Apr 11
One of the Biggest CELTA Problems: Teacher Talk
Classroom management
Too Much Teacher Talk? Here’s What New Teachers Need to Know...
In this video, I look at:
- when teacher talk is useful
- when it starts getting in the way
- why it’s such a common issue on CELTA and beyond
- how better task design can reduce unnecessary teacher talk
- practical ways to give learners more space to speak
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Video transcript - Teacher Talk
There are, as they say, only two certainties in life, death and taxes but I’m going to add one more into the mix… teacher talk.
Now, I should say straight away that teacher talk is not some terrible evil that must be eliminated from the earth. It is often really useful.
We need to explain things in class, set up tasks, build rapport, model language, and tell people what on earth is going on. So I’m not suggesting a Silent Way (although it’s been suggested before!)
But I do want to talk about the point where teacher talk stops being helpful and starts becoming a problem. Because it’s one of the most common issues for newer teachers, especially on CELTA, but also long after your initial training if we’re honest.
The problem is not just that the teacher is talking a lot. The problem is what that teacher talk replaces.
Because every minute you spend talking is, potentially, a minute the learners are not speaking, not practising, not trying things out, not making mistakes, not negotiating meaning, not getting stuck and then unstuck, which is, of course, where a lot of learning actually happens.
So, the aim is to make your teacher talk useful, economical and proportionate.
When teacher talk becomes a problem
The problem begins when teacher talk starts taking up space that really ought to belong to the learners. And this can happen for a few different reasons.
Very often it’s because the teacher is nervous, especially on CELTA. If you’re unsure, anxious, or trying to keep control, talking can feel safe. You talk because if you stop and they say nothing you’re left there in the spotlight and for most people, your first reaction is to fill that silence.
Sometimes it can be because the teacher genuinely loves the topic and gets a bit carried away.
Sometimes it’s because the teacher keeps asking questions but then answering them themselves after about half a second because the silence feels unbearable. You might laugh at this but notice in your next class if you do it yourself and you might be surprised.
Very often though, It’s actually a planning problem. It’s because the teacher hasn’t really designed a proper task, so the lesson is basically being held together by commentary.
If learners don’t have a clear task, a reason to speak, something to work towards, then very often the teacher fills the space.
Why it matters
Now, why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, learners need practice. Language is not something you learn just by hearing the teacher talk about it. It’s a practical skill.
They need chances to use it.
To say things. To get stuck. To try again. To notice gaps in what they can say. To experiment. To interact.
And if the teacher is doing most of the talking, the learners may be getting a lot of input, but not much opportunity for output.
The second problem is that too much teacher talk can make lessons feel rather heavy.
The learners become passive.
The pace drops.
People switch off.
And then the teacher talks even more because the energy is disappearing, which of course makes it all even worse.
A cheerful little cycle.
And thirdly, if learners are always listening to the teacher, they may not be developing the confidence to speak for themselves.
They may become over-reliant on being led through everything step by step.
But isn’t some teacher talk useful?
Yes. Absolutely.
Let’s not be silly.
Some teacher talk is necessary and helpful.
For example:
All of that is fine.
The question is not:
Did I talk?
The question is:
Was my talking helping the learners do something useful, or was it replacing the thing they should have been doing?
That’s the question.
Signs that teacher talk may be getting out of hand
Here are a few warning signs.
If you find yourself explaining the same task three different ways, that may be a sign.
If you ask learners something and then answer it yourself almost immediately, that may be a sign.
If you’ve been talking for several minutes and the learners still haven’t actually done anything, that may be a sign.
If your lesson feels a bit like a podcast with witnesses, that may be a sign.
And if you come out of the lesson slightly hoarse while the learners have said about twelve words between them, yes, that may also be a sign.
So what can we do about it?
The first and biggest thing is this:
Give them a task
Honestly, this solves a lot.
If learners have a clear, purposeful task, there is simply less room for teacher waffle.
A good task creates learner activity.
It gives them something to think about, something to say, something to decide, something to solve, something to notice.
And that means the energy shifts away from you and towards them.
So instead of explaining a grammar point for ages and then asking, “Does that make sense?”, give them something to do with it.
Match examples.
Notice a pattern.
Choose the best option.
Discuss the difference.
Use the language to solve a problem or talk about something.
That changes the whole feel of the lesson.
Make instructions short and clear
This is another big one.
Sometimes teacher talk expands simply because instructions are muddled.
So the teacher starts, then adds another bit, then clarifies, then adds a warning, then gives an example, then says, “Actually no, wait…”
And before you know it, the learners have forgotten the first bit and are looking at you as if you’re reading aloud from a washing machine manual.
So keep instructions short.
Break them up if needed.
Show rather than tell when possible.
And check understanding if the task is at all complicated.
Ask fewer questions, but better ones
Sometimes teacher talk is really teacher questioning.
The teacher asks a long chain of tiny questions, often trying to drag the answer out bit by bit, and it becomes a sort of verbal obstacle course.
Instead, ask questions that genuinely make learners think.
Then give them time. Actual time. Not that terrifying teacher version of wait time which lasts 0.8 seconds before we panic and jump in.
Let them think. Let them talk to a partner first if needed. Then bring it back.
Use pairwork and groupwork properly
This sounds obvious, but it matters.
If you want learners to speak, they need opportunities to speak.
And very often that means pairwork and groupwork.
Not just as a token gesture at the end, but as a central part of the lesson.
Because if one learner speaks to you, one person is practising. If all the learners speak to each other, suddenly the amount of speaking practice goes up enormously.
And yes, of course pairwork can be messy. Yes, it can be noisy. Yes, you can’t control every word. That is not necessarily a sign that something has gone wrong.
Sometimes that is exactly what useful learning sounds like.
Plan where the learners will speak
This is particularly helpful if you’re doing CELTA.
When you plan, don’t just think about what you are going to say.
Think about where the learners will speak.
At what points in the lesson will they:
If you plan that in, you’re much less likely to accidentally fill all the space yourself.
Record yourself and listen back
And here’s one more thing, which is slightly painful but extremely useful:
record your lesson and listen back to it.
Teacher talk often feels very different from the inside than it sounds from the outside.
You may think you’re being nice and clear and economical, and then discover you’ve actually been talking for much longer than you realised, repeating yourself or not giving learners enough time to respond.
Listening back can be a bit humbling, but it’s incredibly useful. It helps you notice whether your instructions are clear, whether you give enough wait time, whether you keep stepping in too quickly and whether learners are really getting enough space to speak.
You don’t have to do it constantly, but doing it from time to time can tell you a lot.
Use AI if it helps you plan better
And yes, since this is 2026 and AI is lurking in all our lives, it can help here too. You can use it to generate discussion tasks, information gap ideas, role plays, ranking tasks or short speaking prompts.
You can ask it to turn a dull topic into a problem-solving task. You can get it to suggest ways of reducing teacher explanation and increasing learner interaction.
Just don’t outsource your judgement. Some AI-generated tasks are excellent. Some are absolute nonsense. So do use it, but with your teacher brain fully switched on.
Final thoughts
So, if I had to sum it up, I’d say this:
Teacher talk is inevitable. Sometimes it is useful. Sometimes it is necessary.
But it becomes a problem when it crowds out the learners’ opportunity to speak, think, practise and interact.
And often, the best solution is not just talk less, it’s plan better because ultimately, the goal is not for the teacher to sound impressive. It’s for the learners to learn.
If you’re doing CELTA at the moment, or thinking about it, and you’d like more help with lesson planning, maximising learner talking time and avoiding some of the most common new-teacher pitfalls, do have a look at my CELTA preparation materials.
And if you’re already teaching and want support, practical ideas and a flexible CPD journey, do have a look at The Next Step as well.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.
There are, as they say, only two certainties in life, death and taxes but I’m going to add one more into the mix… teacher talk.
Now, I should say straight away that teacher talk is not some terrible evil that must be eliminated from the earth. It is often really useful.
We need to explain things in class, set up tasks, build rapport, model language, and tell people what on earth is going on. So I’m not suggesting a Silent Way (although it’s been suggested before!)
But I do want to talk about the point where teacher talk stops being helpful and starts becoming a problem. Because it’s one of the most common issues for newer teachers, especially on CELTA, but also long after your initial training if we’re honest.
The problem is not just that the teacher is talking a lot. The problem is what that teacher talk replaces.
Because every minute you spend talking is, potentially, a minute the learners are not speaking, not practising, not trying things out, not making mistakes, not negotiating meaning, not getting stuck and then unstuck, which is, of course, where a lot of learning actually happens.
So, the aim is to make your teacher talk useful, economical and proportionate.
When teacher talk becomes a problem
The problem begins when teacher talk starts taking up space that really ought to belong to the learners. And this can happen for a few different reasons.
Very often it’s because the teacher is nervous, especially on CELTA. If you’re unsure, anxious, or trying to keep control, talking can feel safe. You talk because if you stop and they say nothing you’re left there in the spotlight and for most people, your first reaction is to fill that silence.
Sometimes it can be because the teacher genuinely loves the topic and gets a bit carried away.
Sometimes it’s because the teacher keeps asking questions but then answering them themselves after about half a second because the silence feels unbearable. You might laugh at this but notice in your next class if you do it yourself and you might be surprised.
Very often though, It’s actually a planning problem. It’s because the teacher hasn’t really designed a proper task, so the lesson is basically being held together by commentary.
If learners don’t have a clear task, a reason to speak, something to work towards, then very often the teacher fills the space.
Why it matters
Now, why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, learners need practice. Language is not something you learn just by hearing the teacher talk about it. It’s a practical skill.
They need chances to use it.
To say things. To get stuck. To try again. To notice gaps in what they can say. To experiment. To interact.
And if the teacher is doing most of the talking, the learners may be getting a lot of input, but not much opportunity for output.
The second problem is that too much teacher talk can make lessons feel rather heavy.
The learners become passive.
The pace drops.
People switch off.
And then the teacher talks even more because the energy is disappearing, which of course makes it all even worse.
A cheerful little cycle.
And thirdly, if learners are always listening to the teacher, they may not be developing the confidence to speak for themselves.
They may become over-reliant on being led through everything step by step.
But isn’t some teacher talk useful?
Yes. Absolutely.
Let’s not be silly.
Some teacher talk is necessary and helpful.
For example:
- explaining the aim of a task
- modelling useful language
- checking answers
- giving feedback
- telling learners how to do something
- and sometimes just sounding like a normal human being in the room
All of that is fine.
The question is not:
Did I talk?
The question is:
Was my talking helping the learners do something useful, or was it replacing the thing they should have been doing?
That’s the question.
Signs that teacher talk may be getting out of hand
Here are a few warning signs.
If you find yourself explaining the same task three different ways, that may be a sign.
If you ask learners something and then answer it yourself almost immediately, that may be a sign.
If you’ve been talking for several minutes and the learners still haven’t actually done anything, that may be a sign.
If your lesson feels a bit like a podcast with witnesses, that may be a sign.
And if you come out of the lesson slightly hoarse while the learners have said about twelve words between them, yes, that may also be a sign.
So what can we do about it?
The first and biggest thing is this:
Give them a task
Honestly, this solves a lot.
If learners have a clear, purposeful task, there is simply less room for teacher waffle.
A good task creates learner activity.
It gives them something to think about, something to say, something to decide, something to solve, something to notice.
And that means the energy shifts away from you and towards them.
So instead of explaining a grammar point for ages and then asking, “Does that make sense?”, give them something to do with it.
Match examples.
Notice a pattern.
Choose the best option.
Discuss the difference.
Use the language to solve a problem or talk about something.
That changes the whole feel of the lesson.
Make instructions short and clear
This is another big one.
Sometimes teacher talk expands simply because instructions are muddled.
So the teacher starts, then adds another bit, then clarifies, then adds a warning, then gives an example, then says, “Actually no, wait…”
And before you know it, the learners have forgotten the first bit and are looking at you as if you’re reading aloud from a washing machine manual.
So keep instructions short.
Break them up if needed.
Show rather than tell when possible.
And check understanding if the task is at all complicated.
Ask fewer questions, but better ones
Sometimes teacher talk is really teacher questioning.
The teacher asks a long chain of tiny questions, often trying to drag the answer out bit by bit, and it becomes a sort of verbal obstacle course.
Instead, ask questions that genuinely make learners think.
Then give them time. Actual time. Not that terrifying teacher version of wait time which lasts 0.8 seconds before we panic and jump in.
Let them think. Let them talk to a partner first if needed. Then bring it back.
Use pairwork and groupwork properly
This sounds obvious, but it matters.
If you want learners to speak, they need opportunities to speak.
And very often that means pairwork and groupwork.
Not just as a token gesture at the end, but as a central part of the lesson.
Because if one learner speaks to you, one person is practising. If all the learners speak to each other, suddenly the amount of speaking practice goes up enormously.
And yes, of course pairwork can be messy. Yes, it can be noisy. Yes, you can’t control every word. That is not necessarily a sign that something has gone wrong.
Sometimes that is exactly what useful learning sounds like.
Plan where the learners will speak
This is particularly helpful if you’re doing CELTA.
When you plan, don’t just think about what you are going to say.
Think about where the learners will speak.
At what points in the lesson will they:
- compare ideas
- check answers
- discuss a question
- notice a pattern
- practise the language
- use the language more freely
If you plan that in, you’re much less likely to accidentally fill all the space yourself.
Record yourself and listen back
And here’s one more thing, which is slightly painful but extremely useful:
record your lesson and listen back to it.
Teacher talk often feels very different from the inside than it sounds from the outside.
You may think you’re being nice and clear and economical, and then discover you’ve actually been talking for much longer than you realised, repeating yourself or not giving learners enough time to respond.
Listening back can be a bit humbling, but it’s incredibly useful. It helps you notice whether your instructions are clear, whether you give enough wait time, whether you keep stepping in too quickly and whether learners are really getting enough space to speak.
You don’t have to do it constantly, but doing it from time to time can tell you a lot.
Use AI if it helps you plan better
And yes, since this is 2026 and AI is lurking in all our lives, it can help here too. You can use it to generate discussion tasks, information gap ideas, role plays, ranking tasks or short speaking prompts.
You can ask it to turn a dull topic into a problem-solving task. You can get it to suggest ways of reducing teacher explanation and increasing learner interaction.
Just don’t outsource your judgement. Some AI-generated tasks are excellent. Some are absolute nonsense. So do use it, but with your teacher brain fully switched on.
Final thoughts
So, if I had to sum it up, I’d say this:
Teacher talk is inevitable. Sometimes it is useful. Sometimes it is necessary.
But it becomes a problem when it crowds out the learners’ opportunity to speak, think, practise and interact.
And often, the best solution is not just talk less, it’s plan better because ultimately, the goal is not for the teacher to sound impressive. It’s for the learners to learn.
If you’re doing CELTA at the moment, or thinking about it, and you’d like more help with lesson planning, maximising learner talking time and avoiding some of the most common new-teacher pitfalls, do have a look at my CELTA preparation materials.
And if you’re already teaching and want support, practical ideas and a flexible CPD journey, do have a look at The Next Step as well.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.
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