A Case Study On The Current Situation And Countermeasures Of The Effectiveness Of English Teachers’ Classroom Discourse In Senior High School

Teachers’ discourse is very crucial as it often directly influences and determines the quality of teaching.The teachers’ discourse in English classrooms is quite different from that of teachers in other subjects since the English teachers’ classroom discourse is not only the tool to transmit knowledge but also important target language input for students.Therefore,the effectiveness of English teachers’ classroom discourse is not only related to the actual effect of language teaching but also could affect students’ second language acquisition and development in the long run.But in real language teaching classes,some teachers do not pay much attention to it,and some English teachers’ classroom discourse is not sufficiently effective to produce high-quality teaching.Previous research has studied a lot about English teachers’ discourse in college English classes.Its studies in high school are not sufficient.Meanwhile,senior high school students have a better understanding of English after several years of learning English in elementary and middle school and have formed a certain learning habit,so they could obey the classroom discipline and promote the smooth progress of teaching procedures so that some interference factors could be reduced.What’s more,in contrast with that in junior high school,the knowledge of English in senior high school imposes higher requirements for English teachers’ classroom discourse.Therefore,it is of great value to study the improvement of the effectiveness of English teachers’ classroom discourse in senior high school.Therefore,this study aims to find out the current situation of the effectiveness of English teachers’ classroom discourse in Gansu Tianshui No.1 High School as well as possible causes of drawbacks,then provide some countermeasures mainly from the teachers’ side to improve the effectiveness of English teachers’ classroom discourse.Specifically,the research questions are as follows: 1.What is the current situation of the effectiveness of English teachers’ classroom discourse in senior high school? 2.What are the possible causes for the shortcomings in English teachers’ classroom discourse? 3.What measures can senior high school English teachers adopt to improve the effectiveness of their classroom discourse?To answer the questions above,the following research methods were adopted:questionnaires,interviews,classroom observation and recording.The research subjects were 199 students and 5 teachers from Gansu Tianshui No.1 High School.The investigation revealed the English teachers’ classroom discourse was relatively effective,and there were also some drawbacks in normative accuracy,repeatability,leading in new knowledge,explanatory discourse,the quality of interaction,the types of questioning,waiting time of questioning,probing,chaining,and the strategies of confirmation checks and clarification requests.The causes consist of the students’ different proficiency in English and their characters,the English teachers’ different proficiency in English and their lack of awareness of English teachers’ classroom discourse,insufficient communication between the students and the English teachers,and the fixed course duration and heavy teaching tasks,etc.Moreover,some countermeasures are proposed as follows.English teachers are supposed to give more encouragement to students,pay more attention to preview homework and group work,prepare lessons fully,balance the questioning types and the amount of discourse,extend waiting time,use some strategies for negotiation of meaning,etc.