourses in recent years,the chosen discourses are mainly written ones.In other words,studies on spoken discourses are deficient,especially on classroom discourses.English learners in China acquire English knowledge mainly through classroom instruction.Therefore,it is worth studying to make teachers’ discourse more systematic and easier for teachers and students to communicate.Based on this research background,three research questions are proposed.How do English teachers in junior high school view classroom meta-discourse? How do English teachers in junior high school use classroom meta-discourse? What are the similarities and differences of the use of classroom meta-discourse between novice teachers and expert teachers?To probe into the answer to the three questions,this study first investigates 100 junior high school English teachers on classroom meta-discourse by questionnaire.Then,the study chooses six English teachers in junior high school as the research subjects,including three novice teachers and three expert teachers.The study collects the classroom teaching discourses of these six teachers from twenty-four lessons.The data is discussed based on the collected discourses and the theory of Hyland’s interpersonal model of meta-discourse.Most English teachers in junior high school have a generally understanding about the concept,categories,functions and applications of meta-discourse.However,although the majority of teachers understand the functions of meta-discourse and its application in the classroom,not all of them are able to actually use meta-discourse in the classroom.According to the results of the classroom observation,expert teachers employ more meta-discourse markers than novice ones.According to the comparison on the use of meta-discourse between the two groups,the study draws a conclusion on the similarities and differences of using meta-discourse between them.For similarities,they both prefer to use interactional meta-discourse.To be specific,engagement markers are used the most frequently.Transition markers are the second commonly used.Self-mentions are the third one,followed by frame markers.Boosters in classroom discourse and hedges are the followed ones.They have the same categories that used rarely as well.The least used meta-discourse is endophoric marker.The second is code gloss.The third is attitude marker,followed by evidential.For differences,there are more engagement markers in the discourse of the expert teachers,and more boosters can be find as well,while less self-mentions are found.