A Comparative Exploration Study of the Instructions of Novice and Veteran Teachers in Senior High School English Reading Class in the Language—Content—Task Framework

施云霞 汤熙

【Abstract】This is a comparative study of the classroom instructions applied by novice and veteran teachers in senior high school English reading class. It aims to investigate the effectiveness of class teaching between these two types of teachers within the Language-Content-Task （LCT）Framework.

【Key words】classroom instructions； teaching effectiveness； Language-Content-Task Framework； novice and veteran teacher

Classroom instructions are programmatic interpretations used to organize the class teaching （Brown， 1994）. In brief， it refers to a speech act that guide students behavior in class， including the explanations and operations of activities associated with the course. In recent years， classroom discourse analysis has been a field of heated discussion among teachers and pedagogical researchers. It aims to describe the teaching and learning processes and illustrates the joint contributions of teachers and students， which furthermore provides language teachers and methodologists with profound bases of inspecting teaching activities. Studies from home and abroad have accumulated plentiful achievement and practice experience.

Aims and objectives：

As the direct source of instructions， teachers are supposed to attach much importance to the selection of instructional language and pragmatic strategies， which are believed to guarantee propitious communications in class. However， not all instructions are effective if teachers fail to perceive students language competence. In order to scrutinize the effectiveness of classroom instructions， this paper would study the differences of instructions applied by novice teachers and veteran teachers in senior high school English reading class within the LCT model（Short 2002）.

Based on the Language-Content-Task framework， this study aims to answer the following research questions：

Which area of LCT do novice and veteran teachers take into consideration？

What are the advantages and disadvantages of their instructions？

Does the difference in instructions influence the teaching effectiveness？

Methodology

Participants included six English teachers and their students from Jiangsu Province Changshu Senior High School. All the teachers are teaching English as foreign language （EFL）and are teaching different grades ranging from Senior One to Senior Two. Three of them have less than four years of working experience， while another three have worked for over seven years. According to Berliners five stages of teachers skill development， the participants are divided into two groups： novice teacher and veteran teacher.

In this study， the data was mainly derived from audio-recording of classroom discourse and classroom observation. Some tests and interviews were adopted as well to assess students feedback and teaching effects. The tests were designed to investigate students reading comprehension and their overall knowledge. Finally there was an interview with five questions to offer explanations of difference in students' results.

Findings and Conclusion

Altogether， 399 teacher's class utterances were examined. 28% of them focused on language development while 33.5% of the oral interactions addressed content and 38.5% presented tasks.

The reading comprehension test results indicated that students taught by veteran teachers who emphasize language may help students increase the development of functional language use and the acquisition of vocabularies， grammars and rhetoric. Interviews revealed that 70% held the view that most of teachers instructions were to help them to understand articles and accomplish practices in reading classes， at the same time， however， language learning was often developed through after-school homework. Besides， 87% of the students appreciated teachers instructions regarding language rather than task and content.

Novice teachers mainly concentrate on the content while veteran teachers put emphasis on the language. The comparison offers implications for novice teachers. Novice teachers need to adjust their strategies of delivering instructions with the application of LCT framework. Teachers are supposed to arrange fair distribution of language， content and task when giving instructions in reading class. Lack of any aspect may lead to ineffective reading and insufficient acquisition of English language. Teachers with little working experience are recommended to receive some enlightenment of how to give instructions when teaching senior high school English reading class.

References：

[1]Brown，D.Teaching by Principles： An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy[M].New Jersey： Prentice Hall Regents，1994.

[2]Short，D.J.Langugae Learning in Sheltered Social Studies Classes[J].TESOL JOURNAL，2002（11）.

*此文为常熟理工学院2015届重点资助毕业设计论文课题（WK1532）成果。