teachers make their lectures, but also guarantees how well students will learn, is very critical in English language teaching.
In China, the main place where students could get in touch with English and learn it is English classroom. This paper focuses on the teachers? politeness in English class, in which both the teacher and learners are Chinese with Chinese culture. Though classroom activities are of pedagogical function, at the same time it is communicative. Classroom itself is a kind of social place where teachers and students build social relations throughout teaching course. In class, teachers need to think how to effectively communicate with students and how to make the atmosphere harmonious and other problems. And in fact, there exist several problems in teacher talk used in college English teaching. Firstly, misunderstanding in teacher thought. For along time, many English teachers attach importance to researches of teaching methodologies and contents, ignoring the importance and the quality of their teacher talk. Secondly, teachers use language more blindly and at will. Most teachers are incompetent to control their own teacher talk. That means teachers must pay close attention to teacher talk. At this moment, politeness is a major issue in teacher talk and Leech?s Politeness Principle becomes the key pragmatic analysis tool in this study. 1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study
In China, due to lack of English-speaking environment outside classroom, teacher talk in English classroom instruction is considered as a kind of model language and the main source of input for nearly all students in college. To some degree, students? successful acquisition results from proper and reasonable teacher talk in classroom instruction.
Leech?s Politeness Principle is hypothesized to be a major variable that affects students? English language acquisition. It is with politeness that teacher talk creates a better learning environment for students, hence improving teaching effect and subtly cultivating students? consciousness of politeness. In another way students are able to learn how to communicate with each other effectively and appropriately. Therefore,
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Leech?s Politeness Principle is of vital importance to teacher talk, then to teacher-student interaction.
Teacher talk is very important not only for teachers? classroom organization but also for students? language learning, and the Politeness Principle can promote the learning process of English students. If teacher talk and the Politeness Principle could be integrated perfectly in English classroom, classroom teaching is sure to achieve success. Therefore, it is important to observe how teacher talk and Leech?s Politeness Principle work together and play their role in the English classroom for the better outcomes of English classroom teaching and learning, and this thesis tries to solve the problem. This study attempts to give a full explanation to support the application of Leech?s Politeness Principle to teacher talk. What?s more, the study can inspire teachers to reconsider their ways of teaching so as to find out a best way of activating classroom atmosphere, establishing good teacher-student relationship and improving the students' learning efficiency through suitable teacher talk with Leech?s Politeness Principle.
The author conducts this study based on the following facts. Firstly, most college students of today are impressionable, especially when in class where they tend to protect themselves with silence. Therefore suitable politeness can bring about effective teacher talk, and appropriate teacher talk can protect students? self-respect and build a good teacher-student relation, thus benefit their English learning. Secondly, most of the former related researchers deal with teacher talk and politeness, but some neglect specific group of teacher talk, or talk about politeness in college English class broadly. College English is more difficult than that students have learned before, and it is not easy for them to accept new knowledge, even to get what teacher say. Based on the above facts, the author intends to do a study on Leech?s Politeness Principle in college teacher talk.
1.3 Overall Structure of the Thesis
The thesis is composed of five parts.
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Chapter one is the introduction part which includes background of this study, significance and purpose of this study, and overall structure of the thesis.
Chapter two is the literature review on teacher talk and Leech?s Politeness Principle. Firstly it reviews some previous studies on teacher talk and the Politeness Principle. Then it talks about Leech?s Politeness Principle in teacher talk.
Chapter three analyzes several typical cases on the basis of maxims of the Politeness Principle.
Chapter four summarizes features of the Politeness Principle in college teacher talk and introduces some politeness strategies for teacher talk.
Chapter five draws a conclusion of this study, lists the limitations of this study, and provides some pedagogical suggestions for future research.
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2. Literature Review
In the part, firstly it reviews some previous studies on teacher talk, especially different definitions and types and functions of teacher talk. Secondly, it reviews some previous studies on the Politeness Principle which presents the premise and origin of the Politeness Principle, and its maxims. Lastly, it talks about Leech?s Politeness Principle in teacher talk. 2.1 Teacher Talk
Previous studies on teacher talk from both home and abroad roughly include the following aspects: amount of teacher talk, teachers? questions, teachers? feedback, and interactional modification. In this study, it is what is teacher talk and what it is used for that should be understood. 2.1.1 Definitions of Teacher Talk
Based on the former researches, it can be found that different definitions of teacher talk have been reached from different perspectives at home and abroad. One definition goes that teacher talk is the language in the classroom that takes up a major part of class time used to give classroom directions, explain classroom activities and check students? understanding (Sinclair & Brazil, 1982). Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics (Richards, 1992) describes teacher talk as “that variety of language sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to communicate with students, teachers often simplify their speech giving it many of the characteristics of the Foreigner Talk and other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners”. In Ellis? opinion, teachers “make adjustments to both language form and language function in order to facilitate communication. These adjustments are referred to as ?teacher talk?” (Ellis 1994:726) To be more specific, Song Deyun & Pan Longming (2000) define English teacher talk as follows: English teacher talk includes classroom English, instruction English,
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teacher-student interaction and teacher feedback English which is employed to instruct English knowledge, communicate and organize classroom activities. 2.1.2 Types and Functions of Teacher Talk
Generally speaking, teacher talk can be divided into two kinds, language of organizing teaching and language of imparting information. When teachers organize, supervise and guide classroom activities, they make full use of the first kind which includes opening remarks, classroom questions, feedbacks, summaries and so on. On the other hand, the second one refers to the language used when teachers impart knowledge.
As to its functions, there are two during the course of organizing teaching and acquiring language, offering two premises for students to acquire the second language. The primary function of teacher talk is to provide adequate comprehensive input for students. It is well-known that, for most English learners in China, English classroom probably is the main, even the only place to have regular contact with English and use it, especially for those who live in a remote area. Another important function teacher talk has to fulfill is to guide and organize students to join in classroom activities and take good advantage of the classroom and to provide students opportunities to utter comprehensible output.
The author reads these definitions for reference and ultimately summarizes the definition of English teacher talk in this thesis as follows: English teacher talk is of great significance in English learning classroom. It is the language used by teachers to instruct English knowledge, organize classroom activities and give feedback to students? performance in the classroom. The definition may not satisfy all researchers? concern but it covers what teachers say in the English classroom in a broad sense, which will exert a great effect on the study. 2.2 The Politeness Principle
Politeness seems to be a prevalent concept and an important element in human
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