Mike, Andrew, and Leo sip some nog and reminisce on the year that was. From COVID to a corrective feedback series to interviews with amazing scholars, it was a great year for the Teacher Talking Time Podcast. Here, the guys touch on the year's most listened to episodes, words of the year, how language has changed during the pandemic, which is ebb and which is flow, and predict what 2022 might have in store - including some work-life balance goals. Thanks for listening this year and stay tuned for many exciting things we have in store for 2022.

Mike, Leo, and Andrew get back in the studio for a special, bizarro episode. In this "Ask Us Anything" show, the guys prepared secret questions for the others. The only rule? They can't be about teaching or education.

Of course, they're not great at following rules.

Touching on Nickelback, self doubt, being vulnerable, accepting or rejecting dinner invitations, Stephen King, pending life goals, long distance relationships - and much more - they invite you on a different type of journey.

Dr. Jane Setter joins the show to talk accents, speech prosody, and her new book "Your Voice Speaks Volumes.". In this episode, Jane dives into:

• the influences that pushed her into a career in phonology

• speech classes and how Margaret Thatcher learned to "unshrill" her voice

• being the first phonetician invited to speak at the IATEFL conference

• the why and how of (unconscious) linguistic judgement

• the significance of four seconds in speech recognition

• why television shows choose certain accents for certain roles

• why men can't make their voices sound sexy

• what it means to have a voice that doesn't represent who you are

Chris Jones joins us to talk speaking. Specifically, he tackles:

• his early influences, including Ron Carter, Scott Thornbury, and Dave Willis

• his impetus for his new book "Conversation Strategies and Communicative Competence"

• his writing process

• the difference between speaking and conversation

• the difference between conversation strategies and communication strategies

• reasons why conversation strategies are often neglected in teaching

• how teachers can help their students with improving their spoken communication

In the final episode of our series on corrective feedback, Dr. Miroslaw Pawlak joins us. Dr. Pawlak tells us:

• how to increase teacher interest in the topic of corrective feedback (CF)

• how CF affects the willingness of learners to communicate

• if it's preferable to over correct or under correct

• what we can learn from studying developmental readiness

• the role CF plays in form-focused instruction in comparison to more prescribed learner performance approaches

*This interview was conducted by Meghana Akavoor and Jewel Little.

In episode 7 of our series on corrective feedback, Dr. Shaofeng Li joins us. In this episode, Dr. Li discusses:

• learner and teacher beliefs on corrective feedback (CF)

• how his own beliefs of CF have evolved over time

• how teachers often view CF differently than learners and they impact that can have on learning gains

• why teachers should take learner beliefs on CF into account

• cognitive variables affecting CF

• how CF fits into a Task-based Learning and Teaching (TBLT) model

*This interview was conducted by Abdi Mohamed and Neal Power.

This is Episode 6 in our Corrective Feedback series in partnership with Carleton University. In this episode, In this episode, Dr. Neomy Storch shares:

• the drawbacks of looking at corrective feedback research in a vacuum

• examples of explicit and implicit feedback

• the differences between collaborative and cooperative writing

• the differences between feedback and uptake

• her optimism about the future of collaborative writing

*This interview was conducted by Zahra Azizi and Shrouk Abdelgafar

This is Episode 5 in our Corrective Feedback series in partnership with Carleton University. In this episode, Dr. García Mayo discusses:

• the Spanish EFL context

• recent studies revolving around language learning and the high school context in Spain

• the arguments for and against self-repair, recast, and implicit & explicit feedback

• why there is such a research gap with children

• teacher training and corrective feedback

• the role of research - and researchers - in classroom application

*This interview was conducted by Jean Charlebois and Sarah Langridge

This is Episode 4 in our Corrective Feedback series in partnership with Carleton University. In this episode, Dr. Yilmaz discusses:

• the interactionist approach

• explicit correction versus recast

• why direct feedback being more effective needs to be taken with a grain of salt

• computer versus face-to-face mediated feedback

• how to implement oral and written feedback

• how teachers can learn about corrective feedback research and apply it to their own contexts

*This interview was conducted by Heather Shugart, Aria Rubinoff, and Fereshteh Khaffai Azar.

This is Episode 3 in our Corrective Feedback series in partnership with Carleton University. In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Adams from the University of Memphis joins us.

In this episode, Dr. Adams highlights:

• the benefits of peer feedback when compared to teacher-provided feedback

• how to establish a conducive classroom environment for peer feedback to be most effective

• types of corrective feedback and their effectiveness

• whether students are actually hesitant to provide feedback to their peers

• if teachers should wait for peer feedback to occur naturally or if providing students with training is beneficial

• the connection between task-based language teaching and peer corrective feedback

*This interview was conducted by Marcel Zhang and Leo Liu.

This is Episode 2 in our Corrective Feedback series in partnership with Carleton University. This episode is a sit down with Dr. Hossein Nassaji.

Specifically in this episode, Dr. Nassaji tells us about:

• the roles corrective feedback plays in language learning

• how culture impacts feedback effectiveness

• the debate between immediate and delayed feedback

• written vs oral feedback and the efficacy of written feedback

• the what, when, why, and if of explicit & implicit feedback

• how teachers can learn about and implement corrective feedback in their classes

*This interview was conducted by Kelsey Ulrich-Verslycken and Lana Haj Hamid

This is the introductory episode to our Corrective Feedback series. Here, we invite Dr. Eva Kartchava - Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies in the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University, Canada - and Dr. Hossein Nassaji - Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Victoria, Canada - to help kick off the series.

In this episode, they help elucidate many questions the series aims to answer, some of which are:

• what is corrective feedback?

• how do you give CF?

• what is the purpose of CF?

• how many different types of CF are there?

• when should we provide CF?

Scott Thornbury joins Leo, Mike, and Andrew in studio. We delve into Scott's career journey, and he discusses:

• his career beginnings

• his early influences and the "mother goose approach"

• a paradigm shift away from drills and accuracy to a fluency-based, communicative approach

• views on teacher development

• his writing process and how nothing on the page in front of you is alright when there's a lot behind you

• Dogme and Leo Van Lier's influence on him

For the 2-year anniversary of TTT, this episode was also broadcast live on the LYE Youtube channel, and in the first episode of 2021, they guys along with their guests discuss:

• why and how Teacher Talking Time came to fruition

• using podcasting as a tool for CPD

• using podcasting as an asset for classroom assessment

• Leo’s Master’s dissertation on podcasting in ELT

We also hear from some of our listeners on how they use podcasts for their development.

Luke reflects on the Dogme movement, why it was viewed as controversial, where it is now, and if he still views it as controversial.

In much more detail, he tells us:

• his teaching beginnings and why it led him to a "teaching unplugged" approach (3:00)

• the first school he started - "Explore Your English" - and why it was idealistic (18:00)

• the genesis of Dogme and meeting Scott Thornbury (25:00)

• why presenting on Dogme at conferences was met with both excitement and contempt (40:00)

• the writing of "Teaching Unplugged" and why they didn't use the word "Dogme" (44:00)

• the 10 principles of Dogme and why they chose the 3 they did for their movement (55:00)

• his thoughts on progressive education and how we still need to do better (1:02:00)

In this episode, Dr. Sato tells us:

• how he became a researcher (2:00)

• misconceptions on the purpose of second language research (12:00)

• what the "research-pedagogy" dialogue is and why it's important (18:00)

• why he believes teachers usually don't interact with research (30:00)

• what researchers need to do for their work to be more useful to teachers (34:00)

• why motivation cannot be the cause of learning (47:00)

• his study analyzing motivation and the "ideal self system" and its link to second language learning (52:00)

In this episode, Ana-Marija delves into:

• how her feeling of being "suspended in identity" led her to a career in ELT

• her work in Kosovo - what it was, why she went, and how it happened

• the challenges of re-constructing education in a post-war region

• how identity impacts language learning and teaching

• why she believes neutrality does not exist in education

• why teachers need to embrace tension and discomfort in their classrooms, and have tough, meaningful, and impactful discussions with their students that will impart social change

Marc and Chiara help us parse what current research and findings on listening says, and discuss what strategies and approaches we as teachers can utilize in our classes to best help our students.

This episode is divided into 3 sections:

1. The Differences between teaching, practicing, and testing listening (3:20)

2. Analyzing the standard approach to teaching listening (34:00)

3. Looking at what can be improved and suggestions of how to go about it. (1:02:00)

In this episode, Jason discusses:

• His recent project in India (4:00)

• The history of the PPP Framework (11:00)

• Why the Zone of Proximal Development is misunderstood in second language acquisition (19:00)

• Lexis, Grammar, the lexical approach and a synthetic syllabus (22:00)

• If TBLT is appropriate in developing world contexts (28:00)

• What it means for an approach "to work" (36:00)

• Creating appropriate outcome measures (39:30)

• Research and practice together in a reflective model of teacher education (50:00)

• The TATE model (57:30)

In this episode, Jane delves into all things teaching, including:

• her early beginnings in teaching (4:00)

• one of her first books "Teaching English through English" (10:00)

• the COBUILD syllabus

• the restrictions course books put on training the next generation of teachers (26:00)

• Why Task-based Language Teaching (38:30)

• Why TBLT isn't PPP upside down (53:30)

• TBLT with beginners (56:30)

• If TBLT is appropriate for all teachers (1:01:30)

• The latest Willis book "Winning the Grammar Wars" (1:07:30)

• What an input-rich course would look like (1:33:00)

• Raising Bilingual Children (1:39:00)