American English
Teach and learn
American English
In this Teaching Tip topic, Kevin will
examine three bad talking habits teachers
often exhibit and how to reduce teacher talk time.
Welcome, Kevin!
Hi, I'm Kevin! Today, I'm going to talk about reducing
teacher talk. Let's get started!
Today, we'll examine three bad habits many teachers
have when they talk with students.
Becoming aware will help you avoid them.
That's me in the picture, and here are three types
of unfortunate teacher talkers:
the pause eater, the self-answerer, and the over-explainer.
Let's look at the pause eater.
Listen to these words from Charles Dickens.
It was best of times, it was the worst of times.
Now, with a pause.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Did you notice the difference?
Pausing is a powerful tool when you speak.
Pausing allows students time to process what
you're saying. Pausing also allows you to look
around the room to see if students understand.
According to many teachers, explaining is an important
aspect of their jobs.
In situation two here, the teacher explains what's
happening at his home. His dog has been sick.
A student asks, "Is that present perfect in the sentence?"
And here's the teacher's response: a lengthy grammar explanation.
How can you modify your response to reduce teacher talk time?
Here's what I try to do: "Is that the present perfect?"
My response: "Yes, it is."
Why not explain more?
Well, here's my rationale. I try to answer only what the
student asks. I try not to assume that the student wants
more. The topic may be important to that student,
but not to the rest of the class. Answer short first,
and then make an assessment. Does the class seem
to want more information? See, the more we explain
the harder it is to reduce teacher talk time and
explaining well is really difficult.
I mean, could you explain when to use the prepositions
"in," "on," and "at" to show location?
Yeah, it's pretty difficult.
But, here is a graphic that does the explaining for you.
Instead of explaining, ask students to examine the
graphic and then create several sentences using
"in," "on," and "at," according to what they see.
Our third teacher talking type is the self-answerer.
Do you ever do this? The self-answerer is
worried about wasting time, so he or she
gives the answer after a second or two.
Perhaps, you might recognize this exchange
between a teacher and a student.
Teacher asks, "What's your favorite food, Lilia?"
Lilia: "I like, I like, teacher..."
"Ice cream? I bet you like ice cream or chocolate!"
"Yes."
This kind of self-answerer lowers the confidence
of a learner, and at the same time it teaches students
that they don't need to answer because the teacher will,
sooner or later, answer for them.
The pause eater, the over-explainer, and the self-answerer are just
three examples of teacher talk habits
that rob students of the time and confidence to speak
English.
To talk less as a teacher, be proactive.
Film, or make an audio recording, of your session.
You will learn a lot about the way you talk,
and how much you talk. Your speech will be more comprehensive when
more comprehensible when you do so. Like my pause?
I hope we increased awareness about some
of the unfortunate habits when we talk as teachers,
but the point is to examine what we say in the
classroom, and ask ourselves this: "Does what I'm
saying benefit the students?"
I hope you found these tips useful.
Thanks for joining me.
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