New curriculum standard clearly states that the goal of junior middle school English curriculum should focus on the improvement of students’ ability to use English. Teachers’ appropriate and flexible using of Teacher Talk can not only enhance students’ interests in English learning, but also develop students’ pragmatic competence.
English Teacher Talk is an important means to carry out teaching management and guide classroom teaching. Teacher Talk plays a significant role in the class, for example, offering demonstration, explaining rules of language, organizing teaching activities and providing feedback to students.
With the development of the new curriculum reform in middle schools, there are a lot of changes in teaching concepts. But there are still many problems such as lack of beneficial language learning environment; lack of sufficient interaction and lack of harmonious relationship.
The quality of Teacher Talk may have a direct influence on the results of learning. Teacher Talk in English class reflects teachers’ essential quality and educational concept. Therefore, the study of Teacher Talk in China has very realistic and significant value. Studying Teacher Talk can promote English teachers to comprehend English teaching profoundly and guide teaching practical activities efficiently.
2. Literature Review源.自|优尔,:论`文'网www.youerw.com
More and more experts give their studies on Teacher Talk. Chinese researchers pay more attention to the use of English Teacher Talk because English used in English class has special effect in Chinese context.
Zhou Junping thought that it should emphasize learner-centeredness, corporative learning, interaction and the creation of authentic language environment (Zhou Junping, 2006: 69). Bao Jinfen carried out research into TT in middle school English classes. By means of audio-recordings and interview, she analyzed the situations of TT in college English classes in terms of quantity and quality of TT,teachers’ questioning and teachers’ feedback. And she found that the class time was occupied by teachers’ speeches and students have few chances to speak (Bao Jinfen, 2008: 17). Cheng Xiaotang proposed that the authenticity, interactivity, logic and normative of Teacher Talk are beneficial to the organization of class teaching and language input (Cheng Xiaotang, 2014: 2). Tan Yanling argued that teachers dealing with questions, teachers, students and objective teaching environment will help choose reasonable discourse mode, optimize the environment of language learning, and improve the quality of classroom language learning (Tan Yanling, 2009: 68). He Anping argued that teachers should update and change the teaching idea, pay attention to the form, meaning and education function of Teacher Talk (He Anping, 2011: 23).
What’s more, many scholars abroad study Teacher Talk too. Walsh analyzed whether teachers use Teacher Talk appropriately and effectively. He mainly argued on whether Teacher Talk accords with the aim of classroom activities and whether it promotes effective teaching (Walsh, 2006: 413). In Mehrdad Rezaee’s research in Teacher Talk Time and Student Talk Time, it was revealed that despite the prevalent view which says that it is more advantageous to reduce TTT and increase STT, because Teacher Talk is informative, explanatory and descriptive of course materials and helps teaching, it will not be helpful to reduce Teacher Talk even at upper-intermediate and advanced level classes (Rezaee, 2012: 1237).
Above all, the domestic and international studies on this subject lack the construction and application of Teacher Talk. To fill this gap, this paper will analyze the present state and construct Teacher Talk and give suggestions for how to apply to English teaching.