There are many ways to design a lesson plan for reading and listening skills.

The stages
presented here represent a general procedure and it should be seen as an example only. The
stages are clearly delimited and according to my experience a lesson plan based on these stages
works very well in an ESL/EFL classroom.
Stage 1 – Introduction and pre-reading/listening task
Discuss the topic with the whole class or in groups. The teacher can do that by asking students
questions. Relate the questions to the students’ personal experience. At this first stage, the teacher
can also generate interest in the topic of the lesson and excite comment by showing pictures,
headlines etc.
Stage 2 – Vocabulary
The teacher teaches any vocabulary items that are essential for answering comprehension
questions.
Stage 3 – Reading/ listening for gist
The teacher sets three or four questions that check general comprehension of the text (gist) or
extract relevant information.
Play the recording once (students read the text). Students answer the questions while
reading/listening.
Some students may not be able to answer the question at the first try. Replay the relevant part of the
recording (reread the relevant part of the text). All students must understand the answers.
Stage 4 – Reading/listening for specific information
Set questions (or a task) aimed at checking more detailed understanding of the text. Replay the
recording twice if it is necessary (give students time to reread the text) and answer the questions.
Students compare their answers in pairs before the teacher giving the feedback to the whole class.
If it is necessary, repeat the last step from the stage 3 (replay relevant sections of the
recording/reread relevant parts of the text).
Stage 5 – Post reading/listening task
Every lesson must end with a productive activity related to the topic. The productive activity can be
either spoken or written. A good activity at this final stage can be: discussion, role-play, writing a
letter, etc. The activity done in pairs or groups is more effective.