Increasing student talk time in the ESL classroom: an investigation of teacher talk time and student talk time

Abstract

Creating an environment where learners are no longer dependent on the teacher is the main reflection of a learner centered classroom. In a language learning classroom, students learn the skills to read, write, listen and speak. The best way to learn and teach a foreign language is to use that language. The purpose of communicative language teaching approach is to communicate in the target language or to use it in communication. In the communication there must be interaction between teacher and student or student and student. According to my colleagues and my experience, though the door for classroom interaction is very open students' participation is very poor in some classes. This paper attempts to test this hypothesis and provides some systematically tested ways to increase the amount of Student Talk Time (STT) which leads to a learner centered approach.