Teacher Talking Time (TTT)
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 377.
What percentage of TTT should there be in a lesson? Why?
What considerations might affect the amount of TTT?
What can teachers do to reduce TTT?
Reading. Below are a number of strategies that can be used to reduce TTT. Read and match strategies with their description.
Write down one advantage and one disadvantage of each strategy. Compare your answers with another trainee.
| a. Use pair or group work | 1. Is it realistic to expect every student to reply promptly and accurately? Of course not. Some students may be able to fire off a rapid response, but this is not always the case. Some students need time to understand and process what you've said/asked. Then, they need time to come up with the right response. So if you want to speak less and get them to speak more, you'll have to give them those precious seconds they need. If it's hard for you to wait, count. Five seconds. Or more if you can. It may be hard at first for you and the other students to take those few seconds of silence, but it'll be worth it. |
| b. Don't answer every single question yourself | 2. Have you ever stopped to think that when one student asks you a question, another student may know the answer? Try this technique: S1: Why is this answer wrong? T: Mmmm… (looks around the classroom or even directly at another student) S2: Because “beautiful” is a long adjective and so the comparative is “more beautiful”. And isn't it beautiful when your students can help each other, and you don't have to say a single word? |
| c. Give them time to answer | 3. Quite often we act out role plays with another student. But if you get students into pairs for the role plays and simply walk around to assist, you will speak less, and they will speak more. The same goes for group work, whether you have them do a writing task, like write a story together, or a speaking task, like a discussion. |
| d. Say only what is necessary | 4. If the instructions are in the coursebook or the worksheet, why must you read them out loud and explain them to the class? If they are pretty straightforward, have a student read them to the class and another explain/rephrase if someone hasn't understood. This is also a great way to keep eager beavers happy; they get to explain something that is very clear to them, and those who need a little extra help still get the assistance they need. |
| e. Have them read/explain instructions | 5. If you ask students yes/no questions, that's basically what you'll get – a yes or a no (and the occasional “maybe”). The more questions you ask with where, why, how often, when, etc…the more they'll have to speak. But just don't stop at one question: T: What kind of music do you listen to? S1: I listen to rock music. T: Why? S1: Because I like it. T: Where do you listen to it? S1: I listen to it everywhere: at home, on the bus, on my way to school… T: (asks S2) How about you, Tommy? And Tommy should have a pretty good idea of what he can say about his music preferences. |
| f. Ask open-ended instead of yes/no questions | 6. Don't echo back what students say. Don't blabber on and on about your weekend. Don't fill the silence with useless chatter. Of course, you can have relaxed conversations with students, but save those for either the very beginning or the end of class, or what's even better, the break. During class time, try to focus your efforts on getting them to speak. |
| g. Don't tell, elicit | 7. When we tell students the answer, they passively receive it. They ask, “What's this?”, and you say, “It's a stapler”. It's too easy for everyone, including you. If students don't remember a word, for example, try to elicit it from them and feel free to give them clues. S1: What's this? T: Oh! You mean this device we use to staple papers together? What's this called? S1: It's a stapler. Much too often we tell: Remember when we talked about the different types of weather? We have cloudy, sunny, etc… Don't tell them what they are if you've already seen it in class! Get them to say it! |
Listening.Watch the video.Analyze it. Did the teacher use any strategies to reduce teacher talking time? Did she make any mistakes? If yes, what are they?
n https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOEIwQfs0Zo
Possible instructions:
- Watch the video and list the strategies for reducing TTT that are mentioned.
- For each strategy, give an example of a situation where you might not want to follow this advice.
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