[Dave-B]

Hi all,

I am compiling a handout for my teachers on how to reduce teacher talk time.

Surprisingly, there is not a lot out there on the net.

I have some ideas, but would love to hear what everyone thinks are the best strategies to reduce TTT.

[bread_baker]

I'm sure you have thought of these, but here goes.
The more the students talk in English, the less the teacher talks. That's one good reason for using speaking activities. I have had a lot of success with small group discussions, but only if the students are strong intermediate, or advanced.

[Dave-B]

Well, I did the seminar today, and I came up with some short points to reduce teacher talk time.

I posted them here:

How to Reduce Teacher Talk Time

[B52H]

One piece of advise I've always given in feedback sessions where the teacher had a high TT, was to change the task. Put the information seeking/ explanation giving to the students. Make it a task, not something you have to explain.

[Dave-B]

B52H,

That seems interesting, but I am not too sure what you mean. Could you elaborate?

[B52H]

The idea of a conversation class is to have your students converse, correct? So if the teacher spend talking too long, then that's time wasted on your students part. This becomes important if they've paid to come there to practise.

Bottom line, design tasks that revolve around the students, spend only the minimal amount of time setting up the task, and then let them have at it. Feeback to task, and then to error. Done. Next task.

If the task involved a high TT, then you need to re-formulate the task to involve the student more.