Unit 1: Task 3 - Language Skills

Paula Daniela Barros Hernández

Code: 1099375144

Didactics of English

Tutor

Edwin Andres Londoño

Group: 551026-1

National Open and Distance University NODU

Degree in English as a Foreign Language

Schools of Education Sciences

July of 2020
 Language skills

Language skills are the communication skills or abilities we use through language in the
various social situations that are presented to us; through language skills, we can receive or
produce language, therefore learning is essential when acquiring a foreign language.

In teaching English, it is very important to make the receptive and productive skills
known.

Receptive skills consist of the ability to read and listen successfully and, consequently,
to understand a foreign language; as no one is born with these skills, these skills must be
learned and mastered, receptive skills are reading and listening.

LISTENING

Active listening means listening and understanding communication from the point of
view of the speaker; there is a big difference between hearing and listening, hearing is
simply perceiving sound vibrations, on the other hand, listening is understanding or
making sense of what is heard.

Active listening refers to the ability to listen not only to what the person is expressing
directly but also the feelings, ideas or thoughts that underlie what is being said.

Listening should be convened by some activity through which students can demonstrate
their understanding and experience the pleasure of success.

Some strategies applied by teachers for students to develop listening can be:

 The practice of trial-error, through experimentation and imitation of activities

through audio, video or conversation.
 The task-based approach in which the student is given specific tasks to solve,
through a recording, conversation, etc., that the student relates what he hears to the
task to be practiced.
 Contextualization is a very useful strategy since it is appropriate to learn a phrase
or word sequentially, which can be done through audios focused on specific
sounds.
 Taking notes helps students focus on the main idea, be it an audio, tape, etc., which
allows the student to tune the ear in listening activities.
  We can also use the guidance strategy aimed at deciding in advance to attend a
learning task in general and ignoring details, for example, you can focus on specific
phrases in a recording or audio-video.

READING

Reading with the naked eye may seem like a passive activity, but the truth is that it is
very interactive, since it brings knowledge to the reader and involves thoughts, facts, and
points of view.

Students can practice reading skills by performing extensive reading, which is to choose
a long reading of their liking, for example, a book; on the other hand, there is the intensive
reading that is that reading chosen for a learning purpose, be it reading comprehension or
interpretation; both forms of reading are very beneficial and enriching for the minds of the
students.

Some strategies that the teacher can carry out with his students are the following:

 Promote group work by making reading clubs with specialized literature in foreign
languages.
 Tasks directed by the teacher through specific questions of reading a text
previously chosen by the teacher.
 Strategies for clarifying language comprehension, knowing and looking for
meanings of new words in reading.
 To practice exercises, making the students repeat the reading several times,
prioritizing the difficult words to pronounce in the new language.
 Evaluate what has been read through questions to emphasize reading
comprehension.

In addition to the receptive skills to acquire a language, there are productive skills,
which consist of the student's ability to write and speak efficiently in a foreign language;
productive skills are speaking and writing.

WRITING

Writing is intended to write and express ideas, however, relevant points should be taken
into account when writing such as the style and form of writing, especially to correct
vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
 For the teacher to carry out writing activities is of great demand, since he must classify
the writing activities, supervise the writing composition process and provide feedback on
that process.

That is why it is important that the teacher carry out effective strategies to develop this
skill in the students, some suggestions are:

 The taking of notes is very appropriate when expressing the main idea of the topic,
whether through writing a message, a letter, etc.
 The answer to specific questions of students' personal interest topics, for example
about music, video games, sports activities, etc.
 Memorization activities are essential for writing, through the dictation and teaching
of spelling.
 Contextualize by placing words or phrases according to activities directed by the
teacher, for example, filling in blanks, completing sentences, etc.
 Group feedback, where all students participate and evaluate the texts written by
other students.

SPEAKING

With this ability, we can express our ideas, opinions, and desires and establish social and
friendship relationships.

The ability to speak in a foreign language is divided into two broad categories: spoken
interaction, which is the ability to interact with other interlocutors; and spoken production,
where there are no interlocutors, the person expresses himself in front of an audience.

To teach the ability to speak in the classroom, teachers must dedicate spaces to practice
this skill, since it is common for the teacher to talk more in class and students to listen.

Some of the recommended strategies to develop this skill are:

 Roleplay, this technique allows students to use language and therefore develop
spoken skills.
 Group work development through a conversation in which the teacher gives them a
specific topic.
 Directed teaching through oral evaluations, the teacher asks specific topics to know
the level of student learning.
 Exhibitions, the student investigates a topic and explains it, this allows the
transmission of ideas through speech and the correct pronunciation of the language.
 Class discussions promote group interaction, where students express their ideas and
the teacher corrects pronunciation errors.
 In conclusion, for the student to acquire a new language, it is important that they
approve the four language skills, speaking, listening, writing and reading; all these skills
must be practiced for the consolidation of each of them.

The teacher must apply the necessary strategies for the exercise of each of them, using
different teaching materials for their practice.

Didactical activity to develop language skills

Exercise.

The main goal of these listening exercises is that the student improves its skill and have
a better knowledge about emotions in English.

Level: Beginner.

Vocabulary: happy, mad, sad, tired, hungry, sick, thirsty, angry.

Initial Activity:

1. Pay attention and listen to the whole song. The name of the song is “The feelings
song” We can find it on YouTube.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsISd1AMNYU

2. Then, all the classroom is going to sing it and repeat the song.
Listen and Practice vocabulary.

3. In a paper, the children should write all the words he memorized. (About 7 mins or
less)

4. Fill in the blanks with the missing words from the song (15 mins or less). The song
it’s going to be repeated twice.

Lyrics:
I'm happy, she's sad.
I'm angry, she's mad.
I'm a boy, she's a girl, and this is the world.
I'm________, he's thirsty.
I'm sick and he's _____
He's a boy, I'm a girl, and this is the world.
You get_______, You get sad.
You get angry, you get mad.
You go to bed. then you wake up.
You might just be OK.
 It's just the way that you're feeling now.
Wait a while. It might just change somehow.
It's just the way that you're feeling.
The feeling may be fleeting. Here one second, then it's gone, gone, gone, gone.
We're feeling feelings every day.
We're experiencing emotions all along the way.
Some are ______ and some are ______
Some you wish you never had.
But, hey! That's just the way we've got to play!
I'm _________, he's__________.
I'm here and he's there.
He's a boy. I'm a girl.
And this is the world
. I'm _______ and she old. I'm hot and she's cold.
I'm a boy. She's a girl.
And this is the world.
You get happy, you get _____
You get________, You get mad.
You go to bed. then you wake up.
You might just be OK.
It's just the way that you're feeling now.
Wait a while. It might just change somehow.
It's just the way that you're feeling.
The feeling may be fleeting.
Here one second, then it's gone, gone, gone, gone.
We're feeling feelings every day.
We're experiencing emotions all along the way.
 References

 Ganesh, M. (2015). Teaching receptive and productive language skills with the help of
techniques. Pune Research an international journal in English, 1(2). Retrieved
from: http://puneresearch.com/media/data/issues/55fbb8b0dd37d.pdf

 Ivančić, M. & Mandić, A. (2014). Receptive and productive language skills in language
teaching. In Academia.Edu. Retrieved
from: https://www.academia.edu/15220943/Receptive_and_productive_language_skills_in
_language_teaching