Abstract

At present, endowing students with authority in class is strongly emphasized. In line with it, democratic classroom starts to draw national attention. In this thesis, three salient features of democratic classroom are identified – collaboration, free but orderly atmosphere and respect for personality, especially individual interest. The aim of the study is to figure out how to construct democratic classroom. Mainly focusing on teacher talk, the study analyzes and discusses the classroom discourse of an English demo class of junior middle school from four aspects, “Questions and Questioning”, “Feedback”, “Turn-taking” and “Mood”. Through ethnographic and conversation analysis and systematic observation, the study shows that the following features conduce to the construction of democratic classroom: (1) asking more referential questions instead of display questions and adopting volunteering in advance of nominating; (2) more appropriate discursive feedback and positive evaluable feedback; (3) sharing the right to initiate turns with students and waiting at least three seconds for students’ answers; (4) avoiding imperative sentences in compelling mood.

Keywords: democratic; classroom discourse analysis; middle school English classroom

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Background-1

1.2 Purpose and Significance-1

1.3 Framework-1

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 The Democratic Classroom-3

2.2 The Classroom Discourse-4

2.2.1 Research Abroad-5

2.2.2 Research at Home-6

3. Methodology-8

3.1 Research Questions-8

3.2 Research Methods-8

3.2.1 Data Collection-8

3.2.2 Data Analysis Methods-8

4. Analysis and Discussion-10

4.1 Questions and Questioning-10

4.1.1 Types of Questions-10

4.1.2 Modes of Questioning-11

4.1.3 Discussion-12

4.2 Feedback-12

4.2.1 Discursive Feedback-12

4.2.2 Evaluable Feedback-13

4.2.3 Discussion-14

4.3 Turn-taking-14

4.3.1 Analysis-14

4.3.2 Discussion-15

4.4 Mood-16

4.4.1 Analysis-16

4.4.2 Discussion-17

5. Conclusion-18

5.1 Findings-18

5.2 Implications-18

5.3 Limitations-18

References-20