Osage, Iowa TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This is how we learn a language when we are children: Stages 1.Listen to those around us 2.Make utterances or speak 3.Finally read and write We will breakdown this unit into two main parts Receptive skills – reading and listening Productive skills – speaking and writing. Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing. Are an integral part of any language. And to master English we need all four and one helps the other. Why do we read. For a purpose :This type of reading and listening takes place because it will help us achieve some particular aim or goal E.g. Reading instructions on new cell phone or listening to the device and taking instruction from it to use the device. For entertainment : pleasurable or enjoyable e.g. novel. Next for sightseeing in a new city with a brochure So there will be times when our reasons for listening and reading will include both motives. How we read and listen This of cause is done with our eyes & ears . 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 . This changes all over the world lets say that in cricket world , Pakis beat the Aussies a person from Chine would not understand this . So we can see that reading and listening are not simply matters for the eyes and ears, but also a matter of using our minds to literally understand words and process them in our minds. 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: Predictive skills Specific information – scanning General idea – skimming Detailed information Deduction from context Potential Problems with students Reading: word for word, sentence length, structure of sentence. Listening : flow of information , speed, accent Avoiding problems ?Pre-teaching vocabulary A sensible solution would be to only pre-teach the words that are essential to understanding and leaving other vocabulary work until later. ?Careful selection of texts 'non authentic material' refers to anything that has been designed specifically to aid the teaching process such as worksheets, text books and instructional CD's or DVD'S. Gives training to students authentic texts are written for any purpose other than language learning, and are intact rather than processed, adapted, or simplified. Gives confidence to students Topics Chosen for an exercise most involve all the students so equal participation takes place. Get idea’s from the students and let them have say in this decision making. They say variety is the spice of life so in time cover more events or idea’s. Create interest Motivation is key factor from the teacher will help a lot here open the students minds. Tasks Comprehension tasks is what we use here and they should not be to easy or to difficult , they should be a challenge but in a realistic way but achievable. . Another technique that can be used is 'jumbled texts'. This is where the paragraphs of a text are jumbled up, for the students to re-order. You can even jumble two stories together, for the students to sort out both. Outline of a typical receptive skills lesson (Patchwork) Example – students are going to read or listen to a text about the life of Barak Obama. The learner objective would be for the students to learn more about his life and be able to write one or two paragraphs about him. Engage Maybe show pictures of or a small clip with small text history. What was he, where was he born, married or not, children etc Study Pre-teach potentially problematic vocabulary. A practice exercise or two to check and reinforce understanding and pronunciation. Engage Do students know any of his achievements’ ? . Who was he black , white . Where did he come from, background. Study Students read the text, then answer comprehension tasks based upon the text, e.g. true/false questions Students compare answers in pairs and feedback Activate Remove texts from the view of the students and ask them to write a brief review of the history of Barak Obama. Students compare in pairs and feedback to class. Study If necessary deal with any language problems from review. Allow students access to the text again and 'discover' the meaning of five more unknown words Activate In pairs students write a brief account of a famous person that they both know/are interested in without mentioning his/her name. Each pair reads out and other class members try to guess which famous person it was. Again, there are different and equally effective ways of approaching the same lesson. There is no strict right or wrong. The basic keys to successful receptive skill lessons are: ?Choose material that interests/motivates the students ?Build interest before reading/listening ?Pre-teach complex vocabulary or structures if necessary, but don't overdo it! ?Vary the type of material ?Use the material to practise different skills ?Use realistic comprehension tasks that aid understanding ?Incorporate activate phases that naturally lead on from the text