Teacher Talk Time Research Articles

LECTURERS’ AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS PAIR WORK AND GROUP WORK ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING LESSONS AT THE ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES DEPARTMENT, HANOI UNIVERSITY

Pair work and group work are considered useful in improving speaking skills. This study aims to examine the opinions of 148 students and 33 lecturers at the English for Specific Purposes Department, Hanoi University in using pair work and group work activities in speaking lessons. A combination of questionnaires and a semi-constructed interview was administered to discover theadvantages of pair work and group work and challenges faced by students and lecturers in speaking classes. The findings revealed that pair work and group work offered many benefits to students including learning from their peers, expressing themselves more often, becoming more confident, and improving their teamwork skills. Those activities also reduced teacher talking time as students had more time to speak. However, difficulties such as mixed-level classes, shortage of vocabulary and grammatical structures, lack of confidence, and students’ passive learning styles prevented them from participating in pair work and group work activities. Students, thus, were recommended to strengthen their English vocabulary and structures by actively participating in out-of-class activities. Instructors should also carefully prepare appropriate content and give more explicit instructions.

TEACHER TALK IN EFL SPEAKING LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LEARNER INVOLEMENT: A CASE STUDY AT A FOREIGN ENGLISH CENTER IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM

In English teaching classrooms, teacher talk plays as a communicative tool to help language learners to communicate effectively. Studies (Walsh, 2002; Xiao Yan, 2006; Cullen, 1998) have been carried out to investigate the essential role of teacher talk. This paper focuses on the purpose, frequency, and teacher talking time in speaking English language lessons. This study aimed at investigating features of teacher talk constructing and obstructing learner speaking involvement. The results show that teacher talk plays as an important role in language teaching including giving instruction and classroom management, however, the use of language in both L1 and L2 should be taken into consideration in order to maximize student learning involvement.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0025/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Teachers Talking About Teacher Talk

Teachers whose lessons are based on communicative language teaching (CLT) (Richards & McCarthy, 2006) or similar approaches are often discouraged from engaging in too much teacher talking time (TTT) for the fear that otherwise, the result might be a lecture. Nevertheless, some of them may not be aware of what or how to critically cope with that. For example, a simple internet search reveals many articles offering teachers exactly this advice, sometimes with specific percentages about the proportion of lesson time that should be taken up with teacher talk. CLT and Task-based Learning (TBL) (Nunan, 2004) are two methodologies that generally regard TTT as something to be kept to a minimum. The first one has strong leanings towards centering students and many activities using that methodology promote student-student interaction. Likewise, the latter heavily focuses on the interaction between students. In these methodologies, the amount of TTT might equate to a lack of learning opportunities for learners; hence lessons may be regarded as less effective if TTT is deemed high (Paul, 2003:76 (Esfandiari & Knight, 2013:20-21). However, limiting teacher talk runs the risk of 'underestimat[ing] the value of the teacher as both a source of input and an interactional pattern' (Thornbury, 2006:225). In light of these points, this paper proposes a reflective analysis concerning when and how to make sound use of TTT, as the sole reduction of TTT does not amount to an automatic improvement of productivity in a lesson (Hitotuzi, 2005:105) In this paper, we address a series of research questions regarding what teachers think about the amount of TTT they engage in. We draw on qualitative data from an online survey and the transcripts of follow-up interviews of survey participants who consented to a short, semi-structured interview with one of the researchers. In both the survey and the interviews, our main interest is how the participants themselves view the amount of time they spend talking in lessons. We ask them how much they believe their teachers talk during their lessons and whether they are happy with that amount. In addition, we are interested in whether specific lesson stages influence the amount of importance TTT has for the practitioner-participants. We also explore what might have contributed to the formation of the participant's views, including initial teacher education or continuing professional development activities.

In Pursuit of an Optimal Model of Teacher Talk

The increasing interest in optimal teaching and learning frames after Coronavirus lockdown (Nunes, 2021; UNICEF, 2020; Coman, Tiru, Mesesan Schmitz, Stanciu & Bularca, 2020) identified new roles allocated to teachers and learners and revived the age-long debate between didactics and dialogics in evaluating teacher talk (Gemertz, 2020; Coman, Tiru, Mesesan Schmitz, Stanciu & Bularca, 2020). Gewertz (2020), Davis (2011) and Zhou & Zhou (2002) interrogate teacher talk time (TTT) and its dominance of classroom talk. The study traces the didactic and dialogic models and addresses their main characteristics and ideals through a quasi-experiment in an attempt to put forth a tangible teacher talk model. Thirty-two participants working in the field of education took part in a quasi-experiment then completed a survey questionnaire based on the quasi-experiment, followed by small group discussions, to identify the componential values, objectives, characteristics of teacher talk and ways of maximizing participants’ talk time. The replies identified the epistemological nature of teacher talk makes it a necessary component in any model of teaching be it didactic or dialogic. Furthermore, the study proposed that teacher talk time (TTT) and student talk time (STT) should not be perceived as fixed notions but rather proportional entities that vary according to the estimated knowledge thresholds of the learners.

Self-Knowledge and Learner Engagement in Hybrid Classrooms

It has been reported that 70% of classroom talk is taken up by Teacher Talk Time (TTT) (see Davies, 2011), with little space left for Student Talk Time (STT), which leads to learner disengagement in hybrid classrooms. In search of an optimal teacher talk model conducive to learners' self-knowledge and engagement, this interdisciplinary research tested the educator-guided use of assessment tools (e.g., MBTI, SWOT, Johari's Window) in learners' self-assessments, peer group assessments, and classroom interactions. Drawing upon psychological, social, and organisational learning models, this research integrated learning models into a standard 45-minute teaching experiment participated by twenty-two consented first-year undergraduates (N = 22) enrolled in the Bachelor of Translation and Interpreting programme at a regional university in North East China. Results from surveys support that the increased self-knowledge has pedagogical implications for educators to adopt personalised learning activities and create conscious discussion groups to engage diverse learners in hybrid classrooms.

Teacher Talk Time as a Means to Develop Learners Communicative Skills in an EFL Class

The English curriculum in the Democratic Republic of Congo forecasts for the teaching of English from the first year of secondary school. Most students who finish high school are unable to speak English correctly, even to engage in a ten-minute conversation with friends. My experience as an English teacher for several years in high school shows that there are many factors that hinder the learner to assimilate the English language: the lack of motivation on the part of pupils, lack of appropriate textbooks, inadequacy of the national curriculum, laziness and fear on the part of pupils, monopolization of speech by the teacher model and use of French to teach English. This teacher model leads to the teacher’s share of monopolizing speech during classroom instruction. In this study, I want to show that the Teacher Talk Time during the transmission of his lesson should decrease because this affects the learner time to develop communicative skills. The suggested model for teaching English as a second language provides 25% of the time for the teacher and 75% for the learner so that the teacher is the facilitator, coach, guide, moderator, a helper. English must be taught as a language but not as a subject.
 The difficulties that learners have to express themselves fluently in English come greatly due the teacher who does not give a lot of time to learners to practice the English language because he talks too much. Therefore, this work shows that ‘Teacher Talking too Much’ in the class does not give opportunities to the learner to develop oral skill and master English as a Foreign Language for our secondary schools in Bandundu town in particular and those of the Democratic Republic of Congo in general.

The increase of student talking time as a means to optimize speaking teaching

The paper deals with some issues concerning optimization of speaking teaching, namely the impact of Student Talking Time on students mastering of such reproductive skill as speaking. Though methodological literature does not define the exact amount of STT and Teacher Talking Time and the correlation between the two, it is noted that the relation depends to a great degree in the level of a foreign language learning. Thus on the initial level it is quite obvious that TTT accounts for a larger portion of a lesson, including teachers explanations, pronunciation drilling, correction of mistakes, introduction of new words and grammar structures. In a group with A1 students it would be reasonable that a ration between TTT and STT corresponds to 50-50 %. In groups of A2-B2 students the amount of TTT should be about 30% with STT aiming at 70%. In advanced level groups (C1-2) a teacher should strive to the ration of 10% to 90% respectively. In addition, the amount of TTT also depends on a task or assignment and a form of a lesson.
 Besides, another important factor, i.e. Student Waiting Time (SWT) should also be taken into consideration, by this we mean, the amount of time a student waits in a group for their turn to give an oral answer.
 The paper presents some findings of an experiment which was conducted among 2 groups of 12 students at Samara branch of Moscow City Pedagogical University. The experiment was aimed at distinguishing the correlation between STT and SWT depending on an activity done at a lesson. It was proved that when students were asked to answer one question each their TT accounted for 12 minutes with SWT totaling at 11 minutes. When the students worked in groups of 3 and discussed 4 questions the STT increased up to 36 minutes and STW amounted at 9 minutes. When the students worked in pairs and were asked to discuss 6 question their STT was 36 minutes with SWT only 6 minutes, which showed that this form of work was the optimal.
 The increase of STT and reduction of SWT stimulates the students rising their satisfaction from the lesson.

Ending Literacy Poverty: The Role of Early Childhood Educators and Caregivers in Developing Oral Language

Oral literacy development is the basis for other language skills, lifelong learning, and acquisition of indigenous knowledge. The oral literacy skills of language lay a solid foundation for other skills. This paper aims at exploring the teacher role of oral literacy facilitation in the early grades. The paper is a qualitative type. Thematic explanatory and descriptive approach were used. Population for the study was all primary schools in a deprived district of Volta Region in Ghana. Fifty early grade classrooms were purposively selected in four circuits in the district for data collection. Observation, interview, and focus group discussion were the data collection instruments. It was found that teacher talk time in lesson delivery is high as compared to learner talk time. Low usage of Teaching and Learning Resources (TLRs) in lessons was evident. Inadequate professional capacity of the use of TLRs is a factor that requires attention. It was found that many strategies are available for oral literacy development in the classroom. The paper concludes that, teachers do not purposefully teach oral literacy at the early grade levels. Consequently, learners acquire less vocabulary and comprehension skills. Learners struggle along the levels of education to acquire lexical competency in many fields. The paper suggests a review of the content of the Colleges of Education curriculum to include courses in oral literacy development. It also recommends a purposeful use of the Professional Learning Community of the Standard Based Curriculum to continuously equip teachers with knowledge and skills of classroom practices to develop oral literacy skills. The supervision unit of Ghana Education Service should be resourced to monitor and coach teachers to facilitate oral literacy in early grade classrooms. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to involve children in oral interactive activities at home.

The Influence of Interactive Classroom Management Strategies on Iraqi EFL Students’ Academic Performance at Secondary School

This study aims at identifying the strategies that increase interactive classroom management (henceforth ICL), including the students talking time instead of teacher talking time by reducing teacher centrality in the class and setting up students in organized place to share ideas and participate in class tasks. Also using technology strategy that provides diversity on the part of both the teacher and the student in accomplishing syllabus goals. The Teachers Classroom Management Proficiency Questionnaire (TCMPQ) was used to the sample that was randomly chosen in certian private schools in Misan, Iraq. Findings have shown that the main two hinders that mark fruitful classroom management are the students’ needs and characteristics and the students’ seating organization. For the popular class strategies, teachers claim they have to offer awareness for educational and teaching settings. Teachers believe that interactive classroom management is the process of creating and upholding a positive leaning atmosphere which can direct learners to flourish in classroom and their characters in class touches student’s educational achievement.

Is COVID-19 forcing ESL instructors to return to more traditional teaching in the second language acquisition methodology?

This paper is part of PhD research conducted by two experienced ESL instructors from the International University of Sarajevo. The aim was to see whether the instructors at the English Language School (ELS) at the International University of Sarajevo (IUS) were turning to some more traditional teaching methods and techniques due to the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency online instruction. Four experienced English Language School instructors were interviewed and special attention was paid to the following aspects of teaching: class activities, feedback, teacher talking time and student-instructor rapport. The results showed that despite being fully experienced with and knowledgeable about modern teaching methods and techniques, more traditional methods seemed to be preferred to modern teaching methods when it came to online instruction. However, to prove this even further, some large-scale and more empirical studies would have to be conducted in the future./ Keywords: in-person instruction, online instructions, modern methodology, traditional methodology, class activities, feedback, teacher talking time, student-instructor rapport

UNDERSTANDING TEACHER TALK AT ISLAMIC SECONDARY SCHOOL: A PILOT STUDY

This study explores the teacher talk in Islamic Secondary School during the English language classroom. This study follows a research paradigm associated with a naturalistic qualitative inquiry where the main focus is to understand the teacher talk's complexity. The study mainly employed audio recording for data analysis. There were two audio recording sessions in form four classes. The researcher selected two teachers for the audio recording. The findings shows teacher talk time had dominated most of the class time in which Teacher A had talked for 74% of the class time and Teacher B had talked for 68% of the class time.

Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in EFL Classroom: The Case of Saudi Setting

This study investigates the maximum output of minimizing teacher talk and activating classroom interactivity in teaching English as a foreign language in light of 21st-century skills. It focuses on the self-evaluation of teacher talk (SETT model) and classroom interactional competence (CIC) that guides the teachers to use interaction as a tool to give their learners enough learning opportunities. Teacher talking time is analyzed from a dualistic perspective, quantity and quality. The classroom interaction's analysis is based on the micro contexts and the pedagogic aspects. This research is conducted with a qualitative approach and content analysis method. The data source is the recording of ten English classes at the college of sciences and arts in Dhahran Aljanoub, King Khalid University (KKU). The study's findings have revealed that instructors dominate talking in English class and pose questions to students to minimise teacher talking time, and the most interactional features are based on displaying questions and teachers' domination of English classroom discourse.

An Analysis on Classroom Management Applied by the English Teachers

This research was aimed to find out the components of classroom management applied by the two English teachers of SMA Negeri 05 Kota Bengkulu and. This study used descriptive quantitative method. The data were collected by using the observation checklist and video recording and the data were analyzed by using four procedures by Nurjanah and Maemunah namely identifying and classifying the data, investigating the data and analyzing the data. The result of this research revealed that, there were 4 of 5 components applied by the teachers A in managing the class; 1) Physical presence, 2) Teacher’s voice, 3) Teacher talking time, and 4) Student’s grouping. Meanwhile, the student’s seating arrangement component did not apply by the teacher A. In addition, there were 3 of 5 components applied by the teacher B such as; 1) Physical presence, 2) Teacher’s voice, and 3) Teacher talking time. Meanwhile, student’s seating arrangement and student’s grouping did not apply by the teacher B. Therefore, it can be concluded that the classroom management applied by the English teachers of SMA Negeri 5 was less variative since the teachers did not apply all components on classroom management.

Humanizing Pedagogy: Minimizing Negative Teacher Talking Time on the Teaching of English Language as a Foreign Language

The study aims at studying minimizing negative teacher talking time as a tool of humanizing teaching English language as foreign language in Saudi Arabia context. The study accentuates the variety conceptual perspective of teaching talking time and its main causes. The study is based on quasi-experiment method and 50 students were divided into two groups; one group taught through minimizing teacher talking time and maximizing student teacher talking time interactively, whereas, the other group is taught deductively. The study found out that minimizing teacher talking time and maximizing student’s time talking time enhance humanization sense of learning English language among Saudi learners and it promotes interactive motivational sense among the learners. The experimental group students’ outcomes revealed positive gains through maximizing student talking time and positive interactive English practice in English classroom. This study is one of the forerunner studies which play a salient role in shed lighting on the importance of humanizing teaching English in Saudi Arabia context through minimizing teacher talking time. The study recommends that teaching English language should be based on learner centeredness relying on minimizing negative teacher talking time and maximizing student talking time through using pedagogic techniques and strategies. Keywords: Teacher talking time, negative teacher talking time, positive teacher talking time efficiency, humanization . DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/77-07 Publication date: March 31 st 2021

ESL/EFL online lesson development (based on Skyeng practices and techniques)

The article presents an attempt to infer the key stages of creating an effective online English lesson based on corporate teaching practices and techniques of Skyeng online school. There have been revealed some important aspects that are to be taken into consideration when working out an online lesson structure and content. Having analyzed various theoretical courses on communicative language teaching methods and having combined them with the incorporated Skyeng practice in teaching English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL), we have come up with a certain algorithm which we advise to apply in lesson modelling: focusing on achievement aims rather than procedure aims, choosing the correct lesson structure, evaluating the studying materials and content, formulating methodological sections to aid the teachers. There have been presented some language management techniques currently used in Skyeng lessons, such as the correct formulation of the instructions, balancing teacher talking time and student talking time and the technique of a guided discovery. The practical application of Blooms’ taxonomy is illustrated in the example of additional speaking tasks and their correct development. There have been described such notions as: achievement aims, materials’ evaluation, TTT and STT balance, guided discovery, lesson content units, Blooms’ taxonomy, lesson structure. The article contains practical examples of how these notions are realised in the lessons developed in Skyeng online school. Though all the examples are shown in the paradigm of an online lesson, the same algorithm presented in the article is highly recommended when developing offline lessons which are traditionally held in a classroom. Thus, there has been made an attempt to work out a single algorithm for modelling effective online and offline ESL/EFL lessons.

Students’ attention in class: patterns, perceptions of cause and a tool for measuring classroom quality of life

Constructs such as engagement and flow have been well developed and studied in education contexts. Sustained attention, a distinct but related concept, has been less studied, particularly in the language classroom and foreign language medium education. In a case study involving mixed methods, student attention was measured repeatedly during a university English for Academic Purposes course. The aim was to examine whether students exhibit patterns of attention in communicative language learning classes in a similar manner to lectures and to examine attention patterns based on interaction types (group work, individual work, full class). Repeated surveys were used to reveal what students perceived as detrimental to attention and the perceived value of exercise breaks. Results suggested significant changes in attention over time and between teacher talking time, group work and individual interaction types. The study design itself forms an effective tool to improve classroom life including teachers’ monitoring of class dynamics, and for students, as a means of self-reflection to increase learning performance.

Students’ attention in class: patterns, perceptions of cause and a tool for measuring classroom quality of life

Constructs such as engagement and FLOW have been well-developed and studied in education contexts. Sustained attention, a distinct but related concept, has been less studied, particularly in the language classroom and foreign language medium education. In a case study involving mixed methods, predominantly structured qualitative data, student attention was measured repeatedly during a university pre-sessional EAP course. The aim was to compare with previous research on the relationship between attention and time/stages of lessons and reveal any additional attention patterns based on interaction types (group work, individual work, full class). In addition, repeated surveys were used to reveal what students perceived as damaging to attention and also the perceived value of exercise breaks. Results suggested significance in attention changes over time and between teacher talking time, group work and individual interaction types. The study design itself forms a simple and effective tool to improve classroom life including teachers’ monitoring of class dynamics and for students, a means of self-reflection to increase learning performance.

The Effect of Teacher Talk Time (Ttt) Strategy on the Awareness of Semantic Topics

The Effect of Teacher Talk Time (Ttt) Strategy on the Awareness of Semantic Topics

The use of Classroom routines in memorization and further development of communicative competence

The paper deals with the issue of memorization and acquisition of a target language unit by performing multiple repetitions while avoiding dullness and boredom. The author highlights the considerable role of classroom routines in memorization of target language units and further strengthening of communicative competence. Classroom routines are regarded as a powerful resource to solve a significant teaching problem connected with performing multiple repetitions and at the same time avoiding monotony. This article aims to analyze the use of classroom daily routines in memorizing target language units and to offer a set of activities aimed at forming and developing such components of students’ communicative competence as grammatical competence (words and rules) and discourse one (cohesion and coherence). Various methods, strategies, techniques based on multiple repetitions of the same content are taken into consideration. Special attention is paid to drilling techniques. The peculiarities of meaningful repetition are revealed and as a result, the meaningful drilling technics are offered. Learners of foreign languages retain new language units much more successfully not by rote memorization but when they get frequent repetition of these language units, make meaningful connections to real life and when these connections are personalized. In real life, people are frequently forced to repeat the same many times while performing daily routines. Such kind of repetition is natural. In foreign language teaching performing daily routines acts like an artificial linguistic environment and can work as a kind of language immersion. The author offers some examples of activities aimed at forming, developing, and strengthening such components of students’ communicative competence as grammatical competence (words and rules) and discourse one (cohesion and coherence). They are described in the most frequently used formats. Classroom routines are certain to be a powerful resource to solve the problem connected with performing memorization and at the same time avoiding dullness and tedium. It is proved that well-organized daily classroom routines performing activities ensure substance memorization, not rote one. Moreover, properly organized daily classroom routines are supposed to reduce teacher talking time and consequently to increase student talking time.

TEACHER TALKING TIME VS. STUDENT TALKING TIME: MOVING FROM TEACHER-CENTERED CLASSROOM TO LEARNER-CENTERED CLASSROOM

Teacher talking time refers to the amount of class time the teacher spends speaking to the class, either as part of a lecture or in discussions. Particularly in ESL classes, more time needs to be given to students so they can speak more—foreign language learners improve more rapidly when they are able to practice what they’ve learned more often.Some EFL/ESL researchers say that students should speak for 70% of the lesson. Teachers should speak for 30% of the time. Of course, some lessons may require longer explanations on the part of the teacher. Or other lessons may only require a minimal amount of explanation, and 90% or more may be devoted to conversational activities. But this 70/30 figure works well as a goal in most classroom situations.
 The aim of the paper is to show whether this percentage is true and achievable and whether this percentage is applicable for both literature and linguistic content. The results will be achieved through a research conducted with the teachers of English in both elementary and high schools in Bitola, who will answer a series of questions regarding how much they talk in class and how much time they dedicate to Q&A sessions.