A Study on the Interpersonal Meaning of Middle School English Teacher Talk

中学英语教师课堂话语人际意义的研究A Study on the Interpersonal Meaning of Middle School English Teacher TalkAbstract: All round development has become a explicit tendency in all levels of education, English, as one required course, is considered to be the efficient approach to help the learners achieve all round development. In this domain, teachers and their teaching behaviors have shown its educational significance in realistic teaching. In light of the educational significance of Teacher Talk, most researches on Teacher Talk at present just focus on such topics as linguistic features, rhetoric devices, and pragmatic features and so on. Therefore, this research is to take empirical approach to explore into the interpersonal meaning of Teacher Talk. While taking the Systemic Functional Linguistics as the theoretical framework and the recorded Teacher Talk as the research data, and employing the descriptive and prescriptive methods, the thesis demonstrates how the interpersonal meaning is generally realized in Teacher Talk from the levels of modality and syntactic structures. By which, the interpersonal meaning is elicited based on the research. And then the teachers teaching beliefs about learners, teachers and teaching itself can be found. Through data analysis, it has been found: 1) the applicational frequencies of low, median and high degree are distributing in a divergent way, and teachers are more inclined to median degree of modal verbs. 2) different forms of syntactic structures realizations are applied in Teacher Talk, while the applicational frequencies of imperative sentence, interrogative sentence and declarative sentence are distributing in a divergent way, and teachers are more inclined to interrogative sentence and declarative sentence. 3) In the three degrees of modality, teacher are more inclined to the medain degree of modalty, students are equal to teachers in status, they are not the passive recivers but active participantors. Through the present research, the thesis is aimed to enhance the teachers awareness to attend to their utterances in the class and make their discourse-in-class more acceptable. Key words: middle school English teacher; Teacher Talk; interpersonal meaning摘要：随着教育的快速发展，英语全球化的趋势日益增强，英语学习也得到蓬勃的发展，而课堂话语在英语教学上的作用日趋显著。因此越来越多的专家和教育工作者更加关注英语教师课堂话语。目前，英语教师课堂话语的研究从研究语言学视觉、修辞视觉展开的较多，但对其人际意义功能的进行探讨的较为少数。系统功能语言学的兴起为研究英语教师课堂话语提供了一个新的视觉，本文以系统功能语言学的人际意义功能理论为框架，以搜集的中学英语教师课堂话语真实语料为基础，通过举例、数据统计、分析、描述、规划等方法，从情态、句法结构上对中学英语教师课堂话语的人际意义进行研究。通过研究发现不同句法结构、不同程度情态词的使用表达了不同的人际意义，教师在句法结构的应用上较偏向于疑问句和陈述句的使用，在情态词的使用上大量应用了中等情态词。教师在情态、句法结构上的巧妙应用，从而使其树立正确的教学观念、端正教学行为、准确定位教师和学生在教学过程中的作用和地位、拉近师生之间的心理、社会距离，建立良好的师生关系；进一步挖掘学生的潜力，让他们在积极主动的课堂参与中有效地获取知识。关键词：中学英语教师；教师话语；人际意义ContentsI. Introduction.1A. Background.1B. Research significance.1C. Research purpose.1II. Literature Review.3A. Systemic- functional Linguistics3B. Interpersonal meaning.4C. Preview studies about Teacher Talk.6D. Modality.8III. Research.9A. Research questions.9B. Research methods.9C. Research procedures.10D. Research results.12E.Suggestions.12. Conclusion.14A. Summary.14B. Limitations and expectations15 Works Cited.16Appendix 1.17I. Introduction A. BackgroundWith the further implications of basic and higher education all round development has become a story tendency in all levels of education, English, as one require course, is considered to be the efficient approach to help realize the all round development. Hence English education gains its vigorous development. In this domain, teachers and their teaching realizing behaviors have shown its educational significance in realistic teaching. Therefore, this research is to take Teacher Talk as the topic to explore into. And Teacher Talk plays a more and more important role in English classroom, and as a result, more and more researchers and teachers have paid their attention to Teacher Talk.B. Research significanceThrough research about Middle School English Teacher Talk, the interpersonal meaning is elicited based on the research. And then the teachers teaching beliefs about learners, teachers and teaching itself can be found. This is an approach to help teacher to find more self-awareness of Teacher Talk in their speech, and foster correct teacher beliefs, boldly adopt new teaching principles and teaching methods, reestablish teachers and students positions and roles in the process of teaching, and try to create optimum language environments through optimizing their classroom talk. By which, the students attention is attracted, their learning behavior is directed, their interests and personality are protected, the social and psychological distance between teachers and students is shortened, and a good relationship is set up between them. So as to further tap students potentials to let them positively participate in obtaining knowledge and make English classroom teaching more effective and efficient.C. Research purpose In light of the educational significance of Teacher Talk, most researches on Teacher Talk at present just stay at such levels as linguistic features, rhetoric devices and so on. The rise of systemic functional linguistic provides a new perspective for studying Teacher Talk so that researches at deeper level can be made, the study of its interpersonal meaning. Has emerged as one tendency, people use language to interact and set up certain interpersonal relations, and the interpersonal meta-function acts as one of the most important functions of language. While taking the Systemic Functional Linguistics as the framework and the copies of the Teacher Talk as the research targets, and employing such methods as giving examples analyzing and making statistics, description and prescription, the thesis demonstrates how the interpersonal meaning is generally realized in Teacher Talk from the levels of modality, syntactic structures.1. Features of Teacher TalkTeacher Talk is regarded as a special simplified code with features including two aspects: the formal feature of Teacher Talk and the functional features of Teacher Talk. Teacher Talk involves formal modifications in the language that the teacher uses with aim of making teachers language easier. Chaudron (1988, 85) finds that speech used in class is characteristically modified in four areas: phonology, lexis, syntax and discourse, which are described as follows;a. Rates of speech appear to be slower;b. Pauses are more frequent and longer;c. Pronunciation tends to be exaggerated and simplified;d. Vocabulary use is more basic, and new words are avoided;e. Degree of subordination is slower;f. More declarative and statements are used than questions;g. Self-repetition is more frequent2. Teachers beliefsTeachers beliefs are some basic assumptions that teachers take as granted.They are formed through these stages：Accepted passively and automatically; the stage of specialization; becoming a part of personal philosophy. Teachers belief is a judgment of theories, perspective and insights concerning instruction and study, influences education practice and students mental and physical development. It plays a pivotal role in teachers perception of and response to issues and problems in classes, and also in their defining teaching tasks, targets and efficiency. It even determines the results of teaching reform and class instructions.3. Teacher-students relationshipTeacher-students relationship plays an important role in school life. A good relationship will make learning interesting and teaching enjoyable. A bad relationship, however, can make learning dull and teaching. Tradotionally, teachers are in high authority position and in a position of professional trust, it is teacher-centered teaching ,students have little room to learn and think. So the change of teacher and students relationship is called-equal and harmony relationship between teacher and students, student-centered teaching. Equal teacher-students relationship is conducive to carry out the student centered teaching method. The relationship between teacher and students is the key point in creating advance language context, it determines the whole communicating atmosphere in class. What attitude the teacher treats the student directly affects their activeness in participating in the class. Equal and harmony relationship between teacher and students will relieve their nervousness, which make an active communication and learners are eager to be praised by the teachers, which will build up their confidence of English learning; at the same time, they make effort to English learning. So teachers expectation to them is soon transferred into passion, self esteem and confidence. II. Literature ReviewA. Systemic- functional LinguisticsSystemic-functional linguistics is a theory of language centered on notion of language function (Pan,2). M.A.K.Halliday, who is the founder of systemic-functional linguistics, has develop the ideas stemming from Firths theories in the London School( Hu, 306 ), holds the view that language is a systemic resource for expressing meaning in context and linguistics is the study of how people exchange meanings through the use of language(Pan,2). His Systemic-Functional (SF) Grammar is a sociological oriented function linguistic approach and one of the most influential linguistic theories in the twentieth century, having great effect on various disciplines related to language, such as language teaching, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, stylistics, and machine translation (Hu, 306).As the consequent of human social activities, language serves as a tool for human communication and undertakes various functions. There are three meta-functions of language in Hallidays theory: “The ideational function: Language is used to organize, understand, and express our experience of the world and of our own consciousness. The textual function: Language is used to relate what is said (or written) to the real world and to other linguistic events. The interpersonal function: Language is used to enable us to participate in communicative acts with other people, to take on roles, and to express and understand feelings, attitudes, and judgment.” According to Halliday (Hu, 2006; 316), a clause is the simultaneous realization of ideational, interpersonal, and textual meanings. For example,IdeationalMaterial ProcessAction/passiveThis houseWas builtBy John SmithGoal: AffectedProcess:MaterialActionActor: Agent AnimateInterpersonalDeclarativeMood ResidueSubjectFinitepredicatorAdjunctTextualUnmarked ThemeThemeRheme Given NewTable 1 : Hallidays Meta-functionsBecause language serves as a generalized ideational function, we are able to use it for all the specific purposes and types of context which involve the communication of experience. Because it serves a generalized interpersonal function, we are able to use it for the specific forms of personal expression and social interaction. And a prerequisite to its effective operation under both these headings what we have referred to as the textual function, whereby language becomes text, is related to itself and to its contexts of use. Without the textual component of meaning, we should be unable to make any use of language at all.All the three meta-functions operate simultaneously in the expression of meanings. The text function, however, is used to realize the interpersonal functions, which means that the most important functions of language is interpersonal functions. Although Halliday is right in stating that each clause reflects the above three meta-functions, just taking one or two special functions in certain language analysis is also acceptable. And the present thesis will concentrate only on one aspect: the interpersonal function, or the interpersonal meaning.B. Interpersonal meaning1. Definition As one of the three meta-functions, the interpersonal function, or the interpersonal meaning, is defined by Halliday as a strand of meaning running throughout the text that expresses the writers role relationship with the readers or the relationship between speakers, and the writers attitude towards the subject matters (Halliday, 2000). It refers to people interacting with others, establishing and maintaining relationship with others, expressing their opinions about the world and influencing others behavior by using language. The interpersonal components and function represent the meaning potential of the speaker in the process of interaction as a participator. And it is this semantic factor that is employed by the speaker to express his or her attitude and judgment and then exerts influence on listeners opinions and actions. One of the most important functions of interpersonal meaning of language is to set up and maintain social relations (Li Zhanzi, 2002). 2. Realizations In the process of realizing interpersonal meaning, there are several factors are involved. Halliday (Halliday, 2000) proposes that the interpersonal meaning is realized by principle lexical-grammatical system: mood and modality, and the phonological system: key. Through the selection of mood structures, various speech roes can be realized and that will reflect the relationship between the speaker and the listener. By modality refers to those intermediate degrees between the positive and negative poles of clauses. Also he distinguishes two types of modality: modulation and modalization. Modality can not only indicate the speakers attitude towards the proposition or proposal he or she utters, but also reveals some interpersonal factors such as the power relationship and social status between the speaker and the listener. The semantic feature of key is not expresses by grammatical structures, but by the “contour” of intonation at the phonological level.3. Preview studies about Interpersonal Meaning To study the interpersonal meaning of a certain discourse seems to be fashionable nowadays. In fact, the interpersonal meaning has long been an object of exploration by many linguists, among whom the functionalists took the lead. Linguists of the Prague school regarded the communicative function as the primary function of language and demonstrated functionalism more in their account of the expressive and interpersonal functions of language (Liu Runqing, 2002)MacCarthy & Carter (1994) claimed that in modern linguistic and literary studies we can easily observe a tendency to place greater stress on the interpersonal meaning, variation and negotiable aspects of language in contrast to conventional concerns with the more ideational, content-based and stable relations between forms and meanings. This tendency is the nature result of the development of such a consciousness toward the interpersonal aspect of language use (Pan, 6) meta-function. The interpersonal function encompasses the dynamics of the relationship between the speaker and the hearer, and the use of language to express ones attitudes and influence the attitudes or behavior of the hearer. As Halliday (1985) points out, the interpersonal function carries a heavy semantic load. Its lexica-grammatical resources are those of mood and the associated pattern of modality. He studies interpersonal meaning in terms of mood, modality and key, which makes his grammar system neat and concise.Highly related to and mainly based on Hallidays functional grammar Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) also casts some lights on the study of, mainly the ideological aspect of, interpersonal meaning. It combines the analysis of the linguistic items and language uses of a discourse on micro-level with that of social power, control and ideology on the macro-level, so it is essentially a kind of sociological analysis (Pan, 2007). Another view on interpersonal meaning is made up four components. The first is the exchange of negotiation as the heart of the nation of interaction. The second is a specific social context, which influences the nature of the interaction. The third is how they perceive themselves and the fourth is how they wish to present themselves and what roles they adopt in relation to each other (Burton & Dimbleby, 87). Meanwhile, Li Zhanzi also makes her contribution to apply functional grammar into discourse analysis. In her work”Interpersonal Meaning in Discourse”, published in 2002, in which both the modality and the syntactic structure of discourse are discussed to explore the interpersonal meaning. And Doctor Liu (1998), by the study of the narration of “Dubliners” by James Joyce, found that such syntactic units as adverbs or adverbial groups, prepositional groups, adverbial clauses, noun groups, verb groups, adjective groups and set phrases could realize the interpersonal meaning.C. Preview studies about Teacher TalkSince the 1970s, many scholars have studied Teacher Talk. Previous researches on Teacher Talk have focused on tempo of speech, intonation, adjustments on the level of vocabulary, syntactic structure and text (Ellis, 1985: Chaudron, 1988). The research findings of L2 classroom Teacher Talk summarized by Chaudron (1998) shows that the reason why adjust tempo of speech, intonation, level of vocabulary, syntactic structure and text is to provide the learners with comprehensible input.Downes(1981) states that in second language acquisition, Teacher Talk is of double features, namely formal features and functional feature. There has been much work attempting to define the formal feature of Teacher Talk. According to Krashens (1985) Input Hypothesis, human acquire language in only way-by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input. Given its formal feature, Teacher Talk is perceive as “comprehensible input” which is of crucial importance in second language learning and one major way to make greater quantities of input comprehensible is through Teacher Talk. Krashen also believes that meaningful Teacher Talk is the central of language learning.At the same time, a bulk of other studies in this field has also provided illuminating and insightful ideal concerning the function of Teacher Talk. Brumfits research (1990) reveals that referential questions may increase learners target language output and therefore facilitates their target language acquisition. Ellis (1990) contends that clarification requests and confirmation checks are used to deal with communication problem in naturalistic setting. Teacher may leave much room for learners to do negotiation of meaning in this way. Nunan (1991) concludes that positive feedback is much more effective than negative feedback in changing pupil behavior, and thus would result in increasing motivation of learning on the part of learner. However, few of them have provided any theoretical explanation for effective Teacher Talk in classroom interaction from the cognitive pragmatic point of view.At last, Chinese researcher have done many researches about Teacher Talk, Liu Hong (2007) made some findings about features of Teacher Talk in Chinese junior high English classrooms: “ a. In general teachers offer students a simplified input, which helps comprehension but not acquisition. Besides the low vocabulary range and simple syntactic features, a high mother tongue ration and limited function distribution range especially the shortage of authentic communication;