摘要
学生缺乏课堂参与是一个已经引起广泛讨论的问题。国外有关学生沉默的研究大多是基于多文化课堂环境的,而国内几乎没有这方面的研究。本文以职业学院学生为研究对象,旨在发现口语课堂上学生沉默的原因,进而揭示在课堂交流中学生沉默和言语行为的相互作用使沉默具有一定意义并具有一定功能,以此帮助学生提高口语学习效率,同时,为英语口语教师提供一些帮助。
本文通过分析课堂对话、问卷、访谈和课堂观察等研究发现,沉默在教育环境中能建立并且重构权力关系。也就是说,教师有权控制课堂对话并决定什么时候自己可以说话,什么时候可以让学生说话。此外,尽管学生的沉默是处于从属地位的,学生依然可以利用沉默来调节他们与教师的关系。研究表明,学生可以从正反两方面来运用沉默。从正的方面来说,学生可以运用沉默来表现如下行为:同意,尊敬,引起注意,考虑:从反的方面来说,沉默可以用来表达拒绝,不同意,生气,缺乏热情等行为。这就不难看出学生为什么在课堂内不愿说话的原因了,一方面是因为他们要照顾教师的负面面子,另一方面是因为他们要照顾自己诸如想被别人认可,理解,赞同,喜欢,崇拜的正面面子。另外,当学生在缺乏知识或者有心理障碍的情况下会选择沉默即无意沉默。
本文共分五章。第一章介绍研究背景和讨论研究意义。第二章回顾关于沉默的文献,尤其是对课堂交流环境中的沉默给予了特别关注。第三章描述了方法构架和设计。第四章对课堂环境下的对话进行了分析,并在分析对话、问卷、访谈和课堂观察的基础上,从有意沉默和无意沉默的角度揭示了学生沉默的原因及功能。第五章对全文进行了总结。
Lack of active participation by students in classroom activities is one of the major concerns which have been widely discussed. Most researches on silence abroad are based on multi-culture classroom settings, while the student silence study in domestic is quite limited. With the vocational college students as the subjects, the thesis attempts to find out the causes of students' silence in the oral class, moreover, to demonstrate how silence creates certain meanings and functions through the interaction of student silence and performance in classroom communication. It is hoped that the findings of this research can facilitate the students' oral proficiency and at the same time provide some help for the oral English teacher.
Through conversational analysis in classroom contexts and discussions about the results of students' questionnaire, interviews and class observations, it is discovered that power relations in educational settings are constructed and reproduced through silence. That is to say teachers have the right to control the discourse of the classroom and decide when they speak and when they allow students to speak. However, students can also use silence to negotiate power relationship with the teacher, although their silence in general marks subordinate status. It is revealed that students can use their silence positively or negatively. On the positive side, silence can perform the acts such as: to agree, to show respect, to create concentration and dignity, to consider; on the negative side, silence can perform the following acts: to refuse, to disagree, to show anger, to indicate a lack of enthusiasm. It is no doubt why Chinese students avoid speaking in classroom context. On the one hand they would like to save the negative face of the teacher, on the other hand they want to save their positive face, which includes the desire to be ratified, understood, approved of, liked or admired. Moreover, students keep silent when they are ignorant or have psychological inhibitions.
There are altogether five chapters in the thesis. The first chapter gives a research background and discusses significance of the study. Chapter two reviews literature on silence, with specific attention to silence in classroom communication context. Chapter Three describes the methodological framework and design. Chapter Four analyses conversations in classroom contexts and reveals functions and causes of student silence from aspects of intentional silence and unintentional silence. Chapter Five serves as a conclusion.
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