ESL teachers, have you ever been told that you are speaking too much in class? What did you do about it? How did it make you feel?
Perhaps it would surprise you that ESL teacher talk should not be about the quantity of that talk. A new program, Quality Teacher Talk Training (QTTT) has been developed to focus on the real problem: A lack of discourse based training in most TESL training programs.
The researcher is seeking a minimum of 4 ESL post secondary teachers to participate in her thesis research to assess the effectiveness her discourse-based QTTT program. Data gathered from participants will gauge their feedback regarding their perception of the effectiveness of the program and its impact upon their classroom teacher talk. Selected participants will have a $20.00 donation, in their name, made to the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation.
What can you expect to get out of participating?
- A new perspective regarding this problem of excessive ESL teacher talk.
- Skills to have excellent co-constructed conversation with your students, and to teach your students.
- An understanding of the basic parts of a conversation.
- Conversation based classroom management skills training, allowing you to quietly steer classroom activities while your students develop their conversation skills.
What can you expect to do if you want to participate?
- Your involvement is a total of 80-90 minutes over 4 days, including an initial question and answer session.
- The question and answer Zoom session of 20 minutes will discuss the research with participants and answer questions.
- For 2 of the 3 days, you will keep a diary that takes take approximately 20 minutes per day to complete at the end of your class.
- In the middle of the research, you will be introduced to QTTT by watching a video of a technique that you will use on the next teaching day, and then rate with the teacher thought diary.
If you are interested in taking part in this research, please contact the researcher, Jennifer Byers, at Jennifer.Lee.Byers@USherbrooke.ca , jenniferteacher@nym.hush.com , or at 514-377-3271.