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Four basic skills in any language: ? Receptive skills o Reading o Listening ? Productive skills o Speaking o Writing To achieve a balanced approach, all are equally important and we should try to incorporate all into our lessons. Two main reasons and motives for reading and listening: 1. For a purpose 2. For entertainment Receptive skills- reading and listening Our minds must be able to recognize and understand the words, and the must be able to grasp their overall meaning from a pre-existing knowledge of the world. ? Readers and listeners employ a number of specialist skills when reading or listening, and their understanding of the context will depend on their expertise in these areas: o Predictive skills (predicting content from headline) o Scanning for specific information o Skimming for general idea o Detailed information o Deduction from context Language Sentence length, word length and many unfamiliar words can present problems. Reading presents less problems as they have time to think about it as opposed to listening. ? Ways of approaching language difficulty o Pre-teaching vocabulary ? Pre-teach the words that are essential to understanding prior to commencing a reading or listening activity. o Careful selection of texts ? Authentic texts are not designed for language students. They must be carefully selected so as to focus on what the students know. ? Non-authentic texts will allow students access to material that contains language more suited to the students? abilities. Tasks Comprehension tasks are important when teaching receptive skills. You want the task to be realistically achievable. ? Jigsaw reading o Students are placed in pairs and each reads part of the text. Then they share their information to complete other tasks. ? Jumbled texts o The paragraphs of a text are jumbled up for the students to re-order. Basic keys to successful receptive skill lessons: ? Choose material that interests/motivates the student ? Build interest before reading/listening ? Pre-teach complex vocabulary or structures, but don?t overdo it! ? Vary the type of material ? Use the material to practice different skills ? Use realistic comprehension tasks that aid understanding ? Incorporate activate phases that naturally lead on from the text
