One of the principles that we have learned in our training is that Teacher Talking Time (TTT) must be kept to a minimum if we want to have a truly learner-centred lesson. However, we should admit that we break this rule from time to time, don’t we?
There is nothing to worry about, according to Penny Ur (2016). Our input will be important for learners because it exposes them to accurate and context-appropriate language use, which they may use later. However, we must bear in mind that our TTT should be useful, relevant, and ideally generate interaction. There is no place in our lessons for interactions such as:
T: What do you do in summer? (Five seconds of silence)
T: Well, I rent a house near the beach and every morning I get up at 6 to enjoy the sunrise and swim for a while… (Teacher continues talking for some five minutes)
The sudden transition to an online medium might have caused teachers to worry when there are prolonged ‘gaps’ in the interaction with learners, and their desire to keep everything under control might have prompted them to fill in these gaps with their own speech regardless of its relevance. Sometimes, their own lack of familiarity with the features of the live lesson platforms may cause them to talk non-stop because they are not confident enough to change the pattern. Whichever the case, we must remember that it’s our students who need to display their language skills, not us. Here are a few suggestions to consider if we want to maximise our students’ spoken production:
- Set up activities that require students to share information and make decisions/reach consensus, etc. In online lessons, make sure that the groups/breakout rooms are never left unattended for a long period of time.
- In group activities, assign representatives who will report on the outcome of the activities. Ask the groups if they agree with the accounts given by their representatives.
- If you would like to include your own input, make this part of the lesson active by giving options as to, for example, how your story continues. In online lessons, you can set up polls and ask individual students how they voted and why.
- Challenge your students to prevent ‘flat’ participation (making the least effort in answering or dealing with a point) by keeping increasingly longer turns: 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 1 minute…
As discussed, it is important to constantly keep in mind how often and how much our students interact and use the language in class.
Now it’s your turn
What strategies do you use to increase your students talking time in class?
