A Study On The Metadiscourse Of Teachers In Junior High School English Quality Classes From The Perspective Of Rhetori

Metadiscourse is “the discourse about discourse”,which is used to organize discourses,construct the interactive relationship between language users and audiences.As a vital medium for teachers to conduct class teaching,the researches of English teachers’ metadiscourse have been paid more attention to,but it is still lacking.At present,most of the related researches focus on the features and functions of teachers’ metadiscourse in college English class from the linguistic perspective,but few on elementary education phase.Moreover,metadiscourse is extremely essential for teachers to promote the communication between teachers and students,structure harmonious class and accomplish teaching objectives.Its rhetorical function can assist teachers to enhance teaching speech measures.Therefore,it is necessary to study metadiscourse of junior high school English teachers from the perspective of rhetoric.This study,based on the perspective of western classical rhetoric,selects teachers of“high-quality class” from “One Teacher,One Lesson” in the national public service platform of educational resources as research objects,and build a corpus.Through corpus-assisted qualitative research method,this study explores how junior high school English teachers use metadiscourse to implement rhetorical devices to achieve teaching objectives,aiming to explore the following three research questions:(1)What is the distribution of teachers’ metadiscourse in junior high school English class?(2)What are the rhetorical functions of teachers’ metadiscourse?(3)What rhetorical acts have teachers’ metadiscourse achieved in different teaching stages?The results show that:(1)Metadiscourse generally exists in junior high school English class,and their distributions are uneven.Macroscopically,interactional metadiscourse is dominant.Microscopically,the frequency of engagement markers is the highest,and the frequency of other metadiscourse markers,from high to low,are frame markers,booster,transitions,attitude markers,self mention,hedges,code glosses,endophoric markers and evidentials.(2)Teachers’ metadiscourse has the functions of ‘logos’,‘ethos’ and ‘pathos’,which complements with each other.Rational metadiscourse resources are used to construct the framework of teaching content and establish the internal connection of discourse;Personality metadiscourse resources are used to shape teachers’ image;Emotional metadiscourse resources are used to attract students’ attention,stimulate excitement of thought and guide students to participate in discourse construction.(3)At different teaching stages,the focus of teachers’ rhetorical behaviors is different.Start-up stage of teaching,build harmonious and interactive relationship between teachers and students,and establish harmonious atmosphere for the follow-up class;Language learning stage,arouse participation and enthusiasm(Lead-in),promote the negotiation and construction of classroom knowledge(Teaching),maintain enthusiasm and participation(Questioning and Feedback);Practice stage,promote the interaction,encourage and establish self-confidence;Summary and Conclusion stage,review the class efficiently,conduct ideological and political education.This study is helpful to enhance teachers’ cognition of metadiscourse in elementary education phase,awaken teachers’ rhetorical awareness,and provide some suggestions for teachers to achieve teaching purposes.