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1、A Preliminary Analysis of Teacher-Learner Classroom Communication Introduction Communicative competence refers to the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts (Dell Hymes, 1972, quoted from Brown, H.
2、Douglas 2002:227). In Canale and Swains (1980, quoted from Brown, H. Douglas 2002:227-228 ) definition, four different components make up the construct of communicative competence. They are (1) grammatical competence; (2) discourse competence; (3) sociolinguistic competence; (4) strategic competence
3、. The modern teaching theories regard teaching process as one of teacher-student communication, interaction and development. Some scholars even suggest that communication is the essence of teaching. As we know that the most important figures in the classroom are obviously Cheng Zhiping 2 the teacher
4、s, owing to the power and authority of the position. Thus, the classroom communicative competence of teacher is very important. It can affect the communication climate greatly. And there it has great effect on the result of classroom teaching and learning. That is why it is necessary for teachers to
5、 improve their classroom communicative competence. Recently, with the wide recognition of learner-centered teaching ideology, strategies and patterns of classroom communication focus on how to motivate students and how to cultivate learners abilities in classroom communication.Teaching should have a
6、 lasting value to the learners and life-long influence on learners. It is necessary for learners to develop the communicative capability. Therefore, the strategy to improve the teachers competence in classroom communication is of great significance to the language teaching and learning. In addition,
7、 there are also many problems in current classroom communication. If we want to Cheng Zhiping 3 improve the efficiency of classroom communication, we should work out some methods to solve these problems. In a word, based on the analysis of current research of classroom communication, the author of t
8、his paper talks about current situation in classroom communication, discusses strategies for teacher-learner interaction and puts forward some suggestions on classroom communication. I Current situation of communication between teachers and students In order to know the current situation of teacher-
9、student communication in EFL classroom, we conducted a research in Taiyuan Normal University. Now lets take a look at our approaches of the study. 1. Approaches 1.1 Subjects Thirty-one EFL students randomly selected in three grades (from grade 1 to grade 3) participated in the investigation. All of
10、them are 4-year Cheng Zhiping 4 English major students from Taiyuan Normal University. 1.2 Questionnaire and procedures The questionnaire is composed of three open- ended questions concerning the relations and communication between teachers and students in the classroom. Each participant was asked t
11、o complete one questionnaire according to their real experience without writing their names on the questionnaire. 2. Result and discussion The first question “What are the main reasons for you to love a course?” Through the table below, we know that if they love a teacher, they will love the course.
12、 Reasons that students love a course Ratio of students Their interests 30 The teacher of this course 60 Nothing 10 Cheng Zhiping 5 The second question is “What are the specific features of those teachers whose communicative competence is skillful?” The answers are respecting students, humorous, trea
13、ting students equally as friends and their class atmosphere is free. Specific features of teachers with high communicative competence Ratio of students Respect students. 98 Humorous. 90 Treat students as friends. 97 Treat students equally 98 His class is free 96 The third question is “What are the s
14、pecific features of the teachers whose lessons you dont like?” Most students dont like a teacher because he or she is eccentric, boring, serious and strict to students. Specific features of the teachers whose lessons you dont like Ratio of students Boring 90 Too serious 85 Cheng Zhiping 6 Too strict
15、 88 Partial 95 This research shows whether students like a course or not depends on the teacher of this course. Therefore, a teacher who is humorous and treats every student equally is the most popular one. If they want to improve the efficiency of teaching and learning , they should develop teacher
16、s quality. II Questioning strategy for teacher-learner classroom communication Questioning strategy is the most frequently used communicative method in recent years. It is an important way to promote the teacher-learner classroom communication. Learners can understand teachers purposes through quest
17、ions and get a habit of thinking logically. Teachers use questions prepared before class to lead in the course, examine the efficiency of class and control the atmosphere of whole class. Without questioning in classroom there will be no teaching goals of a course. In addition, this paper tries to su
18、mmarize Cheng Zhiping 7 the classifications of questions, which can help teachers use this strategy more proficiently. 1. Questioning. Questioning strategy is the short cut to a class where teachers and learners cooperate very well. Why does it have so strong power? How does it influence the teacher
19、-learner classroom communication? Now lets talk about it according to my experience. 1.1. Importance of questioning As teachers guide students through learning activities, effective questioning is one of the most important skills in course of teaching. Questioning is helpful to the process of classr
20、oom communication between teachers and learners, and it thereby enhances learning. It engages students in verbal interactions with the teacher about important aspects of subject matter. Sometimes class discussion depends on question-answer sessions and it is a most desirable course. I worked as a ca
21、det teacher several days ago. When I had my first class, I was nervous and didnt know Cheng Zhiping 8 how to behave myself. Therefore, I spoke in class without interacting with students who always kept silent. The tittle of that class is Music Born in America. In the middle of that class, I asked tw
22、o questions unconsciously. How many kinds of music do you know? Which singer do you like best? To my surprise, the whole class boiled. Students became talkative and I saw sweet smiles on their faces. After they discussed for several minutes, they raised their hands to ask me questions actively. I wa
23、s really at a loss for words at that time. During the last twenty minutes, we had an efficient communication. From that class, I knew what students need and how important the questioning strategy is for teacher-learner classroom communication. Questioning is used for other purposes as well. Through
24、questioning, a skilled teacher can help students reinforce basic skills, experience success, and enhance self-confidence. “It is difficult to overstate the value of questioning skills in teaching”(Kauchak and Eggen, 1989:103). Cheng Zhiping 9 1.2. Function of questioning Questioning acts as differen
25、t roles in classroom communication. According to Kauchak and Eggen (1989:104), these functions can fall into three broad areas:diagnostic, instructional, and motivational. At any time, a single question may provide more than one of these functions. “As a diagnostic tool, classroom questions allow th
26、e teacher to glimpse into the minds of students to find out not only what they know or dont know but also how they think about a topic”(ibid.). Some research suggests that whether new information will be learned and how new knowledge will be mastered by learners is based on the structure of students
27、 existing knowledge (Mayer, 1987; Cornbleth, 1985; Champagne et al., 1980). I will take my experience as example. There is a course called Literature which mainly talked about Charles Dickens and his work Oliver Twist. Before I started this class, I wanted to know how much my students knew about the
28、 author and his work, so I prepared some questions. Who have you ever Cheng Zhiping 10 watched the movie Oliver Twist? What story did this movie describe (who, when, where.) ? Who was the author of its original work? With these questions, we discussed 45 minutes. Through the discussion, I know how m
29、uch they know about Charles Dickens and his work Oliver Twist. In my opinion, questioning worked as a diagnostic tool in class. So through strategic questioning, teachers can identify students established knowledge. The instructional function emphasizes the role that questions play in facilitating s
30、tudents to learn new knowledge and review the prior knowledge. Meanwhile, questions can provide more communicative opportunities for teachers and learners. Also in my class, I once taught a course Ethnic Culture which introduces the greatness and unity of our country. I arranged my teaching procedur
31、e like this. In the first step, I gave students a task to read the passage carefully. In the second step, I listed some vocabulary, grammar and difficult sentences. In the last step, I would like to arouse their patriotism. Before telling them my purposes, I Cheng Zhiping 11 listed some questions. H
32、ow many nations are there in our country? What is the relationship of these nations? As a person of the Han nationality which is Chinas main nationality, how should we get along well with minority nationalities? After they answered my questions, my purposes were nearly achieved. As far as Im concern
33、ed, these questions direct students towards my purpose, so questioning here work as an instructional tool. When teachers give some questions which can arouse the interests of learners, students will be active and like to cooperate with teachers. This strategy not only shortens the distance between t
34、eachers and learners but also makes students brave to perform themselves. Questions are also valuable in receiving giving knowledge.Therefore, teachers use questions to help students review previous knowledge and then establish a foundation for the new information to be learned. And as the new mater
35、ial is being developed, learners can use the questions to clarify relationships within the Cheng Zhiping 12 content and to make explicit the internal structure of the content being learned. As for motivational function, by questioning, the teacher can involve students actively in the lesson, provoki
36、ng students to think and posing problems for them to consider. Some other scholars (Cole and Chan, 1994; Bull and Solity, 1987; Freiberg and Driscoll, 1996) also do some research on this, and make more detailed explanation. To be specific, classroom questions can perform the following functions. 2.
37、Categorizations of Teacher Questions There are many ways to classify questions each of which reflects a somewhat different focuses and purposes. Different scholars make classification of questions from different perspectives. 2.1. Barnes categorization In one of the earliest categorization, Barnes (
38、1969, 1976) put questions into four types, according to his observation in secondary school classroom: Cheng Zhiping 13 (1) Factual questions (what?), such as “ What happened this morning?” Its answer must be the fact or event happened this morning. (2) Reasoning questions (how? and why?), for examp
39、le, “ How do you teach so successfully in your class?” This question wants to get the reasons and methods of a successful class. (3) Social questions (questions that influence student behavior by means of control or appeal). For example, “ Why not take part in sports meeting to be held next Friday?”
40、 It implies that teachers expected students to do it. (4) He also distinguished closed-questions and open-questions by explaining that closed-questions are framed with only one acceptable answer in mind, and open-questions permit different acceptable answers. 2.2. An overall classification Following
41、 him, other scholars (Kearsley,1976; Koivukan, 1987; Wajnryb, 1992; Call and Arterboname, 1995; Kauchak and Eggen, 1989) complement and enrich the categorization of questions. In their Cheng Zhiping 14 book Teaching Principles and Practice, Cole and Chan (1994) summarize six category systems, and po
42、int out that there is great overlap among these categories and sometimes the same question type can fall into several categories. Based on Cole and Chans summarization, we get an overall classification as the following. 2.2.1. High-and Low-order Questions Low-order questions are easy to answer. It i
43、s like factual questions of Barnes categorization. Its answer is to state the fact that has been existed. It is also called fact questions and requests knowledge of subject matter or the recall of facts and specifics. For example, in the course of Music Born in America, I asked an easy question. Wha
44、t is “MC”? MC is Master of ceremony which is known to us. There is only one answer. High-order questions are also called thought questions, which are related to comprehension, application, analysis or evaluation of subject matter. High-order questions include several types. Cheng Zhiping 15 Comprehe
45、nsion questions are used to examine students understanding of content, which require students to explain, summarize and elaborate on facts concerned with them. At the end of reading part of Music Born in America, I asked two questions. How many parts can the passage be divided into? What is formatio
46、n of American music? If students want to answer the two questions correctly, they must comprehend the whole passage completely. Therefore, comprehension questions can help teachers examine efficiency of this class. Analysis questions require students to determine the relationships among the parts of
47、 the content. In my first class, after I explained grammars of reading part, I asked my students how many persons are there in this passage and what is their relationship. Students can comprehend the passage according to the relationship between characters. Evaluation questions require students to m
48、ake accessment and decisions about what they have learned. I often make students judge the characters, Cheng Zhiping 16 contents and structures after finishing a context, for example, what do you think of the structures of this context or what are the advantages and disadvantages of this context. 2.
49、2.2. Product, Process and Opinion Questions Product questions require students to give answers, which are conclusions, results or outcomes, and usually are relatively brief. For example, whats the main idea of second paragraph? Teachers often use this question to summarizes a paragraph. Students answers are products of learning a paragraph. Process questions ask students to explain the procedures, ways, or steps they have used to find answers or reach conclusions and they usually need to make more explanations. Also in the course of Music Born i