Teacher talking time: is it effective in language teaching

Abstract

This study is concerned with the effectiveness of Teacher Talk Time within Universities in Bangladesh. It aims to discover the skills that students use in their journey of learning English. These skills, which include Speaking, Writing, Listening and Reading, are the four main foundations for students to learn when attempting to learn a language. By examining TTT and how frequently it is used, an insight can be gathered on the level of how students in Bangladesh acquire and learn English. It is therefore essential to determine whether TTT is a dominant factor in English Language Teaching in the country. The purpose of this study is to explore (a) the desired sub skill of students, (b) Student’s and Teacher’s class preferences, (c) student anxiety when it comes to corrections, (d) teacher feedback and last but not least (e) the type of teaching the teacher administers. For somewhat diverse results, the study implements teachers’ and students’ questionnaires which included close ended questions to acquire students’ and teachers’ attitude and preferences in form of scaling questions to achieve a more authentic value from the respondents. The results show that both teachers and students consider Teacher Talking Time as a teaching tool that has its uses but at the same time preferred lessons towards a more task oriented instruction. Finally, the study suggests some approaches in order to overcome issues in Talk Time and improve communicative skills.