This article is the first of 3 from the blog ELT Notebook.

Please read and comment below. Go to the link above if you wish to see the other 3 parts of this article

At one time teacher talking time (TTT) was seen as being inevitably counterproductive and something to be limited as much as possible. Why? There are five main arguments against it :

• A large amount of TTT necessarily limits the amount of STT (student talking time). For example, in a 60 minute class, if the teacher is talking for a total of 45 minutes, that leaves only fifteen minutes left for the students. If there are ten in the class, they’ll get only 90 seconds each to speak. Many activities, however, do not need to be teacher led – pair work (PW) or group work (PW) can be used instead. A practice activity might be set up in T/class mode, demonstrated in open pairs (students doing the activity in front of the class), and done in closed pairs (all the students working at the same time).
• A large amount of TTT inevitably means long stretches of time in T/class mode. This is uninvolving for students and is likely to lead to a drop in concentration and in pace. The lesson becomes boring and students “switch off”. To prevent this, activities and interaction patterns (T/class,PW,GW, IW) need to be be varied. How much class time can usefully be spent in T/class mode will depend on factors such as the students, the time of day, and what is being taught, but a useful rule of thumb guide is to set an absolute maximum of 30% of any one lesson, and no more than 10 minutes at a stretch.
• TTT often means that the teacher is “telling” the students things that they could be working out for themselves – for instance grammar explanations and corrections. Apart from the fact that concentration may well wander half way through the explanation, monologue gives the teacher no real clue as to whether the students have understood. This can be avoided by using elicitation rather than explanation – the teacher asks pointer questions rather than simply telling, allowing the students to formulate the rules for themselves. If students are presented with clear examples and guiding questions, they often do not need to be “told”. Discovering grammar in this way is liable to mean deeper understanding and ultimately more successful learning. Organising the activity as pair work rather than T/class work also means that all the students have the chance to work on the new language, and not just the quicker ones who get the answer immediately and “tell” the others.
• The work done by researchers such as Coulthard and Brazil on discourse analysis made it clear that T/S discourse is always distorted by the role imbalance of teacher and student – the teacher is expected to take the lead in initiating the topic, allocating turns, evaluating comments etc, while the student merely responds. A typical piece of classroom discourse might go something like :
  T : Right. (indication of change of topic) Can you turn to page 99 and look at the picture (instructs) What sport is that? (initiates discourse topic) Paola? (allocates speaking turn)
  S : Tennis (responds)
  T : Yes, tennis. Good. (evaluates)
  If students are constantly kept in T/class mode or if the teacher participates in PW or GW, there is a very high probability that the discourse will follow this sort of pattern. But this, as researchers such as Crystal and Davy, and Brown and Yule have shown is very different from the structure of normal conversation, where participants have equal rights and need to be able to carry out all the different moves in the discourse. PW and GW without teacher intervention is therefore essential for developing the speaking skill.
• If the teacher is constantly dominant and controlling, student autonomy is minimised. Students take no responsibility for their own learning but learn what the teacher decides and when. Several methodologies of the last twenty five years or so (for example, CLL and Dogme, which I will discuss in more detail in future articles) have questioned whether this sort of “imposed syllabus” can produce results and have attempted to turn the situation on its head, giving learners full responsibility for the language produced and analysed in the classroom.

Is TTT always counterproductive however? In the second part of this article we’ll look at when it can be useful, and ways it can be used productively in the class.

Notes

1. For a more detailed analysis of classroom discourse, with references for the work of the researchers I have mentioned and many others, see this article by Moritoshi.

Should you wish to discuss this more why not first post below before talking to your colleagues.

As I see it, the technical and methodological aspects of class preparation and classroom management are very important. However, the affective aspects of the T-S relationship and the T’s conduct is crucial for a successful management of large groups. At least that’s what I’ve concluded from observing other teachers and after doing a lot of self evaluation.

What do you think of the topic? How difficult is it to you to deal with large groups? What tips can you share with other teachers to make this task easier?

You may also leave a comment at Marcelo’s site.

Marcelo Elias.

Please complete the survey from you pint of view as a teacher/student

Now write the comments that your students said after your interview with them. POST  IN THE SPACE BELOW

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This is a summary of the things we game up with which lead us to forming questions to ask students The main quotes form the posts/comments

“….when the teacher made my body move and my brain think in a meaningful way”

“Dynamics is movement and accepting change, new possibilities and horizons.”

“….sometimes by destabilizing the system we can make it evolve” “Balance is a sense of mental and emotional calm”

“Classes which have a variety of activity … which have a nice pace”

“Dynamic classes… is related to motivation both on the teacher and the student's …motivation is related to rapport”

“….this is a word (dynamism) in fashion…. people have been using it to mean different things.”

“Teachers must work on student’s perception of dynamism”

“REFELECT. Did they (students) find it dynamic?” (this means with the students)

“Dynamic lessons are a lot to do with how you know your students… to improve our lessons…. ,is through reflection and sharing”

Summary

From the comments it seems that we can split dynamism into to parts, both orientation and the teacher-student relationship. I feel though that the comments do not really separate these two points but are interrelated. They work together at the same time. One is part is intrinsically part of the other.

For me the comments mean in less teaching and instructing i.e. spoon feeding. Students are asked to find out language discuss it put their point of view and make their own decisions not just about the language but about the learning process. This clearly means less teacher centered classes and more learner centered classes. The balance here is important based on the comments here are more practical ideas in the classroom

• The level of discussion and conversation might be one way of looking at this as this is a constantly changing phenomenon where balance can be shifted at times between the different students in the room.

                                                                    “movement, accepting change”

• Classes which at some point have movement not just physical but mental is another way of looking at these comments. Students don’t have to stay in the same place all of the time they become to over familiar and even bored without even noticing it until some time later. By giving them chance to talk to a new person or sit in a new place can rectify this feeling from setting in.

                                                                                        “variety” “change”

• Discussion during debriefing and feedback time in the class. Teachers getting to know there students and students getting to know about their teacher, not just their name but much more. Being supportive almost as a friend by actively listening to what students have to say. This is probably about not just knowing who the students are themselves but about what they feel about the class and what they are learning. Teachers can find out the students preferences and learning styles and make attempts to be aware of these needs in planning the following classes.

                                                                  “rapport” …“get to know your students”

• Students would do more work than the student. Sometimes we relate this to STT v TTT but we probably must change this to SDT and TDT (students DOING Time v Teacher DOING Time). Doing referring to participation and performance “making my brain think different” Teachers could refrain from giving the answers to an exercise, ask others before responding put students in pairs/groups to collaborate more when carring out a simple activity.

                                                                    “make my brain work”… “rapport”

• Teachers need to set up the environment of the class for this to happen. It means having a different posture than standing up at the board telling students the rules and going through the course book at say, the language stage, doing the exercise as the book says. The class could have an activity for students to discover the rules, to see them first before moving on to checking their presumptions with the book.                                                                                             “teacher and student motivation”

• Reviewing the item/class in which students have participated and asking them how they found the activity/class and debriefing them on why you did it this way. Examples being, “I wanted you to think”, “I thought you this would be better if we discovered this before so you could come up with your own rules “, “I liked that class because you all worked so hard and..”

                                                                                                        “reflect”

I hope these help and allow you to think about if you are doing these items in the class. I’m sure they will help make students feel the dynamism you are investing in.

Reflect on which you are doing or could do, in your classes from now on.

Shaun ))

I was watching the TV one morning while sitting in my Doctor´s waiting room and I was listening to my favourite samba singer Beth Carvalho speaking and she was talking about how she likes to introduce new, up and coming composers to people she knows in the samba comunity.

The interviewer asked he why she did this.

She responded "because it make the things more dynamic". What did she mean?

This is a question that has not been defined well in ELT and this project we hope will do just this so we can be better teachers and of course be more DYNAMIC and be more DYNAMIC teachers.

Below are some definitions of what is dynamic taken from various sources

1.Cambridge online Dictionary.

This is a simple definition of dynamic/dynamism

2. a) Websters Online Dictionary One more definition to compare

b) Webster´s Online Thesaurus What is different with this information

3. A book review about Dymanic classroom for young children. Have alook at this link and see the main points the author uses to describe a dymanic classroom

4. Dynamic communites

This article talks about dynamic learning communites. have a look and see what you think can be applied to our work in the English language classroom.

5. Teaching Credibility

A link to the University of Oklahoma. Thi is an interesting article and it gives 3 areas of what makes up as they call it "credible teacher" . One of them is dynamism.

6. Lu Wang´s Dynamic classroom. This Law student had an article in the University of Pittsburgh´s Teaching Times, and this is what she says about how she sees her dynamic classroom .

There is lots of information on dynamism on your computer. Just go searching and you´ll find much more. Maybe you could post some of it here to enrich our work.

To post own your views on dynamic classes go to the next page. Put any reaseacrh you find here only

1. Set up a blog to store data

2. background reading on Dynamism and Dynamic classes to be posted on the blog for the group to read.

3. Teachers to state/post what they feelin is a dymanic class

4. Questions to be agreed before teachers interview students to here their views on what is a dynamic class

5. Interviews to be posted on the blog.
6. Results to be reviewed

7. Conclusion made as to what is a dynmic class based on all the informatio posted
8. Plans made by the group as to the course of action to be taken in the classroom.

9. Teachers to put into action their enlightened view on what is a dynamic class.

Here are two quotes that were used in the first meeting on 10th March 2006,about our project at Cultura Inglesa Asa Sul, Brasilia, Brazil.

“Research, usually informal, designed for direct application to behaviour or a situation, as researched by teachers in their classroom”

Supervising Teachers, Randal and Thornton, CUP, 2001

“Action Research is a fancy way of saying let´s study what is happening in our school and decide how to make it a beter place”

Emily Calhoun, 1994.