Description of a mentoring project to help novice language teachers reflect on their teacher talk. Participants (Spanish instructors in the US) conducted a series of self-analysis tasks targeting different modes in Walsh’s (2006) SETT inventory. Task results and interview data are discussed, as well as implications for teacher education programs.
The characteristics of teacher talk in second language learning contexts set it apart from other kind of classroom talk given its impact on a number of pedagogical aspects, including modeling the target language, providing input that facilitates language acquisition, and encouraging and enhancing teacher-student interactions (Stanley & Stevenson, 2017). Language teachers play a vital role in establishing and maintaining patterns of communication conducive to L2 acquisition. It is thus critically important, especially for novice teachers, to be able to analyze and reflect on their own talk in order to facilitate learner participation and maximize learning opportunities. The assumption being that appropriate teacher talk can be expected to be more likely to occur when teachers are aware of their pedagogical goals at various points during a lesson, matching purpose to language use (Walsh, 2002). In this session, a mentoring project to help novice language teachers reflect on their classroom talk is described. The objective was to not only help them become more aware of specific features of their teacher talk, but also identify instances and discuss ways in which adjustments may be appropriate. The project was conducted within the context of a University-based Spanish language program in the US, with four novice Spanish language teachers (3 females, one male) as participants. Using audio-recordings of their teacher talk, they engaged in a series of self-analysis tasks (6) targeting distinct aspects within each one of the four modes in Walsh’s (2006) Self-Analysis of Teacher Talk (SETT) inventory, i.e., managerial, materials, skills and systems, and classroom context. Results from the analytical tasks are presented, as well as perceptions of participants regarding their level of awareness of their own classroom talk; the latter data gathered through semi-structured interviews. Implications for language teacher education programs are discussed.
