Processing time

What and why?

Learning - whether it is a foreign language or any other subject - often requires great mental effort. In any 40-50 minute lesson, a student may be required to absorb a lot of new information, to connect it to what he or she already knows, and then to use it. Each of these processes takes time. Often, when students are asked a question and fail to answer correctly, the problem is not that they don't know or haven't understood, it is simply that they haven't been given enough time to process the question and process an answer. If students are questioned with the whole class listening and waiting, there may be pressure on them to answer as quickly as possible. This can block their ability to process the question and an answer - that is, to think. The teacher may then feel under pressure to keep the lesson moving and so turns to another student. The same situation may repeat itself several times, until finally, a student who has not been put under this direct pressure, and who has thus had enough time to process the question, is able to produce a satisfactory answer. This problem may be avoided by allowing all students processing time before you call for answers.

Practical ideas

• Allow students time to do an exercise by themselves/in pairs before you call for answers.
• Give students time to plan out in writing what they are going to say, their ideas on a topic, etc. before you discuss things with the whole class.
• Tell the students in advance what they will be doing. They can then prepare at home for the lesson.
• Choose 'larger' tasks which can be done in a large space of time (such as the majority of tasks in CEWw) rather than short 'item' tasks which require immediate responses (such as comprehension questions, gap-fill exercises).