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concise oxford companion to the english language

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TEACHER TALK - Dictionary definition of TEACHER TALK | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary

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Definition of TEACHER TALK - Our online dictionary has TEACHER TALK information from Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language dictionary. Encyclopedia.com: English, psychology and medical dictionaries

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Classroom Discourse: Student Talk and Teacher Talk

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Strategies Importance of Oral language development in the ESL/ELL classroom Culture of Classroom Discourse Classroom Discourse: Student Talk and Teacher Talk Strongest emphasis in ELD: Talk Students should be encouraged to talk Interactions between students encourages academic language Practice makes perfect Classrooms with strong discourse Oral language valued as much as literacy Relationships between talking, reading, writing clearly articulated.

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Developing teacher talk

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There is an unhealthy noise that reverberates through our profession. And it sounds something like this: "Teacher talk is bad and must be avoided." In this practical presentation, I will argue that rather than being discouraged, teacher talk should be developed. I will suggest that one way to do this is by embracing teacher-led storytelling in the classroom.

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"Developing Teacher Talk" is the title of a presentation that I gave at IATEFL 2017 in Glasgow earlier this month.
You can watch the session here.
After the session, I became aware of a bit of confusion that I may have caused. One teacher that I spoke with thought that I was encouraging teachers to talk as much as possible in class. I certainly wasn't!

Anyway, in order to clarify things a little bit, here are 8 thoughts about teacher talk:
1. Teacher talk has to be defined
On many courses, teacher talk is seen in terms of quantity. It is often referred to as TTT (Teacher Talking Time). Perhaps this assumes that we are dealing with blocks of teacher talk - measurable monologues perhaps?

But good teacher talk involves one voice and two ears. It can and should be interactive. When we speak about teacher talk, we can be referring to any / all of the following:

Bringing our own personalities into the group

Asking questions and responding to answer

Giving instructions

Giving explanations

Making conversation with students

Using our own stories as texts for language input / language study

Using our own stories to get students speaking and writing

Creating learning affordances, recognizing them, and working with them effectively

Teaching!

2. Teacher talk has an image problem
Teacher talk is often considered to be an inherently bad thing. The idea of it seems to connect instantly with images of teacher-centredness.

This is a problem because no one has a very good definition of what teacher-centredness is. It is the perfect example of a vague term which is open to personal interpretation.

As my friend and mentor Rod Bolitho taught me, it is more important to consider what is learning centered. In other words, if you can justify it pedagogically, then what's the problem?
3. Teacher Talk is inevitable, expected and 100% essential
We all have to speak in the classroom. So doesn't it make sense to develop and improve our teacher talk rather than feel bad or guilty about it?
4. Teacher talk techniques
In order to develop our teacher talk, there are many skills, techniques, and classroom activities that we can make use of. These include:

Grading your language

Making use of space (also called silence)

Making use of gesture to reinforce meaning

Reading a text aloud (well)

Using dictation

Using your voice sparingly

Note that my book Videotelling includes a description of about 20 such techniques. In the book, these are referred to as "Storytelling Techniques".
5. It's not just about comprehension
When considering the function of teacher talk, we should remember that the teacher's voice is an incredibly important source of language input for language learners - perhaps the most important source of all.

Every time you open your mouth, you provide your students with an opportunity to take away a new piece of language or to consolidate something that they are already in the process of learning.

Imagine, for example, that you have introduced your students to the phrasal verb 'to find out'. In order to make it more memorable, why not try to use this phrase yourself as many times as possible throughout the lesson.

" So, the answer to number 8. Let's find out what Juan thinks ... "
6. The TTT mantra should be given out with a postscript
We all do it. From time to time, each of us is guilty of talking too much in the classroom. And this can especially be true for trainee teachers.

The TTT mantra ("Always keep your teacher talking time to a minimum") can serve as a practical rule of thumb in some cases. But it should be given out with the following post script:
Teacher talk is not actually bad. But it is a good skill to be able to use it sparingly. When you finish your teacher training course, you will have years to work on your classroom communicative skills and hone the effectiveness of your voice. 7. Teaching a language is reassuringly difficult
Somewhere along the way, many of us were led to believe that teaching English is easy. Many of us were trained to be technicians who distribute texts, press play buttons, or ask students to open their books at page ...

In this way, we were led to believe that the materials - rather than the teacher - should do the work.

Teaching English is actually very difficult. It takes years to become a good classroom communicator; to develop an awareness of what works and what doesn't; to be able to recognize learning opportunities and work with them.

All of this involves developing teacher talk.
8. Storytelling is an excellent way of developing teacher talk
Storytelling is not for everyone. I know plenty of teachers who do not feel comfortable with it. However, for those of us who do enjoy telling a story, it can be a great way to develop our classroom communicative skills. This is what my book Videotelling is all about.

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Developing Teacher Talk (handout) | Videotelling

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"Developing Teacher Talk" is the title of a presentation that I gave at IATEFL 2017 in Glasgow earlier this month. You can watch the session here. After the session, I became aware of a bit of confusion that I may have caused.

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How to avoid talking too much when teaching English

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Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics consists of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, designed for those entering postgraduate studies and language professionals returning to academic study.

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classroom language (handbooks for the english classroom)

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education / teaching methods & materials / general

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foreign language study / english as a second language

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Classroom Language (Handbooks for the English classroom)

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Classroom Language (Handbooks for the English classroom) [Sagrario Salaberri] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. One of a series of practical guides for teachers which examine pedagogical areas at the centre of ELT debate. Teachers are provided with ideas designed to help them develop their own material and tailor it to their individual needs.

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The development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) brought with it a methodology which emphasised communication in the classroom, pair and group activities and student involvement in the learning process. A consequence of this was the belief that the teacher's presence in the classroom should be reduced. Why reduce TTT?

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by David Barrs ·

Teacher Trainer - Australian TESOL Training Centre (ATTC)

How much do you talk in class as the teacher or tutor? What is the ratio of teacher talk to student talk? Are these questions even important to ask?

Our teacher talk may tell us something of our beliefs about teaching and learning. Is the learner seen as an 'empty vessel' to be filled with knowledge, for example? In that model of teaching and learning, teacher talk time is likely to be high, with the consequence that students may disengage from learning. Reducing teacher talk is not just about talking less, but exploring how to engage learners through student-centred tasks and more co-operative models of learning.

Teacher trainer David Barrs summarises some key points about teacher talk in this quick chat:

Sounds like something you need to know more about? Keep an eye out for David's webinar which explores these ideas with you, including some interactive tasks to prompt your own thinking about teacher talk. You can also connect with David on Yammer or via David.Barrs@navitas.com.

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Tackling teacher talk time - Learning and Teaching at Navitas

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by David Barrs · Teacher Trainer - Australian TESOL Training Centre (ATTC) How much do you talk in class as the teacher or tutor? What is the ratio of teacher talk to student talk? Are these questions even important to ask? Our teacher talk may tell us something of our beliefs about teaching and learning.

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Our teacher talk may tell us something of our beliefs about teaching and learning. Is the learner seen as an 'empty vessel' to be filled with knowledge, for example? In that model of teaching and learning, teacher talk time is likely to be high, with the consequence that students may disengage from learning.

Students' expectations and beliefs about learning can also make it easy for teachers to fall into the trap of talking too much. Believing that learning entails listening to the teacher in order to absorb knowledge or deference towards a teachers' authority can predispose students to a passive approach to learning.

To kick off a recent presentation on this topic, I asked my audience to read a statement. Think about whether you agree or disagree.

Statement 1: "Teacher talk is essential for explanations of tasks/content."

After a few moments, I asked people to share their thoughts. There were a range of responses and the conclusion we came to was that some teacher talk was unnecessary, but other forms of teacher talk were actually necessary, and that knowing the difference was important.

From Unaware Teacher Talk to Aware and Purposeful

Unaware teacher talk is talk that has not been considered or consciously designed. At such times, learners are likely to disengage and become bored, pulling out their smartphones or gazing out the window.

On the flip side, teacher talk can be effective if it is done with both awareness and purpose, especially when it comes to 'scaffolding' to foster the learner. So the goalposts for reducing talk time are not just around talking less but exploring how to engage learners. In the infographic below there are a number of strategies outlined that you may be able to adopt in your classroom, from focusing on the scaffolding that helps students reach beyond what they already know, to providing good instruction, student-centred tasks and more cooperative models of learning.

Planning for Purposeful Student Talk

We need language to process information. While students move towards realising their own potential with their teacher's guidance, they also need to speak!

The world in language is half someone else's. It becomes one's own when the speaker populates it with his own intentions, his own accent, when he appropriates the word, adapting it to his own semantic and expressive intention.
- Bakhtin (1981)

How do we get purposeful student talk?

If you are interested in learning more about interaction patterns, including what interactions are encouraged by different designs and when you might try them, you can read about them in:

Scrivener, J. (2011) Learning teaching, Third edition, Macmillan, Oxford, UK.

Scrivener, J. (2012) Classroom management techniques, CUP, Cambridge, UK.

References and suggested readings:

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Rothenburg, C. (2008) Content-area conversations: how to plan discussion based lessons, ASCD.

Lee, J. (2000) Tasks and Communicating in Language Classrooms, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Van Lier, L. (2001) Constraints and resources in classroom talk: issues of equality and symmetry, in Candlin, C. & Mercer, N. (eds), English language teaching in its social context, Routledge, London & New York.

Vygotsky's social learning theory: https://learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html

For structuring your task explanation, the IDIOM acronym is handy. It was mentioned during my presentation by a colleague, Clare McGrath who also shared a resource on IDIOM in Yammer. Here's the summary:

I - Introduction. Provide context, aim, links to previous and following stages, and tell the students what the task is and how they will do it. Signal to the students if you're going to do an example for them.

D - Demonstrate. Walk the students through any examples given, or do an example with them (not for them) or have two students do an example for the others. You may need to give out materials here to all or some students or show the task on the screen.

I - Interaction. Make it clear if the task is to be done alone, or in pairs, or in groups, or in teams; make it clear who is working with whom.

O - Other. Provide that extra detail. For example, set the time limit.

M - Materials. Give out the materials or ask students to access them. Say 'Start' or something similar.

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Tackling teacher talk time [Infographic] - Learning and Teaching at Navitas

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Our teacher talk may tell us something of our beliefs about teaching and learning. Is the learner seen as an 'empty vessel' to be filled with knowledge, for example? In that model of teaching and learning, teacher talk time is likely to be high, with the consequence that students may disengage from learning.