Does teacher talking time matter?
If you’ve been in the profession long enough, chances are that you’ve been told, perhaps more than once, that your teacher talking time (TTT) was too high.
dilemmas
Mother tongue (L1) to teach English – a no no?
Some teachers say they tend to steer clear of L1 (L1 = mother tongue) for fear that their learners “will be encouraged to think in the mother tongue.” Similarly, some EFL / ESL (especially EFL, where students usually share the same L1) students frown upon the use of the mother tongue because “they want to be able … Read more
TBL vs. PPP – again…
It seems like I just can’t get away from the same kinds of PPP vs. TBL discussions I used to have in the 1990s, no matter how hard I try.
This morning, for example, I woke up to a bit of a Twitter feud.
Apparently, in a recent talk Penny Ur claimed that there’s no research evidence supporting task-based Learning. Her claim, as you can imagine, didn’t sit well with most TBL advocates, who argue that there’s a solid body of research out there demonstrating the benefits of task-based learning. In particular, they kept referring to a 52-case meta analysis by Bryfonski and McKay, which I intend to read soon. And when I do, here’s the question I will try to keep in mind:
Can we prove empirically that a method works? I’m using the word method in the broadest possible sense, of course.
Adult students: why won’t they learn?
7 hypotheses that may account for some adult students’ perplexing lack of progress in their language learning. This post offers no solutions, of course. Only reflections and further questions.