A Research On Teacher Talk In High School English Reading Class

Teacher talk is of great importance for English teaching and learning,because it serves as not only the medium to implement teaching plan,but also the main source of language input of students(Nunan,1991).Classroom is a major place for most Chinese students to learn English,so it is vital to study teacher talk in English classes.English reading,as one of the significant parts of language skills,has always been attracting the attention of researcher.However,researches about teacher talk in different reading teaching steps are very few.On the basis of discourse analysis,this research is conducted by analyzing the video recordings of all the 20 reading classes from the National English High-quality Teaching Competition(High School)in 2018 via classroom observation and discourse analysis,from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.After transcribing the recordings into texts,this research focuses on the language form characteristics of teacher talk from questioning words,the length of utterance,sentence structures and cohesion in different teaching steps.In addition,the function of teacher talk in each teaching step is analyzed with a functional framework(Kang & Cheng,2011).The purposes of this research are to provide suggestions for reading teaching in senior high school and to bring more implications for novice teacher training.Research questions are as follows:(1)What are the linguistic features of teacher talk in different teaching steps in reading class?(2)What are the functions of teacher talk in different teaching steps in reading class? The results are shown as below:(1)In pre-reading,more interrogative sentences are used,especially special questions,to activate higher thinking of students.Structure of imperative +interrogative sentence is used to give directive.Repetition is centered with topic vocabulary and activities.Question-Answer and Response patterns appear commonly.In while-reading,interrogative sentences are mainly by a wide range of special questioning words.Imperative sentences are to lead and guide students in learning,usually with a now before them.Repetition appears commonly in teachers’ directive.Nominal substitution emphasizes cohesion within a task.Response pattern is mostly in the form of interrogative sentences and repetition/summary + right?.In post-reading,declarative sentences are mainly used to give more instructions.Exclamatory sentences are frequently used to give students encouragement as feedback.Reiteration and substitution appear less.Declarative pattern is mostly used in this step for teachers to give their own statements about some topic.(2)In pre-reading,teacher talk has obvious function of social communication to provide authentic interaction context,and explanation of knowledge by presenting related information with declarative sentence.In while-reading,teacher talk as organizing activities is consists of two forms,cohesive language markers and comprehension check.Besides,interaction between students and teachers is in a wider range of forms,for instance,corrective feedback,expansion,reformulation,etc.In post-reading,teacher talk as social communication and classroom management is also apparent.Theoretically,this study has further enriched the academic achievements about teacher talk.Practically,this research helps to improve the effectiveness of high school English reading teaching and can provide meaningful guidance and suggestions for new teacher training.