68) That’s to say, English provides a lot of devices for performing face-enhancing and face-threatening acts rhetorically。 One device is to either avoid mentioning oneself or the interlocutor。 Another device is to reduce the degree of directness as much as

necessary。 (Chen 167)

As a language input and the medium of organizing the class, teacher talk is of paramount importance in carrying out the teaching plan。 Therefore how to improve English teaching effectively by reasonable use of teacher talk is concerned in the EFL class。 At the beginning of 1970s, researches on teacher talk thrived。 The experts like Gaies and Heznl made studies on it。 They studied teacher talk from linguistic point of view, like voice, vocabulary, syntax and pragmatics。 For example, researches show that teacher talk tends to have such features such as exaggerative tones, long pause, high voice, and slow speed。 In regard of vocabulary, teachers will use basic and simple words instead of abbreviation or neutral words。 As for pragmatics, more sentences will be spoken in first person point of view。

From the above we can see that related studies attach much importance to the various linguistic features of teacher talk as language input while little to its interpersonal functions。 Although there has been an increasing amount of studies on classroom teacher talk and face theory, few studies combine them。 In other words, few studies analyze teacher talk from a face point of view。 However, as students nowadays are paying more and more attention to their face, it is urgent for teachers to help develop students’ comprehensive language competence on the basis of taking good care of their students’ face。 Against this backdrop, the thesis focuses on how face theory can guide teacher to achieve this goal and eventually achieve successful teaching。