Teacher talks are core –ingredients of our language but we should know when and where to stop.This paper presents and discusses samples of my teacher talk during the lesson.This class is composed of twenty-two monolingual, aged between 6,5 and 7,5 beginner level young learners.Some of the boys and girls are fairly undisciplined.Moreover, the group often resorts to L1, even in single interactions. For this reason, I’ve been trying to promote as much English use in the classroom as possible.The main objective of the lesson is to enable the students to make sentences using the daily routines and telling the time.Here is the analyse of the samples from my own teaching experience.
Sample 1:
FUNCTION
T: Now, watch me! Could you please guess what I am doing? Tell the names of my actions.
Ss: OK!
T: What is this?
Ss: Eat breakfast.
T: Well done! Let’s try the second one, now.
In the first utterance above, some of the students didn’t understand what are they going to do in the activity. My second sentence helped them to get the meaning as we see that they easily answered. I also used body language. This was helpful for them, as it is stated in an article of Mario R. J. Corbin : “Using your hands in class to express thoughts, feelings and ideas is an effective way to not only ensure your students are actively watching you but as well helping them understand concepts by expressing them with body language”.( an article on the internet)If I had used just the second sentence it would be easier for them to understand. The first sentence is too polite for classroom language and too long for second graders to understand the meaning.As we know that young learner’s concentration span is not long, therefore we should use this limited time effectively.
Sample 2:
T: Wonderful. Now, it is story time. Here are pictures of a story. You will put them in the correct order. Is it clear?
Ss: Yes.
T: Who wants to be the first? Ok, Kağan come here!
Ss: (Student came to the board and sticked one picture.)
T: Great!
Here, I gave the instructions clearly and expilicitly. The sentences are disarmingly easy to understand. There isn’t any pattern that students cannot understand.
Sample 3:
VOCABULARY CHOICE
T: Here are some daily routines flashcards. What is flashcard?
S:Flashcard??!!!
T: The flashcards are the pictures.
S: OK!
T: Yes, Emre look at the first picture. What is it?
S: Brush your teeth.
T: Great!
The instruction given above, includes terminology. It is unnecessary to tell students the terminological names of the things or the activities we use such as: “now, you are going to do a matching activity.” This will not interest them and they may confused. It would be clearer and more simple if I had used “picture” instead of “flashcard”. In my lesson, this word made them confused and took their interest to another area. They started to think about the word flashcard and some of the boys who are undisciplined started to talk. It decreased their concentration.
Sample 4:
STYLE
T: Right now, What’s this?
Ss: Wheel of fortune?
T: Yes , well done! It’s a wheel of fortune. Now, you’ re going to come here one by one and turn the arrow .By looking at the pictures, you will make sentences.(At the same time teacher mimes using the Wheel of fortune ,what she says)
Ss: Hurray! Game!
In this sample utterances, I gave the instructions very simply and clearly. They easily understood the procedure of the activity and they were eager to play it. In order to enable authentic and positive classroom atmosphere, teachers should always speak in the target language. At the begining of the lesson, children often resorted to L1(mother tongue) but since they heard that I insist on speaking English they forgot their mother tongue. So, this is the proof that I achieved my objectives. As Martin Joos (1967) described five levels of formality : 1) oratorical, or frozen; 2) deliberative, or formal; 3) consultative; 4) casual; and 5) intimate.”(1993:238) My style is deliberative in these utterances in order to permit effective interchange between me and my students. I cannot use oratorical style since I have to adopt my language into students’ level. Intimate style is not appropriate either.Because I have make them aware of the type of the relationship between us. They should think that I am one of their friends and they should also know that they cannot talk or behave just like they do to their friends. This type of talk will destroy the positive classroom atmosphere. There may be some discipline problems.
Sample 5 :
DISCOURSE
T: Ok, right now, (indication of change of topic)
Look at these pictures.What is she doing here?(Instruct)
Ss: She is going to school.
T: Look at the clock on the picture. When does she go to school? (Initiates discourse topic)
Ss: She goes to school at 9 o’clock.
T: Ok, Efe, when do you get up?
S: I get up at seven o’clock.
T: Brilliant! When does Efe get up? Cem? (Allocates speaking turn)
S: He gets up at seven o’clock. (Responds)
T: Well done! (Evaluates)
Cansu, when do you eat your breakfast?
S: I eat breakfast at eight o’clock.
T: Well- done! Burak? When does she (Cansu) eat breakfast?
S: She eats breakfast at eight o’clock.
As stated in H. Douglas Brown’s book “Principles of Language Learning and Teaching” : In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language , productively and receptively”(1993:245),I tried to make my students use the language input, reveal the language that my students can produce as the result of an act of communication., in this part of the lesson. Only exposure is not eadequate , students should use the input that they just received as Berko-Gleason say “While it used to be generally held that mere exposure to language is sufficient to set the child’s language generating machinery in motion, it is now clear that, in order for successful first language acquisition to take place, interaction, rather than exposure, is required; children do not learn language from overhearing the conversations of others or from listening to the radio, and must, instead, acquire it in the context of being spoken to.” Berko-Gleason (1982: 20)
Sample 6:
GRAMMAR
T: Look at my clock. I just buy it for my new house. But it doesn’t work.Can you help me to set the time? Gülce, can you help me?
(Student came and moved the hands of the clock)
T: Well done! What’s the time, Gülce?
S: It is five o’clock.
T: Very good! Who is going to help again?
S: Oh, yes Ali. (Ali came and moved the hands and told the time.)
T: Brilliant! Thanks for your help.
The grammatical appropriateness of teacher talk is also important since children are good deep structure imitators what they see and hear.That’s why we should be careful with our grammar. Most controversionally, sometimes I have to use incorrect forms because I always adopt my language to students’ language. But if I adopt it , I have to make gramatically incorrect sentences as I did in this lesson. Here, I should have said “bought” instead of “buy” but if I had done it , the students wouldn’t understand me. They don’t have the background knowledge of past tense. My first utterance is may be gramatically wrong but the meaning is highly explicited and this is what I aimed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Berko-gleason, Jean. 1982. Insights from Child acquisition of language loss. In Lambert and Freed 1982.
2. Brown, H.
3. Corbin, R. J., Mario (Oct. 1, 2006) The journal from internet web site : http://esllanguageschools.suite101.com/article.cfm/esl_without_words : ESL Without Words; How Body Language can Help Students Grasp Concepts Copyright © 2006, Mario R. J. Corbin and
4. Joos, Martin. 1967.The Five Clocks.New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.
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