Teacher talk - student talk

     During my practice, I observed the teacher and students' talking time.  As we know, the teacher is an important source of language for the class. The teacher is a model, gives instructions, corrects mistakes and explains new things. However, when on a lesson teacher gives more opportunities for students' talking time, lessons are more interesting, motivating and fun. Therefore, it is crucial to find a balance between TTT and STT.

     This week, in my practice, I observed a project lesson in class seven, two English lessons in class four and one in class five.

     On lesson in class seven, children had a revision, so the teacher did not talk much. Children were working in groups, and they were answering questions from the quiz that the teacher gave them. Teacher's talking time was at the beginning of the lesson when she explained the exercise. Children were talking to each other in English and also with the teacher. After some time, a teacher chose kids that needed to answer one question in front of the class. Kids did not interrupt each other, they were listening carefully and helped each other if someone did not know the answer.

     The second and third lesson that I saw were in class 4. The topic of the lesson was "writing an email". The lesson started with a brainstorm, children answered questions about what can we write, when we write and what words we may use for greetings and goodbyes. They had plenty of ideas and each of them was written on the board. After that, the teacher gave them handouts with two emails. Children needed to read them and highlight sentences with present simple and present continuous. They were working in groups, so here was the time for students' talk. Then, they checked the exercise with the teacher. Subsequently, they had another task in which they had to fill in the gaps in the email with the appropriate words. First, the teacher explained to them all the words using gestures and definitions only in English. Children did not have any problem with understanding. 

     On the second hour of English lesson, the teacher asked kids to write an email to a friend from the summer holidays. She told them what the need to include in emails and gave them a list with all points. While the teacher was explaining to the children what they need to do, they were all very focused and listened to her carefully.  However, when she finished, children still had a lot of questions. They had a problem with choosing the person to which they could write. They asked if they could write to Michael Jackson and whether the place from which they write must be true.

    The last lesson in class 5 was about movies and cinema. First, children needed to talk in pairs about what do they do in their free time. During this task, the teacher has a problem with the language that children used. They were speaking mostly in Polish, but after the teacher told them to start speaking English, they switched their language. Next, they were listening to the text and answering questions. Pupils willingly volunteered for answers. When they did not know the word in English the teacher helped them. After that, the teacher showed a trailer of the movie that was mentioned in the recording. Children shared their opinions about this and discussed them in front of the class. 

     As we may see, teacher talking time usually occurs when the teacher explains something, gives examples or shows something new. To clarify new vocabulary uses gestures and mime. On lessons that I saw, children paid attention to what the teacher said. They did not have a problem with understanding. Children always speak in English, if not the teacher says that she does not understand them. Thanks to a lot of tasks in which children can speak, they do not have a problem with expressing themselves in English. 

    The teacher always addresses the students by names. Her voice sounds warm, sometimes cold when kids are not behaving well. The teacher does not have a problem with getting students' attention. If someone does not listen to her, she tells the name of a child that misbehaves. 

     On lessons, children speak without fear of making mistakes. When they say something incorrectly, the teacher repeats this after them correctly. In the case when the teacher wants to check if children understand what they need to do, she asks questions and chooses one child that needs to repeat what they should do now. 

     In my opinion, it is essential to give children a lot of students' talking time because they learn how to use a language in real speech. Too much of teacher talking time is inappropriate because it will give less chance to speak. Further, if only the teacher speaks it does not mean that children actually learn anything because children need to practice. Lessons on which children can speak are also more interesting for them. 

     In my future work, I would like to create a learning environment in which pupils will not be afraid of speaking in English and where they will express their opinions. Moreover, they will have a lot of group and pair work which will help them develop their language skills.