论文总字数：40203字

摘 要

在英语课堂中，教师话语是组织教学活动的工具，是控制学生课堂行为的重要手段，也是进行目的语输入的载体。作为语言使用规则之一，礼貌原则已经成为语用学研究的重要内容，其功能在于削弱矛盾和冲突，改善人际关系，保持人与人之间融洽与和谐。本文运用礼貌原则，以初中英语课堂教师话语中的课堂指令、教师提问和反馈为例，浅析其中所体现的礼貌原则。此外，本文在实证研究的基础上，分析初中英语教师话语，指出在初中英语教学中，英语教师在运用教师话语方面存在的问题，并提出相关建议，从而完善英语教师课堂话语实效性，提高教学质量，促进英语教学。

关键词：教师话语；礼貌原则；初中英语课堂

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 Teacher Talk 1

2.2 Politeness 3

2.3 Previous Studies on Politeness in Teacher Talk 5

3. Politeness in Teacher Talk 6

3.1 Politeness in Instructions 6

3.2 Politeness in Questioning 7

3.3 Politeness in Feedback- giving 8

4. Analysis on Politeness Principle in Teacher Talk in Junior English Class 9

4.1 Questionnaire on Politeness Principle in Teacher Talk in Junior English Class 9

4.2 Problems 13

4.3 Suggestions 14

5. Conclusion 15

Works Cited 17

1. Introduction

In recent years, studies of teacher talk have received considerable attention. As Nunan points out, teacher talk plays a significant role both in organizing the classroom teaching and in acquiring the foreign language; it is not only an instrument for teachers to implement teaching plan, but also the main source of language input for foreign language learners( Nunan,1991:42). In junior English class, teacher talk works as a special language used by teachers and it is very different from other languages in non-English class in that it serves both the teaching medium and the learning aim. Teacher talk on the basis of politeness principle can not only improve the relationship between teachers and students but also help teachers observe politeness principle to avoid pragmatic failure.

This paper aims to analyze teacher talk in junior English class from the perspective of the politeness principle. The study is undertaken to find out how the politeness phenomenon is manifested in instructions, questioning and feedback-giving and what politeness strategies are adopted to show politeness in junior English class, which helps English teachers improve the effectiveness of teacher talk and enhance the teaching efficiency.

This thesis consists of five chapters. The present chapter is the introduction of the whole thesis. Chapter 2 presents a literature review of teacher talk and politeness including the definition and types of teacher talk and the theoretical perspective of the study and also introduces some essays written by scholars both at home and abroad. Chapter 3 gives a detailed analysis in teacher talk, including politeness in instruction, questioning and feedback-giving. Chapter 4 provides the detailed data analysis, problems and suggestions based on an empirical study. Chapter 5, as the conclusion part of the thesis, summarizes the major findings, indicates the limitation of the study and proposes suggestions for future research.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Teacher Talk

Teacher talk, as the words imply, is the language that teachers use to speak to students in the process of language teaching. We can also call it teacher’s language, teacher’s utterances or teacher’s speech.

Teacher talk can be defined in a broad or narrow way from different perspectives. In the broad sense, teacher talk means the total professional language used by teachers, i.e. teacher’s language, which consists of in-class language, out-class language and language used in other extracurricular activities, such as parents’ meeting. Until the end of the 1980s, focal attention has gradually been paid to the studies of the in-class language, i.e. teacher talk in a narrow definition.

According to Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching amp; Applied Linguistics, teacher talk is defined as “that variety of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching.”(Xun Lixin, 2012:128)

According to Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, teacher talk refers to “the term used to describe the register which teachers use in class with learners. It includes the aspects of teacher behaviors such as error correction, simplification, reduction and talking time distribution.” (Xun Lixin, 2012:128)

In this thesis, the narrow definition is adopted, that is to say, the term ‘teacher talk’ refers to the language that teachers use to organize and manage the classroom teaching, instruct the text content and conduct classroom activities, make two-way communication with students as well as evaluate the learning behavior of students. It has such features as amount of teacher talk, type of teacher talk, modifications of teacher talk, teacher instructions, teacher questions and teacher feedback. More specifically, this thesis mainly aims to discuss teacher talk in junior English class in terms of instructions, questions and feedback.

As to the types of teacher talk, different scholars hold different views. Tsui divides teacher talk into the following parts: explaining text or grammar, questioning and feedback on learners’ response (Wang Xiaojing amp; Zhu Xueyan, 2011:17).

According to some Chinese researchers, teacher talk can be sorted into four varieties: the class management language, instructional language, interactional language and feedback (Lin Ruchang, 1996: 24).

According to Sinclair amp; Brazil, teacher talk can be primarily classified into two types including content language (CL) and medium language (ML) (Fan Chaoqiu amp; Zhang Xuan, 2005: 33). The former refers to the language teachers use to impart English knowledge or that of the teaching tasks arranged in textbooks. The latter is made up of two categories: explanatory medium language (EML) and coordinative medium language (CML). EML refers to the language used by teachers to paraphrase words or sentences of texts, to illustrate grammar, and to provide text-related information while CML refers to the language for class organization and management, which covers greetings, revisions, question delivery, comments, task switching, discipline regulation, homework and so on.

This thesis tries to analyze teacher talk in junior English class from the perspective of politeness principle. Therefore, the study will focus on medium language, especially coordinative medium language, that is, language used by teachers to give instructions, ask questions or give feedback in junior English class.

2.2 Politeness

Communication is part and parcel of human life. As a symbol of human civilization and a result of social development, politeness can be touched in everywhere in our daily communication. Meanwhile, it is not only one of the social norms for us to observe in order to promote harmonious interpersonal relationship, but also an important norm adopted to establish the harmonious relationship between teachers and students in classrooms, especially in junior English class.

As a normal rule of language use, politeness has become an important topic of pragmatic research. Given this, more and more people are aware of the significance of politeness in the process of communication. So are these scholars: Lakoff, Leech, Brown and Levinson, ect. During the past years, a lot of researchers turn their research focus to the phenomenon of politeness and they all have their own theories in this field.

Brown and Levinson study politeness phenomenon from the viewpoint of face-saving and they mainly discuss the appropriateness of politeness. According to Brown and Levinson, politeness is defined as some strategies used to save faces for both the speaker and hearer in communication (Ma Yi amp; Liu Yongbing, 2013: 47). They also think that it is also a kind of politeness to avoid directness.

According to Lakoff, “politeness is a system of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange” (He Ziran amp; Ran Yongping, 2009:251).

Leech defines politeness as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face in all interaction (Leech, 1983: 243). He studies politeness from the point of view of conversational-maxim. He comes up with six maxims for politeness principles including Tact, Generosity, Modesty, Approbation, Agreement and Sympathy maxims, which will be discussed in the following part.

Politeness principle is an influential theory on politeness put forward by Leech. He develops his politeness principle based on Grice’s cooperative principle. According to Leech, the cooperative principle cannot give a proper explanation for the fact that people are often indirect in conveying their meaning and violate the cooperative maxims for better cooperation (Leech, 1983: 252). Therefore, Leech’s politeness principle can be considered as a necessary to complement to the cooperative principle and make perfect of it. On the basis of Grice’s cooperative principle, Leech considers the politeness principle as another equal tool to minimize the expression of beliefs that are unfavorable to the hearer and meanwhile maximize the expression of beliefs that are favorable to the hearer (Leech, 1983: 256). Leech formulates six maxims of the politeness principle indicated below:

1. Tact Maxim
   1. Minimize cost to other.
   2. Maximize benefit to other.
2. Generosity Maxim
   1. Minimize benefit to self.
   2. Maximize cost to self.
3. Approbation Maxim
   1. Minimize dispraise of other.
   2. Maximize praise of other.
4. Modesty Maxim
   1. Minimize praise of self.
   2. Maximize dispraise of self.
5. Agreement Maxim
   1. Minimize disagreement between self and other.
   2. Maximize agreement between self and other.
6. Sympathy Maxim
   1. Minimize antipathy between self and other.

(b) Maximize sympathy between self and other.

In this thesis, teacher talk will be discussed mainly from the perspective of politeness principle put forward by Leech.

2.3 Previous Studies on Politeness in Teacher Talk

Since the 1970s, numerous studies on the description and analysis of teacher talk have been made by many foreign scholars, the most influential of whom are Chaudron, Sinclair, Krashen, Nunan. According to Ellis, as to teacher talk, researchers have shown their interest in two aspects: one is to study the types of teacher talk in language classrooms; the other is to analyze teacher talk in the professional classes in colleges or universities (Zhang Xiaoli, 2012: 98). Chaudron summarizes the features of teacher talk form the perspectives of phone, lexis, syntax and discourse. Nunan gives a detailed study on the question of teacher talk in different respects.

Studies on the teacher talk in China have started from the 1990s. In recent years, Chinese researchers have made a preliminary research on teacher talk in English classrooms. Zhou Xing and Zhou Yun analyze the characteristics of teacher talk in terms of its amount, questions, and feedback in a systematic way (Zhou Xing amp; Zhou Yun, 2002:68). About the feedback in teacher talk, they also point out that students do expect to be praised and encouraged rather than being corrected all the time, which involves the relationship between politeness and teacher talk and deserves a further study. As to the introduction of politeness principle to teacher talk, more and more scholars have devoted themselves into the studies. Wu Xuehua claims that it is of great importance for teachers to apply politeness principle to teacher talk in English classrooms (Wu Xuehua, 2004:32). In addition, Wang Guoxiang also believes that politeness principle has its important role to play in guiding the conversation between teachers and students (Wang Guoxiang,2010: 114). In his essay, he analyzes teacher talk in different terms on the basis of politeness principle with the purpose to improve teaching quality through appropriate teacher talk.

In spite of an increasing amount of research made by Chinese scholars on teacher talk in classrooms, there are only few empirical studies conducted to study teacher talk in junior English class because many empirical studies that have been carried out mostly focus on teacher talk in college English class.

Therefore, the present study aims to explore teacher talk from the perspective of politeness principle in junior English class in China, with the specific purpose to provide some suggestions to junior English teachers so as to facilitate the effective language teaching.

3. Politeness in Teacher Talk

As a normal rule of language use, politeness has become an important topic of pragmatic research. It is not only one of the social norms for us to observe in order to promote harmonious interpersonal relationship, but also an important norm adopted to establish the harmonious relationship between teachers and students in classrooms, especially in junior English class. Polite teacher talk should be employed by teachers in order to enhance teaching efficiency in junior English class. In the following part, the author aims to analyze politeness in teacher talk in terms of instructions, questioning and feedback-giving.

3.1 Politeness in Instructions

According to Richard, instructions in teacher talk refer to a speech act that has the function of getting the listener to do something, which usually includes commands, requests, and suggestion(Wang Xiaoli,2012: 99). As to the forms of instructions, they include imperatives and declaratives and so on.

From the definition, It can be seen that instructions are compulsory and that there is no need to take students’ feeling into consideration. However, in order to show politeness in teacher talk, it is advisable for teachers to adopt Leech’s tact maxim: minimize cost to other; maximize benefit to other. Liu Senlin points out that the tact maxim is applicable to instructions because the application of this maxim can weaken the degree of control with various choices accessible (Liu Senlin, 2007:157). To realize politeness in constructions, teachers regularly use interrogative and declarative sentences instead of imperative ones when they giving instructions to students, which is in accordance with the tact maxim. On some occasion, teachers also give assignments or tasks in the forms of wish and “hope” and “would like to” are the forms of wish. By doing so, students are ensured the maximum freedom to make a choice and hence benefit a lot.

What’s more, sentences patterns like “Shall we…” and “Let’s…” are also adopted by teachers to realize politeness in teacher talk. Teachers regularly choose first person sentences instead of second person sentences, which makes teachers drop their power or authority to be equal with students and become a number of students. The use of “we” or “us” includes both teachers and students in action. By doing so, teachers share the same emotions with students from the perspective of students, which conforms to Leech’s sympathy maxim: minimize antipathy between self and other; maximize sympathy between self and other.

3.2 Politeness in Questioning

Questioning, as a vital part of teacher talk, is one of most common techniques used by teachers to initiate classroom interaction. Through questioning, students’ interests are stimulated and maintained; students’ participation is encouraged in classroom interaction.

From the perspective of students, the more politely teachers question, the more willing to answer questions the students are. This requires teachers to adopt Leech’s tact maxim: minimize cost to other; maximize cost to self. Sometimes, in English class, students may have difficulty in answering questions. Usually, some teachers will offer help to students.

Sometimes, teachers point out the difficulty of questions to make it easier for the students when students cannot give the right answer in time and thus lessen students’ anxiety. In order to reduce the difficulty of question and help students, teachers usually paraphrase the question, simplify the question, and also repeat the question. Besides, teachers frequently turn to the whole class rather than an individual student for reply, since it is an easy way to protect students from losing face when an individual student fails to work out a proper answer. The more students are involved, the less responsibility there is for each student.

Under some circumstances, wait-time is provided by teachers, because students can be left more time to react in this case. This is a reflection of Leech’s generosity maxim: minimize benefit to self; maximize cost to self. Teachers generously sacrifice their own time to wait for students to answer, which, in some way, relieve students’ tension.

Through all the ways mentioned above, teachers express their politeness in teacher talk while questioning.

3.3 Politeness in Feedback- giving

Feedback-giving, also known as evaluation, refers to the responses given by teachers to what students have produced in English class. It constitutes a large part of teacher talk and meanwhile plays a vital role in developing students’ interest in learning English.

Each student has the desire to be praised and encouraged by teacher. Arnold who has studied the relationship between emotion and language learning, points out that teacher should try to appreciate and encourage students as much as possible in English class (Arnold 2000:185). This conforms to Leech’s approbation maxim: minimize dispraise of self; maximize praise of other. For example, appreciative expressions, like “Good! / Well done! / Excellent! ”, are frequently used by teachers to show their politeness in teacher talk. Such appreciations not only tell students that they have accomplished their tasks, but also stimulate their motivation of learning.

Besides, Leech’s agreement maxim is also reflected in teacher talk. In the process of feedback giving, the following strategies are adopted to realize politeness: repeating, acknowledging a correct answer, neglecting errors. Teachers are always trying to overstate the good points in students’ answer and understate those which are not so satisfying. In most cases, teachers are fond of repeating the students’ answer, which affirms students’ performance. In this way, good and acceptable parts of the students’ answer are enforced and appreciated, while the negative parts are ignored and avoided. That is, agreement will be shown by teachers as long as what the students say is absolutely or even partly right. By these means, teachers observe Leech’s agreement maxim: minimize disagreement between self and other; maximize agreement between self and other. Thus, students can feel respected and then relax themselves to concentrate attentively and think creatively while teachers can realize politeness in teacher talk.

4. Analysis on Politeness Principle in Teacher Talk in Junior English Class

4.1 Questionnaire on Politeness Principle in Teacher Talk in Junior English Class

4.1.1 Purpose of This Research

Politeness is the outcome of development of human society and progress of human civilization. The application of politeness in teacher talk contributes a lot to the efficiency and quality of English teaching, especially in junior English class. In order to achieve this goal, it is of great necessity to conduct a field investigation to analyze teacher talk in view of politeness principle so as to come up with some useful suggestions for junior English teachers. Based on the questionnaire, the present research tries to gives a detailed analysis on politeness in constructions, questioning and feedback-giving in junior English class from the aspects of politeness principle in order to find out whether junior English teachers has perceived the significance of introducing politeness principle to teacher talk and thus successfully realized politeness in teacher talk in junior English class within the theoretical framework of politeness principle. Only in this way can teachers pay more attention to the employment of politeness in their talk, thus teaching efficiently.

4.1.2 Research Method and Process

Through relevant theoretical study and actual questionnaire, it can be found that the employment of politeness in teacher talk plays a vital role in junior English teaching.

In this study, the questionnaire is carried out among students to collect information about the application of polite teacher talk in junior English class.

The questionnaire involves 112 subjects from different classes in Grade Seven which are selected at random from Kaiming Middle School in Huaiyin District. All of the students, including 64 boys and 48 girls, age from 13 to 16 years old. 112 questionnaires are distributed to the students for their reply to learn about the actual use of polite teacher talk by their English teacher in class. But, only 108 questionnaires are useful because four students circled all the As on their paper due to their unwillingness to finish the questionnaires.

There is a total of 10 items in this questionnaire. In general, the ten items can be divided into 5 parts. Items 1 is used for English proficiency of the subjects, item 2 for the effect of using politeness in teacher talk on the subjects, items 3 and 4 for politeness in instructions, items 5, 6 and 7 for politeness in questioning, items 8, 9 and 10 for politeness in feedback-giving. As is shown in the 108 valid questionnaires, it is known that junior English teachers generally adopt politeness principle in teacher talk, but there are still some occasions when teachers fail to realize politeness during the process of teaching in junior English class. In the following part, detailed discussion and analysis will be presented.

4.1.3 Analysis of the Results

As is indicated in item1, among the 108 participants, 17% think they have a good command of English; 63% think they have an intermediate level of English proficiency; and 20% think that their English is very poor.

Form item 2, participants are asked whether polite teacher talk can stimulate their passion for English learning. As the result shows, half of the participants believe polite teacher talk has great effect on them while others say that it has some certain effects on them.

As to items 3 and 4, participants are inquired about polite instructions their teachers use in English class.

In item 3, a specific instruction expressed by three different sentence patterns are available for students to choose, which aims to find out what kind of sentence pattern are frequently employed by teachers to give instructions. Consequently, as the statistics show, 64% students say that their teachers tend to use interrogative sentences in instructions, especially general questions with modal verbs while 32% students indicate that their teachers like using imperative sentences when giving instructions. The employment of the interrogatives lessen the degree of control, thus making the students feel not so oppressed because they are offered various options, which , to some degree, minimizes cost to students and maximizes benefit to students. By contrast, the use of the imperatives has the opposite effects. Therefore, most teachers adopt the interrogatives with modal verbs according to the tact maxim so as to realize politeness in teacher talk.

In item 4, students are asked whether their English teachers often use the sentence patterns like “Shall we…” and “Let’s…”, which intends to figure out whether teachers are prone to use first person sentences in class. From the statistics collected, it is shown that 47% students think their teachers always do it and 48% students say that their teachers sometimes do it while only few indicate their teachers never do it. According to the sympathy maxim, the first person sentences are used to make teachers more approachable for students and hence bridge the distance between teachers and students. Teachers lower themselves in the position of students to share common emotions with students, which maximizes sympathy between teachers and students and minimizes antipathy between them. From the above figures, it can be concluded that not too many teachers can observe the sympathy maxim to show politeness in teacher talk.

From item 5 to item 7, the questions are designed in terms of politeness in questioning.

In item 5, students are asked about the ways that their teachers often use to question in English class. According to the results, 56% participants hold that individual reply is frequently initiated by their teachers in English class while only 28% claim that collective reply is often used by their teachers.

In item 6, teachers’ responses are investigated when students are answering questions. The majority, which takes the percentage of 75%, have the same opinion that teachers always listen carefully with smile on their faces, which serves a kind of encouragement to students and also, to some extent, ease the nervousness of students so that they can perform better in answering questions.

Item 7 is about the response of teachers when some students are dumped by some questions. 71% subjects think that teachers often simplify, paraphrase or repeat the question to help students out of trouble. There are 45% students maintaining that teachers usually wait for students’ answers in order to give some time for students to think the questions over and 36% that teachers ask for reply from another student after short-time waiting. The ways mentioned above, such as simplifying and paraphrasing, repeating, eliciting collective reply, switching to other addressees, are all employed by teachers to minimize cost to students and maximize benefit to students. What’s more, the use of wait-time minimizes benefit to students and maximizes cost to teachers. Generally, under the guidance of both the tact maxim and the generosity maxim, most teachers successfully apply politeness strategies to teaching in junior English class.

Items 8, 9 and 10 are used to research politeness in feedback-giving.

Based on item 8, an inquiry is made by about what kind of feedback is given by teachers after students’ reply. The results show that 63% students are praised or appreciated by their teachers; 56% students say that teachers repeat their answers to show agreement with them; 42% students indicate that they are encouraged to further answer the questions put forward by their teachers. But only 18% of the students claim that their teachers show thanks to them for their cooperation in English class.

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