Block 1: Compulsory Reading TASK 1

Juli González Lladós

Sílvia Diaz Grau

Curs 2023-2024

Introducció a la Didàctica de la Llengua Anglesa

Grup 9A

Facultat d’Educació
TEACHER TALK

Teacher talk: The secrets of comprehensible speech for non-native

speakers of English (P. Longman, 2006) is an interesting article

which tells us plenty of useful aspects about English teaching.

To begin with, we can name the ‘teacher talk’, which can be

understood as a type of talk used by teachers to give a more

intimate approach to the students. If made correctly, it might seem

that the teacher is talking to everyone in the class individually, even

if there’s 30 students attending. This type of talk can be very useful

on plenty of occasions: obviously it’s mandatory to use it in a regular

class, but there’s other scenarios such as meetings, speeches and,

in general, any occasion where we need to make a public speech.

The author also explains the features in the Teacher talk, such as

tricks that can be used in the classroom to implement the strategy in

a correct way. For example the use of familiar words, a slow and

clear talk, simplification in the structure of the language, etc. There’s

also some tips that can be included in the class, for instance, eye

contact and stance are crucial to maintain attention.

Honestly, I think it’s a really interesting article to read and discuss.

As future teachers we need to develop a set of mind where we

include all the information and techniques that will guide us. This
article is a clear example. We need to master the language and

convey all the techniques we learn to the new generations, and, as

human beings, the more natural way is by talking, using both the

oral and body language.

WHAT IS A TEACHER

The article titled “What is a teacher” written by Jim Scrivener,

focuses on the different types of teachers (and teaching) that we can

find in any class around the world. The author goes through various

themes, like the types of teachers, the importance of rapport or the

qualities that a good teacher should have, using the following

structure: first, the author introduces a theme, then raises a

question, and finally makes a commentary.

The main theme is, well… the teacher, and more exactly what is a

teacher. The author offers an explanation on how a teacher should

be, the types of teacher that exist and their strong and weak points.

Figure 1.2 “Three kinds of teacher” says it all, we can clearly see the

position of the author and his ideal method of teaching.

Although it’s not easy to summarize all the teachers in the world into

two or three methods of teaching, it can be useful to identify different

approaches that they have in the class. Every teacher should know

what type of class they develop and, if it’s necessary, try to change

it.

In my opinion, although it’s known that every person (and teacher) is

built in a different way, we would all agree that there’s some

techniques that we can apply or modify in our daily teaching routine

to transmit knowledge in a more efficient way. Becoming a teacher is

just the first step in our career, the formation doesn't have an end

and we should be curious and develop a hunger for new learnings

that should never disappear.