改进初中英语实习教师课堂话语的行动研究大学学位论文

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN STUDIESSOUTH CHINA NORMAL UNIVERSITYAn Action Research of Improving a Junior English Pre-service Teacher’sTeacher Talk改进初中英语实习教师课堂话语的行动研究byHe Guijing20110201139A senior thesis submitted to School of Foreign Studies,South China Normal University in partial fulfillmentof the requirements for the degree ofBachelor of ArtsMARCH, 2015Declaration of AuthorshipABSTRACTTeacher talk (TT for short) is not only a tool for teachers to conduct teaching plan, but also a significant source for students’language input. Therefore, teacher talk plays a crucial part in organizing classroom teaching and the process of language acquisition of learners. The targets for most of the researches that have been conducted on teacher talk are all about in-service English teachers, but little about pre-service teachers. It is universally acknowledged that the pre-service teachers in normal universities are not senior learners of English, but also new teachers who lack teaching experience. Therefore, the research of teacher talk on student teacher embodies great significance.Guided by the Input Hypothesis, Output Hypothesis, Interactive Hypothesis, the present study is conducted to analyze the TT based on the author herself During four months of action research, a series of methods, like questionnaires, interview and interpreting the teacher talk and so on, are used. This thesis has great significance both in improving the teacher talk of the author herself and making preparation for the later teaching.The result shows that 1) Task-Based Language Teaching is useful in English class teaching, which enable to incite students to take part in the classroom activities. 2) Instructional words, as one of the vital parts of TT, play an important part in connecting the exchanges in the teaching steps. By using instructional words, teacher can clearly illustrate the rules of some tasks, so students can finish those tasks without difficulty. 3) It is very important for teachers to interact with students, but not just talk to them. Therefore, it is very essential for teachers to train the way of questioning, and the questions or instruction that teachers give to students should be clear and straight to the point. 4) As a crucial part of teacher talk, appropriate teacher feedback can help students master the target language. By using the appropriate teacher feedback, teachers can stimulate students’motivation on study. 5) The improvement of teacher talk can have positive result on the students’ scores.The present study is only a tentative one and there are still some limitations. Some other proposals are needed to put forward so as to trigger more valuable contributions in this field．Key words: teacher talk; action research; four principles of TT by Cheng Xiaotang中文摘要教师话语不仅是教师执行教学计划的工具，而且是学生知识输入的重要来源，因此教师话语在教师课堂组织和学生语言习得中起着至关重要的作用。

以往的教师课堂话语研究大都是针对在职英语老师的课堂话语，很少涉及高校英语教育专业实习生的课堂话语。

英语教育专业的实习生是特殊的英语使用者群体，既是高级阶段的英语学习者，又是新手英语教师。

因此，研究英语实习教师的课堂话语具有重要意义。

本人在实习期间担任广州市长兴中学的代课老师，代课时间为四个月。

本研究以本人为研究对象，以Krashen的输入假设、Swain的输出假设和Long的交互假设为理论依据，通过问卷调查、访谈和课堂录音转录等研究方法，进行为期四个月的教师话语特征的行动研究，探讨自己作为实习教师的课堂话语特征，从而改善自己的教师话语，为今后的教学做准备。

本研究得出的结论是：1）任务型教学法有利于提高教师话语，同时为学生提高真实的语境和与学生更好的互动交流。

2）指令语作为教师用语非常重要的部分，是教学流程中联系师生交流的纽带。

通过教师指令语的正确使用，教师可以准确无误的传达活动指令。

3）在使用教师话语中，教师应该多跟学生互动，而不是自己讲，要给学生足够的时间表达自己的想法或观点。

4）适当的教师反馈有利于激励学生学习，从而提高学生兴趣。

5）教师话语的提高可以激发学生的学习动机，同时提高学生的学习成绩。

本研究从结果中得到的启示是：该研究仅为尝试性研究、仍存在一定的局限性，期待相关领域的学者专家的深入探讨。

关键词：教师课堂话语；行动研究；程晓堂教师话语分析四原则Table of ContentsABSTRACT (I)中文摘要 ......................................................................................................................................... I I Chapter One Introduction .. (1)1.1 Research Background (1)1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Research (1)1.3 Organization of the Thesis (2)Chapter Two Literature Review (3)2.1 Teacher Talk (3)2.2 Studies on TT Abroad (5)2.3 Studies on TT At Home (5)2.4 Summary (6)2.5 Comprehensible Input Hypothesis (7)2.6 The Comprehensible Output Hypothesis (8)2.7 The Interactive Hypothesis (8)2.8 Summary (9)Chapter Three Research Design (10)3.1 Action Research (10)3.2 Participants (10)3.3 Procedures (10)Chapter Four Implementation and Data Analysis (12)4.1 Putting Forward of Problem (12)4.2 Implementation and Data Analysis (13)Chapter Five Result and Discussion (20)5.1 Measures That Are Carried Out to Improve TT (20)5.2 Practice Makes Perfect (20)5.3 Motivation (21)Chapter Six Conclusion (22)6.1 Major Findings (22)6.2 Limitations of the Study and Future Direction of the Topic (23)Appendix I (24)Appendix II (27)References (29)ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (31)Chapter One Introduction1.1 Research BackgroundEnglish curriculum standard for compulsory education showed that, English, as the one of the widely spoken language around the world, has been a very important tool for international connection and communication of technology and culture (The ministry of education, 2003). Meanwhile, opening English course in the stage of compulsory education has a great significance to the future development of teenagers. As the main tool for students to learn English, English class plays an important part in students’English learning. They spend most of time learning English in class. Therefore, we cast a great demand for teachers’ teaching, as well as teacher talk, as it is the main way for teachers to impart his knowledge to students.In English class, English is not only the target language that students have to learn, but also as a crucial tool in teacher’s teaching, thus teacher talk in the limited time of junior English teaching is very important for learner’s English learning.Teacher controls what goes on in the classrooms primarily through their use of language. Using language properly in teaching, for example, being authentic, interactive, logic and normative in teacher talk can attract and influence students, making the class atmosphere become very active and improve the learning interest of students. At the same time, if teachers use target language to provide language input, they can foster their students the ability of using language. The study on teacher talk boomed in western countries in the 1980s, while in China, the related research began relatively late, which is from about 1998.1.2 Purpose and Significance of the ResearchWhy should the author conduct a research on teacher talk of hers? First of all, when the author had her internship at Changxin middle school in Guangzhou, she found that she had difficulty in making herself understood. She tried hard to use English to explain for students, but she found that student didn’t really understand what she said. This situation confuses her, so she wants to find out the reason why students can’t understand her and how she can improve her teacher talk. Secondly, student teachers are new resources who are going to teach their students. They are not experienced enough in teaching. They may have some trouble in their teacher talk, for example, their authenticity, interaction, logic and normalization are not good enough compared to those qualified teacher. Therefore, if they can improve their teacher talk, they can make preparation for their career. Last but not least, in the researches about teacher talk that have been conducted, most of the researchers’ target are in-serviceteachers, only few of them focus on pre-service teachers, and none of the pre-service teachers take themselves as the target. Therefore, by conducting this action research, the author intends to make improvement for the research of teacher talk, meanwhile add something new to fill the research gap.If teachers are able to teach students and organize classes with accurate and brief language，they can be more successful in their teaching career．Teacher talk is a way to study how to improve foreign language teaching．Teachers train the students how to communicate with others in foreign languages. They can achieve this goal by improving their own teacher talk so as to be understood.The English class in junior high school is the crucial place for teachers to cultivate students’comprehensive ability of using English, which set a foundational stage for senior high school learning. therefore it plays an especially important role．"Not only for the organization of the classroom but also for the process of second language acquisition．It is important for the organization and management of the class because it is through speech that teachers either succeed or fail to implement their teaching plans．In terms of acquisition，teachers’ speech acts are important because it is probably the major source of comprehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive”(Nunan 1991：189)．1.3 Organization of the ThesisThe present study consists of six parts. It starts with an introduction as the first chapter, which is about the background knowledge, and the purpose and the significance of the study. Chapter two will focus on literature review. Key conceptions will be defined and previous studies are to be included, as well as studies on teacher talk and basic theories like the Input Hypothesis, the Output Hypothesis, and Interaction Hypothesis. Chapter three is research design, which includes the research questions, research subjects, methods of the study, as well as research procedures. Discussion and analysis of the data in detail will come in Chapter four，which is the main part of the whole study, where the author will carry out the action research and analyze the result. Chapter five is discussion, analyzing the factors that influenced the improvement of TT. The thesis will come to an end in the last chapter, where conclusions are obtained while illustrating the limitations of the present study and providing suggestions for future research.Chapter Two Literature Review2.1 Teacher Talk2.1.1 Definition of Teacher TalkTeacher talk is a language typically used by foreign language teachers in the process of teaching. In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, teacher talk is defined as:The variety of language is sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to communicate with learners, teachers often simplify their speech, giving it many of the characteristics of foreigner talk and other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners (Richards, 2002: 471).All-Wright and Bailey claimed that “talk is one of the major ways that teachers convey information to learners, and it is also one of the primary means of controlling learners’ behavior.”(1991:139)As for Cook (2000), he thinks that it refers to the amount of speech supplied by teachers rather than students. Cook demonstrated that English teacher’s teacher talk involves two different aspects: one, as the tool of organizing and controlling class teaching; two, as the target language of English class teaching, and thus be distinguished from other teacher talk of other subject.The definitions of teacher talk are different from one to another, but there is something in common: they are all the discourse spoken by the teachers in class. From the discussion above, the author comes to the conclusion that teacher talk is a special communicative activity and a kind of communication-based or interaction-based talk which has its own specific genre and features.2.1.2 Feature of Teacher TalkWalsh (2006) considered TT has four features: (1) the paradigm of controlling communication (the content and means and so forth of the communication in the class); (2) instruction (teachers use all kinds of ways like questioning to instruct students to speak); (3) correction (teachers correct the speech of students); (4) adjustment (teachers adjust the ways of speaking to students in terms of his own situation).Zhang Zhengju and Li Shufen(1996) classified TT in another point of view. They thought that the features of TT are as following :( 1) TT has a double function of teaching and demonstrating ;( 2) Acceptability and comprehensibility. It is suggested that teacher adjusts his own language according to the level of students, so as to helpstudents understand and accept. (3) Repetitiveness. The repetition of TT is to arouse students’attention to some important points and difficult points. (4) Teacher’s characteristics. Different teachers have different TT because of their characteristics; it depends on teacher’s professional skills, the ability of mastering the language and the understanding of the TT.Cheng Xiaotang(2009) divided TT into four aspects:(1) authenticity(real use of language, scene and communication); (2)interaction(for the purpose of improving the degree of participation in class and the construction of knowledge; to help language input of students and organize class activities);(3)logicality(have logic in presenting and explain language point; coherence and cohesion in every section of teaching );(4)normalization.(the English teacher used should be accurate and clear, and to be understood by students)In this thesis, the author mainly uses the feature of Cheng Xiaotang as the bases of her research.2.1.3 Function of TTNunan (1991) stated that “TT is quiet important for the organization of class teaching and students’ language acquisition. That is not just because that the teaching content can only reach a ideal teaching effect through perfect organization of and impartment, but because the TT itself play a model part of target language, which is an essential ways for students’ language input.”Lu Yanfen(2007) had a discussion about the function of TT. Her opinions are as following:(1)Teaching. In foreign language teaching, language is not only for the purpose of learning, but a tool for teaching, while the first important tool is imparting knowledge. TT is the carrier of knowledge.(2)Demonstration. Teachers’dominant teaching language will produce a recessive impact on students. Such subtle influence is the main basis for students to imitate.(3)Questioning. On one hand, teacher can use questioning to interact and communicate with students. On the other hand, through questioning, teacher checks students understanding and maintain their attention.(4)Interaction. TT builds a bridge of interaction and communication between teacher and student.(5)Feedback. Teacher can make a feedback for the performance of students. It can be positive and negative, but positive feedback can better improve the behavior oflearners.2.2 Studies on TT AbroadIt has been nearly half of the century since the American structuralist Zellig Harris brought up the literary term Discourse Analysis (Huang Guowen, 2006). Since then, a multitude of scholars set up to do research about TT.In 1970s, many famous experts, like Sinclair & Coulthard (1975), Gaies (1979), Henzel(1979) began to make profound research on TT(Tang Yangyu & Liu Shaozhong, 2003). In 1975, Sinclair and coulthard do deeper research and classification of TT in terms of its instruction, reaction and feedback, and they renew and brought up the three-ways format of I-R-F, which engendered great impact at that time. (Yan Guidong, 2013). In a word, the class they focus on is still the teacher-oriented class.When it comes to 1980s, the studies on teacher talk have entered into a booming period. With the development of the study on language acquisition, researchers make a deep and painstaking micro-analysis on teacher talk through which teachers and students could better create learning opportunity together. Clyne(1981), Freed(1980,1981), Chaudron and other scholars had great interest on the modification of TT. They focused on the speed modification and rhythm modification (including its tone, pronunciation, stress and stop) (Zhao Changyou, 2010). When compared the TT of second language acquisition class with that of other language context, the speed of TT in the second language learning classroom is slower.Since 1980, more and more scholars have started to study teacher talk from the perspective of semantics and pragmatics. Some studies pay attention to the expressing effect of teaching language while some lay emphasis on the background of using teaching language. The analysis of TT is not to observe every classroom action of teachers’, but to take the interaction between teacher and student as a whole, and lay emphasis on analyzing the nature and structure of TT (Ellis, 1990).To sum up, after reviewing the research on TT abroad, conclusion can be drawn that since 1950s, teacher talk has gradually became a new field with which researchers are much more concerned, many scholars began to conduct research on TT and the study on TT have entered into a booming period since 1980s.2.3 Studies on TT At HomeIn recent years, Chinese scholars have made some experiments on the project of English classroom teaching, and some of them are related to TT. Yet such research hasn’t been paying much attention, and most of their works are all about the introduction and summary of the researches abroad (Li Lisheng& Gaoming, 2011). Inorder to change this situation, many scholars have been trying hard to make significant attempts and finally gain some achievement (Zhou Xing&Zhou Yun, 2002).Wang Yinquan(1999) made sidelights on the annual meeting of The thirty-third International English Teachers Association. In his statement, he said that TT can engender either positive or negative effect on the language input of learners. Teachers should not only pay attention to the quantity of his talk but also should focus on its quality.In Zhengjiang university, Zhouxing and Zhouyun(2002) observed a student-oriented English class. They published an article, which thoroughly analyzed the character of English TT in university. They found that discussion is useful and beneficial for the communication between teacher and student.According to Bloom’s classification of cognitive development, He Anping(2003) did an investigation of the demand of the TT. She did a corpus-based research of classroom interaction on the teacher of senior, junior and primary school.Jiang Yuhong(2004) did a research on the quantity of turn-talking between teacher and student in the English classroom teaching. She draws a conclusion that teacher has privilege of talking in classroom, but at the same time students share more right of autonomy and controlling.Cheng Xiaotang divided TT into four aspects: Authenticity, interaction, logicality and normalization, which is beneficial to the organization of classroom teaching, as well as language input.Zhengyan(2014) did a research about ten years’(2003-2012)research about English TT at home. She found that in the last 10 years, there are about 44 papers about TT in the 12 kinds of important foreign language journals at home, which shows that there are not much paper about the research of English TT, and our Chinese scholars haven’t pay much attention about it.In short, though the research of TT at home develops much later than abroad, we still gain some achievement, and now more and more scholars begin to realize the importance of TT and make deeper investigation about it.2.4 SummaryFrom the previous researches, we can find the research about TT have made some progress both at home and abroad, though it developed much later than that of western country. Moreover, from the research at home, we can find that some improvement is still needed. First of all, many of our researches are just about thecomment and summary of foreign country’s research. We should make our new research and find more novel results. Secondly, the subject is too simple. From the previous research at home, we can find that most of the subject of TT is all about in-service teachers in middle school and in university, only few of them involve in student teachers. As is known to all, student teacher is a very crucial power in teaching. But they have just entered the society and begin the career of teaching, so they lack experience. Therefore, doing research on the TT of student teachers can give some suggestions on teaching for student teachers and make preparation for their teaching career. Last but not least, from the previous researches, the author finds that none of the researches at home are about the student teachers themselves. Discovering this research gap, the author decides to make a research of TT based on hers, and try to find some ways to improve her own TT.2.5 Comprehensible Input HypothesisKrashen(1981,1985) figured out five hypothesis of language acquisition: Language acquisition-learning hypothesis, monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, language input hypothesis and Affective Filter Hypothesis. Among them, language input hypothesis is the core for language acquisition.The Input Hypothesis states that learners progress in their knowledge of the language when they comprehend language input that is slightly more advanced than their current level．Krashen called this level of input “i+1”．Where “i” is the language input and “+1” is the next stage of language acquisition．The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis claims that there is a strict separation between acquisition and learning；Krashen saw acquisition as a purely subconscious process and learning as a conscious process and claimed that improvement in language ability was only dependent upon acquisition and never on learning．The Monitor Hypothesis states that consciously learned language can only be used to monitor language output；it can never be the source of spontaneous speech．The Natural Order Hypothesis states that language is acquired in a particular order and that this order does not change between learners，and is not affected by explicit instructionThe Affective Filter Hypothesis states that learners’ ability to acquire language is constrained if they are experiencing negative emotions such as fear or embarrassment．At such times the affective filter is said to be “up”.The Input Hypothesis has been applied in language teaching pervasively. It has been found out that, at the beginning level of learning a language，class time is filled with comprehensible oral input; and it is suggested teachers modify their speech SOthat it is comprehensible. However, demands for speaking (output) are low，for students are not forced to speak until ready. Moreover, at the intermediate level, sheltered subject—matter teaching that uses modified academic texts are taken to provide comprehensible input.2.6 The Comprehensible Output HypothesisThe lack of evidence that comprehensible input produces higher quality learner output has led to the“Output Hypothesis”, which developed by Merrill Swain(1985). The Comprehensible Output(CO)Hypothesis states that learning takes place when encountering a gap in the second language acquisition．Learners are stretched in their production in order to make themselves understood and push learners to produce comprehensible as well as grammatically accurate output.Swain(1995)defined three functions for comprehensive output: 1. Noticing function：Learners encounter gaps between what they want to say and what they are able to say so they notice what they do not know or only know partially in this language．2. Hypothesis—testing function：When learners say something there is always a hypothesis underlying e.g. about grammar．By uttering something，the learners test this hypothesis and receive feedback from an interlocutor．This feedback enables them，if necessary，to reprocess their hypothesis. 3. Meta—linguistic function：Learners reflect about the language they learn and hereby the output enables them to control and internalize linguistic knowledge．2.7 The Interactive HypothesisThe Interactive Hypothesis proposed by Micheal Long is a theory of second-language acquisition which states that the development of language proficiency is promoted by face to face interaction and communication．Similarly to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis，the Interactive Hypothesis claims that comprehensible input is important for language learning．In addition，it claims that the effectiveness of comprehensible input is greatly increased when learners have to negotiate for meaning．This occurs when there is a breakdown in communication which interlocutors attempt to overcome．Long (1985:378) proposed that: interactive input is more important than non-interactive input and comprehensible input should be provided together with interaction. Based on Long，the improvement of foreign language acquisition mainly relies on interpersonal communication．According to the hypothesis, the affection filter is lower when they approach the comprehensive input and which in turn assists them in learning the language and he attached specific importance to modified input.Emphasizing the two-way communication and negotiating of meaning, Interactive Hypothesis not only connects input with output，but also provides theories for task-based teaching and emphasizes the importance of interaction and negotiation in language learning．2.8 SummaryThe Input Hypothesis，the Output Hypothesis and the Interactive Hypothesis，as discussed above，providing the bases，have paved the way for studying teacher talk. This thesis will use those three theories, as well as TT by Cheng Xiaotang, which has been mentioned above, as the framework of the whole research.Chapter Three Research Design3.1 Action ResearchAction research is a kind of action program designed to solve the problem where teacher meets during his/her teaching. (Wang Qiang, 2002:2)In order to solve the problem, the teacher observe and collect data, as well as analysis the data and assess the result, so as to find out and bring up new questions to improve teaching methods and achieve more successful teaching results. Kemmis and McTaggart (1982: 5, from action research in language teacher education) define action research as “trying ou t the project ideas in practice as a means of improvement and as a means of increasing knowledge about the curriculum, teaching, and learning” In this essay, I will take action research as the only while essential tool to analyze the TT of myself, so as to improve my TT and to make preparation for my teaching career.3.2 ParticipantsThe object of my research is students from Changxing middle school, in grade eight, class 6. The class is a key class. There are 54 students in this class, and the numbers of boys are 20, while girls are 34. The English book they use is from PEP edition. They have 6 lessons in a week. I am a pre-service teacher in this class, teaching their English for one semester, from September 7th,2014 to February 20th, 2015.3.3 ProceduresBased on the four principles of TT, that is, authenticity, interaction and logicality and normalization, and theories of comprehensible input and output, as well as Long’s interaction theory, I design a series of measures to improve my TT.The action research consists of three stages. The first stage, from week 5 to week 10, the author intends to set up several tasks for her to finish during the lesson. After completing the tasks, the author will design a questionnaire for students to finish, and the author also will interpret her own TT to see whether she had made improvement or not.The second stage, which lasts for 5 weeks (week11-week15), takes some improvement measures based on the tasks in the first stage. The author will check the shortcomings of her TT remained in first stage, and then she will take other measures to improve her TT. After taking the new measures, the same questionnaire will be done by students to see the feedback of students’ opinion on her TT, and certainly, she will still keep interpreting her TT.The third stage, from week 16 to week 18, is a stage of result assessment. The。