【正文】 r Talk __________________________________________________________________________ 2 teachers, only few of them focus on preservice teachers, and none of the preservice teachers take themselves as the target. Therefore, by conducting this action research, the author intends to make improvement for the research of teacher talk, meanwhile add something new to fill the research gap. If teachers are able to teach students and anize classes with accurate and brief language， they can be more successful in their teaching career． Teacher talk is a way to study how to improve foreign language teaching． Teachers train the students how to municate with others in foreign languages. They can achieve this goal by improving their own teacher talk so as to be understood. The English class in junior high school is the crucial place for teachers to cultivate students’ prehensive ability of using English, which set a foundational stage for senior high school learning. therefore it plays an especially important role． Not only for the anization of the classroom but also for the process of second language acquisition． It is important for the anization and management of the class because it is through speech that teachers either succeed or fail to implement their teaching plans． In terms of acquisition， teachers’ speech acts are important because it is probably the major source of prehensible target language input the learner is likely to receive” (Nunan 1991： 189)． Organization of the Thesis The present study consists of six parts. It starts with an introduction as the first chapter, which is about the background knowledge, and the purpose and the significance of the study. Chapter two will focus on literature review. Key conceptions will be defined and previous studies are to be included, as well as studies on teacher talk and basic theories like the Input Hypothesis, the Output Hypothesis, and Interaction Hypothesis. Chapter three is research design, which includes the research questions, research subjects, methods of the study, as well as research procedures. Discussion and analysis of the data in detail will e in Chapter four， which is the main part of the whole study, where the author will carry out the action research and analyze the result. Chapter five is discussion, analyzing the factors that influenced the improvement of TT. The thesis will e to an end in the last chapter, where conclusions are obtained while illustrating the limitations of the present study and providing suggestions for future research. An Action Research of Improving a Junior English Preservice Teacher’s Teacher Talk __________________________________________________________________________ 3 Chapter Two Literature Review Teacher Talk Definition of Teacher Talk Teacher talk is a language typically used by foreign language teachers in the process of teaching. In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, teacher talk is defined as: The variety of language is sometimes used by teachers when they are in the process of teaching. In trying to municate with learners, teachers often simplify their speech, giving it many of the characteristics of foreigner talk and other simplified styles of speech addressed to language learners (Richards, 20xx: 471). AllWright and Bailey claimed that “talk is one of the major ways that teachers convey information to learners, and it is also one of the primary means of controlling learners’ behavior.”(1991:139) As for Cook (20xx), he thinks that it refers to the amount of speech supplied by teachers rather than students. Cook demonstrated that English teacher ’s teacher talk involves two different aspects: one, as the tool of anizing and controlling class teaching。 to help language input of students and anize class activities)。 and it is suggested teachers modify their speech SO An Action Research of Improving a Junior English Preservice Teacher’s Teacher Talk __________________________________________________________________________ 8 that it is prehensible. However, demands for speaking (output) are low， for students are not forced to speak until ready. Moreover, at the intermediate level, sheltered subject— matter teaching that uses modified academic texts are taken to provide prehensible input. The Comprehensible Output Hypothesis The lack of evidence that prehensible input produces higher quality learner output has led to the“ Output Hypothesis” , which developed by Merrill Swain(1985). The Comprehensible Output(CO)Hypothesis states that learning takes place when encountering a gap in the second language acquisition． Learners are stretched in their production in order to make themselves understood and push learners to produce prehensible as well as grammatically accurate output. Swain(1995)defined three functions for prehensive output: 1. Noticing function： Learners encounter gaps between what they want to say and what they are able to say so they notice what they do not know or only know partially in this language． 2. Hypothesis— testing function： When learners say something there is always a hypothesis underlying . about grammar． By uttering something， the learners test this hypothesis and receive feedback from an interlocutor． This feedback enables them， if necessary， to reprocess their hypothesis. 3. Meta— linguistic function： Learners reflect about the language they learn and hereby the output enables them to control and internalize linguistic knowledge． The Interactive Hypothesis The Interactive Hypothesis proposed by Micheal Long is a theory of secondlanguage acquisition which states that the development of language proficiency is promoted by face to face interaction and munication． Similarly to Krashen’s Input Hypothesis， the Interactive Hypothesis claims that prehens