Teacher talking time (TTT) has a bad reputation. It’s easy to see why — too many teachers talking too much, stealing their students’ talking time, and being boring. This hurts students’ motivation and willingness to communicate in class.

But!

After you’ve worked hard to hone your TTT don’t forget that extended TTT can become a superb tool, used correctly.

Take away the functional reasons to use TTT (giving instructions, classroom management, etc.), and what reasons do you have left? Here are my two favourites:

• Building rapport

• Storytelling

Building rapport is the foundation for everything good in your classroom. That’s a bold statement but true… and how can you expect to build rapport without communication?

Storytelling is huge. It can have a transformational effect on your classroom. Not the, ‘here’s a life lesson I learned from the pub, off-the-cuff’ style story, but pre-planned, language graded, context-relevant and intriguing stories.

Consider extending your TTT again, in strategic places. Everyone wants to feel respected and everyone wants to know how a good story ends.