What are TTT and STT?

TTT refers to Teacher Talking Time and STT stands for Student Talking Time in the language class.

Getting students to speak or use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teacher's job. Students are the people who need the practice, in other words, not the teacher. In general terms, therefore, a good teacher maximizes STT and minimizes TTT.

However, good TTT may have beneficial qualities too. If teachers know how to talk to students or if they know how to rough-tune their language to the student's level, then students get chance to hear language which is certainly above their own productive level, but which they can more or less understand. Such 'comprehensible input' is an important feature in language acquisition.

But sometimes, TTT is terribly over-used that sounds unwelcoming to the students. Conversely, a class where the teacher seems reluctant to speak is not very attractive either.

The best lessons are the ones where STT is maximized, but where at appropriate moments during the lesson the teacher is not afraid to summarize what is happening, tell a story, enter into discussion etc. Good teachers use their common sense and experience to get the balange right.

By using some of the following techniques, the teacher can maximize STT in the classroom:

1.  Group work,
2. Pair work,
3. Picture description,
4. Dramatization and role assignment,
5. Caricature,
6. Story telling,
7. Trip story telling,
8. Asking Questions.

Cited From:
How to teach English (2005) by Jeremy Harmer

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