Raymer, Colorado TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Reading and listening There are four basic skills in any language; receptive skills – reading and listening, and productive skills – speaking and writing. In this unit we went deep into the receptive skills – reading and listening. The reasons for reading and listening will differ depending on the purpose. Thus our reasons will be different if we read instructions as to how to operate a video recorder; or we pick up a novel; or we listen to directions from a stranger on how to get to the beach; or we listen to our friends telling us a joke. For a purpose This type of reading and listening takes place because it will help us achieve some particular aim or goal. For entertainment is when we listen to or read information because we find it pleasurable or enjoyable in some way. However very frequently our reading and listening may be a mix of the above two motives.e.g. Reading a tour guide may be enjoyable but it also has a purpose. How we read and listen Our minds must not only be able to recognize and understand the words but also be able to grasp their overall meaning from a pre-existing knowledge of the world. If we saw a newspaper stand and see the headline 'Bears destroyed by Cowboys, we will immediately know it is an American football game and nothing to do with animal cruelty. Skills when reading or listening Predictive skills is when we predict the content of an article or dialogue from a headline or introduction. For example, we look in a newspaper to find a football result Specific information – scanning is when we listen to the news, only concentrating when a particular story comes up. General idea – skimming This is where we read or listen for the gist of a text/dialogue, we don't focus on every single word but are just trying to get a general understanding of the content. Detailed information For example, when reading or listening to detailed directions on how to get somewhere. We need to read/listen in a concentrated manner to gain full benefit. Deduction from context Sometimes we need to be able to understand or deduce the meaning of individual words or phrases from the context in which we hear/read them. ‘You are in a non-smoking zone' isn't intended solely for information but also as an order to not smoke Problems with listening and reading Language Sentence length, word length and a number of unfamiliar words can also present problems to learners of English. Reading presents fewer problems as the text is 'captured' on paper and students may read it countless times. This gives them the opportunity to think about it or deduce the difficult language from context. Listening is another matter. The language isn't 'captured' and listeners have no time to really deduce the meaning and think about the language, as they hear it only once Obviously the more language we expose the students to the more they will learn. We are to teach them difficult/unknown language and structures, prior to commencing a reading or listening activity. Pre-teaching vocabulary will help to remove some of the obstacles Learning to understand texts without knowing every word is a skill that we should also encourage in our students. The teachers must find some kind of balance between pre-teaching structures and letting students access unknown language. The teacher must be careful when selecting texts he/she can expose the students to a variety of texts. Authentic texts are not designed for language students, however they will expose students to texts that should give them confidence in their skills. On the other hand, non-authentic texts contain language more suited to the students' abilities Authentic materials must be carefully selected so as to focus on what the students know.