ELT

The dynamic interplay between TTT and STT

inside the Teaching-Learning Process

Name: Gonzalo Richard Chong Pascual

ELT Candidate Code: 2005035462
Centre Code: PE504
Date: 23/07/19

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With the rise of the communicative approach, the dominance of teacher talking time

(TTT) was questioned. As communication became the main goal of language, methods

and procedures started to focus on strengthen the students talking time (STT) insofar it

created opportunities to play and acquire the target language in a “natural” way. But ¿in

what extent did this become a convinient shift for the teaching-learning process (TLP)?

Jim Srievener (2011) defended lowering the amount of TTT claiming that “language

learners seem to need a number of things beyond simply listening to explanations” (P.

23). Following that direction, most of the reasons given by this approach have tried to

prevent TTT from: limiting the space for the organic unfolding of STT, generating

boredom and monotony in class, commiting redundancy by giving information that

students can find by themselves and, in consequence, limiting the agency of learners.

However, the current climate of eclecticism in pedagogy has prompted a nuanced

understanding of TTT inside a post-communicative approach that “allows a much larger

role for procedures such as explicit teaching of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and

spelling, included form-focused (but usually meaningful) exercises” (Ur, 2012, P. 8-9).

So, there is a vital utility in TTT because it can lead to: the personalization of content

taking on consideration the specific context of learners, students actively debating or

questioning the ideas exposed in the lessons, and a more accurate simulation of natural

conversation in STT initiated by teachers with techniques as anecdotes and storytelling.

In conclusion, lowering TTT has been beneficial for TLP, but ironically, its extreme

minimization can be damaging for its main pedagogical purposes. As authors like Jeremy

Harmer (2007) have referred, as long as teachers continue to be the best source of

comprehensible input, they will need to foster a dynamic interplay between STT and TTT

in class; aspect that can be achieved by extending the improvement criteria from a talking

time length framework to the idea of “teacher talking quality” (TTQ).

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Bibliography

1. Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth

Edition), Pearson Education Limited.

2. Scrivener, Jim. (2011). Learning Teaching (Third Edition), Macmillan.

3. Ur, Penny. (2012). A course in English Language Teaching, Cambridge

University Press

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“There are, however, good reasons why some teacher talking time is a good thing.

Teachers are the best source of COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT (language that students

more or less understand the meaning of, even though is their above their own speaking

or writing level.” (Harmer, 2018, 152)

“As a result, it may be a good idea to consider not just how much the teacher talks, but

also teacher talking quality (TTQ). It is the quality of what we say that really counts.”

(Harmer, 2007, P. 118)

“Language learners seem to need a number of things beyond simply listening to

explanations. Amongst other things, they need to gain exposure to comprehensible

samples of language (not just the teacher’s monologues) and they need chances to

play with and to communicate with the language themselves in relatively safe ways.”

(Scrivener, 2011, P. 23)

“An essential lesson that every new teacher needs to learn is that ‘talking at’ learners

does not necessarily mean that learning is taking place; in many cases, TTT (Teacher

Talking Time) is actually time when the learners are not doing very much and are not

very involved.” (Scrivener, 2011, P. 59)

“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. (…) There are advantages

and disadvantages to TTT. It is not easy to reduce TTT when talking to the students is

a natural thing to do and when there is inevitably a theatrical side to language teaching.

In certain cultures, there is also a tradition of ‘chalk and talk’ which influences the

expectations and behaviour of both teachers and students. However, bearing in mind

the nature of the communicative classroom, teachers should perhaps be aware of the

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quality of their TTT and how it is used rather than trying to reduce it to a bare minimum.

” (Darn, 2019)

Bibliografía

Darn, S. (16 de 07 de 2019). Teaching English. Obtenido de 
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/teacher‐talking‐time 

Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition). Harlow: Pearson 
Education Limited. 

Harmer, J. (2018). Essential Teacher Knowledge. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. 

Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning Teaching (Third Edition). Oxford: Macmillan. 

Ur, P. (2012). A course in English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

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