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teacher talk time and student talk time in fourth semester tourism students.
Marìa L. Dìaz N., Language Department, Cecyte III, 20 de Noviembre Av., Reg.203.
Contact: marialaudelina08@hotmail.com
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
In a foreign language class, the active use of the target language (hereafter denoted
and language learning, but at CECyTE Cancun III, the way time is utilized in the classrooms
for the teaching-learning of English occasionally affects the quality of the process. On one
hand, in the classroom the talking time of the teachers is extensive due to the need of
constant clarifications which may have a positive effect on the students´ learning or
opposed results on them since far from contributing to augment their time to practice L2,
On the other hand, one may think that it is compensated with the opportunities to
practice the verbal communication outside the classroom, but these are very limited for the
students, in spite of living in a city where tourism is the main economic activity since most
of them do not count on the means to get in touch with native people unless they are
attending their internship at the Hotel Zone of the city; also, the majority of them lack
initiative (or the means) to devote time to speak the foreign language with their classmates
Due to the facts already explained, the current paper is intended to briefly show
the author`s viewpoint about how the relation teacher talk and learner talk can become a
Technological High School Cecyte Cancun III, since the more teachers take their turn at
speaking (supposedly in order to encourage the students to do so), the students´ abilities
for oral communication can be affected as they do not make any effort for such purpose
and their learning of the Foreign Language (FL) does not progress.
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
As stated above, the aim of this study was to investigate the amount of teacher talk
time (TTT) and that of the student (Student Talk Time, hereafter STT) as well as up to what
extent the TTT is effective or not in some specific moments of a lesson if one considers that
quality.
But before continuing, it is necessary to state what TTT and STT refer to. Teacher
talk time (TTT) refers to how much the teacher talks during a given lesson and this may vary
according to the part of the lesson in which the teacher intervenes, for instance, it is
supposed that the teacher speaks more when he/she explains something. Notwithstanding,
a teacher may speak less than the pupils since they need more opportunities to practice
(…) since classroom time is so limited, the value of any activity is partially determined
relevant contributions creates a sense of tension for the teacher: How far should
one allow the students to determine the topics and the amount of time spent on
each?
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
Doubtlessly, from the authors words, it can be inferred how deciding upon time
devoted to the activities and how to use time can become an arduous task for the teacher
and even more if it is still hard for the students to achieve oral communication. It is one of
the reasons that keeps the teacher using a great amount of the classroom talking time.
In those cases, far from being a motivator of our students´ talk, most of us just limit
the students´ talking opportunities or if we let them talk, we are so attentive to their
mistakes that we become or act as judges of what they try to say or we just echo their
answers over and over; then, a reflection on the following questions should be made before
2-What are the most common topics for our talks? Do the learners really
It is also necessary to point out that the present study is a diary study since I
observed the interaction that takes place among my tourism fourth semester students and
I during a month in order to verify how the lesson time is used, i.e., who speaks the most
a language teacher or a language learner -but the central characteristic of the diary
studies is that they are introspective: The diarist studies his own teaching or
learning.
necessary or know when it is not. Beyond any doubts, there need be teacher talking time in
our classrooms and that can benefit our students when we give demonstrations, convey meaning
and tell anecdotes. Still, the point with uncooperative teacher talk is that it can outflow in many
When added up, these outflows can diminish the quality of the learning experience, giving
students less space to train the language in the classroom. And it is something that may happen to
both, the expert teacher or the novice. It can be said to be a tendency of language teachers, i.e.
most of us can get into the habit of abusing of talking too much in lessons, particularly in the
following ways:
c- Feeding back a message (rather than the words that were wrongly used)
d- Giving extra time for the students to think over and answer the questions.
in which my students have a greater talking time, as a general guideline for all the activities, I have
been seeking to attain a 15-35% teacher talk time in spite of the language level and knowledge of
the pupils. Nevertheless, there are some factors that still affect the accomplishment of
implementing this task. That is why for the present study I chose a class in where I noticed I always
The students in this class are peculiarly different from others due to the combination of their
ages, levels and personalities. They are fourth semester tourism students and most of them come
from dysfunctional families with lots of problems and their studies are not a priority for their
parents; they have a medium to low economic status which does not let them obtain the necessary
technological resources for practicing the language out of the classroom (computers, internet, or a
Cd player). All this together does not arise the students´ interest toward learning the target
language.
Thus, the students from this class are not highly excited toward English so that on numerous
occasions during their lesson time, I have to stop classroom activities to instruct them to behave
themselves or to speak using L2. Consequently, I frequently use an estimate of 35-65% of teacher
Criteria % of TTT
guideline in class.
class.
Now, it is important to point out that student talk time should be around 80% or even a little
more if possible during the course of the lesson because it will be a good proof of their interest in
learning the language and the role of the teacher should be that of promoting qualitative thought
on them; however, we constantly use time for activities such as choral drills or other exercises that
though necessary for learning and strengthening language skills, may provoke a switch off the
students´ brains.
The following transcript is an example of my interaction with some fourth semester tourism
students, group D who were taken as sample for the current work.
Classroom: 102
Level: low
Objective: Use the vocabulary learnt to refer to cities in Europe, their people and customs.
Lesson 4.
It is worth to mention that a great number of these students come to school by walking a
long distance under the sun or rain and as noticed from the data above, English lessons are at 2
o´clock; consequently, I have to take several minutes of the time encouraging them to speak as they
Transcript:
1-) T1 Great! You mentioned your favorite cities in Mexico. Now, what famous cities around
3-) T1 Uh, ok, William. But listen. There are cities and countries, right? Mexico is a country
and Cancun is a city in Mexico; the United States is a country and New York is a city.
5-) T1 Good! Right! Manchester. It´s Manchester. Let´s see any other? Maybe the capital,
William?
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
7-) T1 I think you are right. It is London, but what do you know about it? Some places in
8-) M1 Uh, umm… the watch the Big (Ben) is very tall.
9-) T1 Oh, ok. Oh! Look at my hand (LH), William. I am wearing a watch. This is my watch,
right? And in London, we have a very famous clock, ok? The Big Ben is a very famous clock. Ok,
William, now, referring to customs, um, what do you think people from London eat, drink or do?
11-) T1 ((laugh)) Oh, tacos? Ok, William. Well, Mexican tacos are very famous all over, but
Londoners like to eat (look at this, William, look at this picture). They like to eat this.
13-) T1 Yes. That´s right. They like fish and chips. So that they eat fish and chips. Great,
William! But they don´t like junk food very much. What about you, Stephanie? Do you like junk food?
15-) T1 Oh, Stephanie, you like hamburgers and fries, right? You like hamburgers and fries.
16-) F1 No, teacher. And you, teacher? Do you like junk (food)?
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
17-) T1 Junk food. Uh, well, I also like hamburgers and fries, but I prefer spaghetti ((laugh))
19-) T1 So that tomorrow you are… you will cook spaghetti in the laboratory. Great,
Stephanie! Spaghetti! Wow! Yummy! Listen, do you know a country in Europe where spaghetti is
21-) T1 Great! Yes! Very good, Stephanie. Thank you. Thank you, William. Thank you (RH)
very much. Ok, now, let´s continue. Let´s see you, Carlos… let´s talk about Italy now. Carlos, are you
ready? Let´s see, umm… Carlos, are you listening? Are you paying attention? Thank you. Listen…
The transcription conventions used in the above transcript are the following:
(): parentheses indicate that the word/phrase was not clearly understood.
T: teacher is talking.
… : pauses or interruption.
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
A categorization of some utterance types that represent the TTT and STT is shown in tables
Praise Great!
right?
is a city.
question)
Repetition of teacher´s question F1 And you, teacher? Do you like junk (food)?
The above tables show samples of the interaction between the teacher and two of the
students while answering some questions. Taking into consideration the characteristics of the
group, (especially of the two students in the sample who are very shy), the teacher talk time can be
considered as necessary, for instance, when clarification about the use of the words clock/watch
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
was required; something similar happens when I exemplified the difference between cities and
countries as the main objective of the lesson is to use vocabulary related to famous cities, their
people, customs, and habits and if the students continued wrongly using the term country instead
of city, then it would be hard for them to identify one or the other in further situations.
Also, in terms of interaction, there were some differences between my interaction with the
male student and the female one. When the male student perceived that he was being corrected,
he immediately acted as if he already knew the difference between the words country and city
letting signals of ego arise, whereas the female student reacted in a more understandable and
sympathetic way when I let her see that the correct way was “I like hamburgers and fries” instead
of “I am hamburgers and fries”; it is an example of how gender may influence the way interaction
can go on.
Then, it can be affirmed that the main difference in the interaction between the male
student and I and between the female student and I is that the interaction in the second case was
Conclusions:
As presented in the transcript, there was some extended wait-time, i.e., some time given to
the students for thinking about what they were going to respond. It was given in a spontaneous way
and it was necessary for the interaction between the student and the teacher since this is a the way
of gaining the students´ confidence as their talking and participation as well as the acquisition and
learning of the linguistic elements are among the main objectives of the teaching-learning of English
as a foreign language.
TTT AND STT AT CECYTE CANCUN III.
The clarifications and the wait-time in the teacher talk time were used in order to avoid
that the teacher became the center of the lesson and in order to arise the students´ interest on the
This study of my classroom talk time provided me with important information to reflect
about the quantity and quality of my own teacher talk and gave me evidence to decide how I am
going to distribute and use the classroom time using the correct kind of questions or other to lead
the students´ talk successfully. So that I consider that we must seek for appropriate vias to promote
STT because when the students speak more, they trust their skills and get better prepare for the
real world where they will not have the teacher´s support.
References:
Bailey, K. and Nunan, D. (eds.) (1996) Voices from the Language Classroom: Qualitative
Bailey, K. and R. Ochsner (1983). A Methodological Review of the Diary Studies: Windmill
Walsh, S (2002) 'Construction or Obstruction: Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in the
Walsh, S. (2001). QTT vs TTT: Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.