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This unit discussed receptive skills, reading and writing. Overall, both should be taught by choosing topics interesting to the students, a very fun Engage activity, Study that helps with new terms or other anticipated weaknesses, then the actual reading or listening, followed by checking for comprehension. Activate will be getting students to produce something similar to what they just read or listened to. I tend to want to push my students to strive for native-level English. I tend to hate textbooks, feeling that they oversimplify English. Now, I understand why. The textbook authors are simplifying English to what they feel an EFL student will master. I have also encountered simplified English novels, classics where the story has been drastically simplified and shortened. Initially, this bothered me, I felt that ESL learners were being coddled, not pushed to improve. I now understand that this was to prevent frustration or exhaustion. When I was a child, many of my textbooks contained simplified or shortened novels. Once I made that discovery, I went to the library, found the original texts, read them, and used to complain to my teachers. This unit finally explained why this is actually a good technique and tool for teaching reading or listening. On an unrelated note; I had a high school EFL class today where we had a lot of difficult material to cover. For understanding, it was a teacher-heavy lesson. I was concerned about the lesson being too boring and turning into a lecture. I was inspired by this course and realized that a patchwork style lesson would be best. I did just that! I taught a little, checked for comprehension, practiced, then had my students use the new material as a whole class, then again with small groups. It worked perfectly!
