teacher to whole class interaction
Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Pinkie | October 5th, 2000
Katz ("Teaching style: a way to understand instruction in language classrooms", in Nunan & Bailey "Voices in the Language Classroom") looks at allocation of class time by four teachers. She reports that the percentage of time dedicated to teacher-to-whole-class interaction ranged from 44 to 91% (depending not only on which teacher but also what stage in the course); the grand mean was 69%.
I find these figures surprising. Is anyone out there able to give a ballpark estimate of the percentage of the time you generally dedicate to teacher-to-whole-class interaction in your classes? Does anyone else find Katz's figures surprising?
Best wishes to all,
Pinkie
Spain
Re: Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Robert Salter | October 6th, 2000
I remember being surprised by those numbers too. I once kept track of my talking time (me to the whole class) in a class with fifteen students. It came in at about forty minutes out of seventy, but that was only the first part of the lesson. I ran out of cassettes so I don't know about the entire lesson.
Good luck with the straw poll!
Robert Salter
Re: Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Cameron Keller | October 6th, 2000
For Pinkie's question from yesterday: I timed myself in 2, 60 min lessons yesterday and this morning and found if I just select those periods when I am talking "at" the class - not those when there is also interaction taking place - 13 minutes from 90 and 23 minutes from 90. The second class was more advanced.
Cameron Keller
Re: Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Pinkie | October 6th, 2000
Thanks Rob and Suzanne for your replies (Rob about 60% TTT, but first part of a class only; Suzanne about 15 - 25%, higher in the more advanced class). I'd guess that in my classes TTT occupies only about 10 - 15% of the time: I'll check this out when I start my classes in a couple of weeks.
Of course, 3 respondents is rather a small sample! Perhaps if I'd put SEX in the subject line...
Best wishes to all,
Pinkie
Re: Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Stephan Hegglin | October 6th, 2000
In my lessons, teacher-to-whole-class interaction rarely gets above 40 %. I teach classes with up to 24 students and I know that the more timid ones will have no chance to participate at all if I do not invest more time in pair and group work. It would be interesting to relate the figures to the size of the classes.
Best wishes,
Stephan Hegglin
Switzerland
Re: Teacher to whole-class Interaction | Dominic Marini | October 10th, 2000
Pinkie,
My teacher-to-whole-class time is related mostly to students' level and motivation.
Able students need less explanation about activities, understand language explanations quicker. Since they are motivated, they produce a lot of language without much guidance from me. Better to let them go at it and act as a facilitator/helper to individuals at specific instances.
Poor students (what Nunan has called "unable" students) need a lot of explanation and repetition. If I'm lucky I'll get questions from individual students. My answers go to the whole class because I sense that most of the class doesn't know what one brave soul may have asked.
I use teacher-to-whole-class exercises (ex choral reading) to give slower students a chance to focus on the material we are doing - otherwise I'll loose a few.
I would guess that my teacher-to-whole-class time goes from 20% to 85%.
Dominic
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