CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Motivation for the Current Study 1.2 ELT in China 1.2.1 Policy of ELT: An Overview 1.2.2 Development of the English Language Teaching Syllabi for Secondary Schools 1.2.3 Reform of the Curriculum 1.2.4 Changes and Challenges Encountered in ELT 1.2.5 The Fit English Immeion Program in China -- the CCUEI 1.3 Aim of the Study and Research Questio 1.4 Significance of the Study 1.5 Outline of the ThesisCHAPTER TWO IMMERSION EDUCATION 2.1 Immeion Education in Canada 2.1.1 Definition of Immeion 2.1.2 Features of Immeion 2.1.3 Varieties of Immeion Programs 2.2 Immeion Education in Other Western Countries 2.3 English Immeion Program in China-- the CCUEI 2.3.1 Characteristics of the CCUEI 2.3.2 Research on the CCUEI Program 2.4 Challenges to Immeion Education Worldwide 2.5 Research Gap 2.6 SummaryCHAPTER THREE INTERACTION, ACTIVITY AND PEER TALK 3.1 Cognitive and Sociocultural Paradigms in Interaction 3.1.1 Interaction within the Cognitive Paradigm 3.1.2 Interaction within the Sociocultmal Theoretical Paradigm 3.2 The Role of Tasks and Activities in Interaction 3.2.1 Tasks and Activities from a Psycholinguistic Pepective 3.2.2 Tasks and Activities from a Sociocultural Pepective 3.3 Poor Talk 3.3.1 Definition of Peer Talk 3.3.2 Peer Talk as a Type of Spoken Interaction 3.3.3 Research Revealing the Features of Peer Talk 3.4 The Conceptual Framework of the Current Study 3.4.1 Components of the Conceptual Framework 3.4.2 Relatio among These Components 3.5 SummaryCHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY 4.1 Introduction 4.2 A Case Study 4.3 Selection of the Setting and the Participants 4.3.1 The Sampling 4.3.2 The Setting 4.3.3 The Participants 4.4 Data Collection and Data Analysis 4.4.1 Data Collection 4.4.2 Data Analysis 4.5 Trustworthiness 4.5.1 Thick Description 4.5.2 Member Checking 4.5.3 Peer Debriefing 4.5.4 Self Reflexivity 4.5.5 Ethical Concer 4.6 SummaryCHAPTER FIVE CONTEXT AND PARTICIPANTS 5.1 ELT in China 5.2 The School Context 5.2.1 The School 5.2.2 The Features of the School Context 5.2.3 The Moving of the English Immeion Teache' Office 5.3 The Participants 5.3.1 The Teacher Participant Ouya 5.3.2 Teacher Ouya's Challenges 5.3.3 Teacher Ouya's Practice of English Immeion 5.3.4 The Student Participants 5.3.5 The Students' Attitudes towards English and the English Teacher 5.3.6 The Teacher-student Relatiohip 5.4 Summary 5.5 Preview of the Data ChapteCHAPTER SIX ACTIVITY TYPE AND PEER TALK 6.1 Activity and Activity Types 6.2 Categorization of the Student Activities 6.3 Variatio of the Non-communicative Activities 6.3.1 Variatio of RP and Peer TaLk 6.3.2 Variatio of QA and Peer TaLk 6.3.3 Variatio of Conveation and Peer TaLk 6.4 SummaryCHAPTER SEVEN THE NATURE OF ACTMTY AND STUDENT AGENCY 7.1 The Dynamic and Situated Nature of Activity and Agency 7.2 Different Activities Emerging from the Same Task 7.2.1 The Teacher-assigned Task 7.2.2 Different Activities Conducted by the Students 7.2.3 Comparison of the Three Groups of Students within the Activity System 7.3 Different Roles Emerging in the Same Activity 7.3.1 Acting as a Tutor, a Learner, a Proposer, and a Defender 7.3.2 Dynamic Role Relatio of Peer Interlocuto in the Activity 7.4 Learning Opportunities in Side-task/Off-task Activities . 7.4.1 Liuliu and Changqing's Side-task Even Off-task Talk for Learning 7.4.2 Liuliu and Changqing's Off-task Small TaLk for Fun 7.5 SummaryCHAPTER EIGHT FORMS OF MEDIATION 8.1 Mediation and Mediational Mea 8.2 Categorization of the Mediational Mea in the Current Study 8.3 Multidimeional Mediatio in the Current Study 8.3.1 Language Play as Mediation 8.3.2 Peer Assistance as Mediation 8.3.3 The Use of L1 and Code-switching as Mediation 8.3.4 Task as Mediation 8.3.5 Activity Type as Mediation 8.3.6 Subject Contents as Mediation 8.4 Cotraints of Mediational Mea 8.5 SummaryCHAPTER NINE DISCUSSION 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Main Findings of the Current Study 9.2.1 Findings on the School Context 9.2.2 Findings of the Mediatio of Student Activities in Peer Talk 9.3 Undetanding the Mediatio of Activities in Peer Talk. 9.3.1 Reflecting on the Interrelatiohips between Activity Type and Peer Talk 9.3.2 Reflecting on the Multidimeional Nature of Mediatio. 9.3.3 Reflecting on the Students' Agency in the Activities 9.3.4 Reflecting on the Teacher's Role in the Activities 9.4 Undetanding the English Immeion in the School Context 9.4.1 Redefining the Context: A Very Partial English Immeion. 9.4.2 Reflecting on the Emerging Issues in This English Immeion Context 9.5 Conceptual Framework Revisited 9.6 SummaryCHAPTER TEN CONCLUSION 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Summary of the Study 10.2.1 Summary of the Aim and the Methodology 10.2.2 Summary of the Findings 10.2.3 Conclusio 10.3 Contributio of the Study 10.4 Implicatio of the Study 10.4.1 Theoretical Implicatio 10.4.2 Practical Implicatio 10.5 Limitatio of the Study and Directio for Future ResearchREFERENCESAPPENDIX