How often has this happened to you? You sit down with your one of your students (read: certificate exam candidates in Greece) and review an essay he or she has produced, and you have subsequently corrected. At one point, you come to a bit of text that you had previously underlined, and perhaps had inserted a question mark or ‘WTF’, in order to question the student on confusing point he oe she had made. You explain to the student that you aren’t quite sure what this part means. The student responds something along these lines: “Yes, what I meant to say was … uh …”, or “What don’t you get? I thought it was obvious…”, or perhaps “Come on! Anyone who reads it will know what I mean!”, or maybe even “Hello!? Do I have to fill-in the blanks for you?”
In my case, after pestering the student to provide more details, I might suggest, “That was a marvelous explanation! Why didn’t you write it down in the first place?”, or “Yes, well I understand what you mean now, because you just explained it to me. However, when someone else reads this, or an examiner grades your paper, you aren’t going to be able stand next to him and explain all that. You have to write it down so that he can see it and understand it in the first place!”
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One of the jobs teachers have is to foster student participation. After all, ‘class time’ is for students to practice and produce language expression and skills. I’m sure you will agree it’s not for ‘teacher talking time’ (TTT). However, if you find yourself ‘all talked out’ at the end of a lesson, it’s useful to examine whether most of your time is spent explaining things, and how much of your time and effort is spent trying to maintain discipline and interest levels.
ELTvisa 