What happens when teachers talk too much?

About four students in each class will have a language or attention disorder. While some of these students will have an official diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), others will be “hiding in plain sight.” These students may often be struggling because they are misbehaving, not doing well, or not attending school.

In our new study, we asked 59 students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) about their experiences of English in Year 10. It’s the only subject all Australian students must take from Year 11 to Year 12. And it plays a key role in their success at school and beyond.

Students in our study reported that some of their teachers talked too much. Why is this a problem? What can teachers do to address this?

What are DLD and ADHD?

About two out of 30 students in a classroom have a language disorder. This is a lifelong disorder that affects the understanding and expression of language. People with a language disorder have more difficulty expressing what they think and understanding others.

About one or two students per class have ADHD. This can include difficulty concentrating, following detailed instructions, and self-control.

It is also possible for students to have both DLD and ADHD.

Schools are legally required to remove barriers to learning for students with disabilities, but first, they need to identify the students who need that support. Research shows that students with less visible disabilities, such as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and ADHD, are more likely to go unnoticed in schools and not get the help they need.

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Learn more: What is DLD – the most common disorder you’ve “never heard of”?

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Our study

As part of a larger project on accessible assessment, we recruited over 200 students from three Queensland public high schools in 2022. Through testing, we identified a subgroup of 59 students who were likely to have language and/or attention difficulties.

The students were all between 13 and 15 years old. About half identified as girls and half as boys. The students were taught by 26 different teachers. Nearly three-quarters of the students (71%) in the sample had not previously been identified as having language or attention difficulties.

The 59 students participated in individual interviews, which included questions about their classroom experiences.

Do you think some teachers talk too much?

Research shows that removing unnecessary complexity from classroom instruction is very important to help students learn, especially if they already have language and information processing challenges.

More than two-thirds of our study participants (69%) reported that some of their teachers talked too much. Eight of them responded with a resounding “YES!” Importantly, students also described the impact of teacher talk (including “going off topic”) on their ability to maintain focus, attention, and engagement.

As Gareth* explains:

Those who just talk and do nothing, I’ll just log off and do nothing.

Bella noted:

Yeah. Uh, uh, my brain is leaving the room.

Another student, Pippy, told us that once you’re behind, it’s hard to get back on track:

I just think, like when my teacher is talking, my brain gets really slow and I have to think about what he just said, “Oh, they just said those words, what does that mean?” And then I’m like, “Okay, I’m catching up.” And then she’s already explained everything, like she’s already explained so much more. I missed it because I was trying to focus on what she just explained.

What else happens when teachers talk too much?

To learn more about the impact of teacher talk for too long, we showed students an iPad and asked them to choose which options on the screen applied to them.

The most popular response was “I start thinking about something else.” The next most popular responses were “My brain shuts down” and/or “I talk to the person next to them.” Although no students selected “I do stupid things” as their standalone response, four selected “All of the above.”

These reactions mirror what happens when working memory—the memory system that provides a sort of “mental scratchpad storing information needed for daily activities”—is overloaded. When this happens, the brain truly “leaves the room.”

What can teachers do instead?

There is no precise figure for how much speaking time the teacher should devote to teaching, but as a general rule it should be about a quarter of the lesson. This allows time for asking questions and giving feedback, and for completing activities. It also reduces student passivity and is less exhausting for the teacher.

Just as important as the proportion of the teacher’s speech is the ease with which it is understood.

Students in our study said that “excellent” teachers used simple words and “went over” things several times in different ways. They also said that excellent teachers didn’t go too fast and paused to allow students to process what had been said. They also checked in with students regularly during the lesson to see if they understood what they were supposed to do.

While one might think that teachers are already using these simple strategies, our findings suggest otherwise. We asked students about 16 evidence-based instructional practices, all of which are necessary to support language and information processing.

Their responses suggest that these important practices are used inconsistently or ineffectively.

For example, nearly three in five students said their teacher rarely or only sometimes indicated on the board what students should do. Nearly one in four students said their teacher did not consistently ask them to give verbal reminders to encourage their attention.

What can we do now?

We know that language processing, attention, and working memory are particularly challenging areas for students with DLD and/or ADHD.

But these differences do not mean that declining academic achievement is a natural or inevitable consequence.

On the contrary, given the prevalence of students belonging to these two groups, this means that daily teaching must be accessible to them. And in doing so, it will also make teaching more accessible to all students in the class.

In a previous study from our larger project, we found that targeted professional learning can help teachers make their teaching more accessible, including by talking less and more simply.

Our future research will examine how we support teachers to adopt these strategies and reach teachers in regional and remote schools so that all students can benefit.

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*names have been changed.