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DELTA 2010-2011: Receptive Skills Required by Learners
DELTA 2010-2011: Receptive Skills Required by Learners
Edith Flahive
Overview
Language Systems vs Language Skills
Receptive Skills
Comprehensible Input
References
Language Systems Language Skills
Students read a newspaper article and then discuss the story with each other.
Students write an imaginary postcard to a friend which the teacher then corrects.
Teacher uses pictures to teach ten words associated with the computer.
Receptive Skills
Listening and Reading involve the following sub-skills:
Purpose:
Purpose:
To read longer texts for pleasure.This is a fluency
Purpose:
Purpose:
To use syntactic, logical, and cultural clues to gain a deeper
understanding of a text.
“Students who can infer meaning from context have a powerful aid
Purpose:
To get the general idea of a particular text, story or tape-script. Listening to
Purpose:
Listening for specific information or intensive listening is where
is referred to as scanning.
“Skimming and scanning are important techniques; they do not remove the need for careful
reading, but they enable the reader to select texts, or parts of texts, that are worth spending
The speaker – how many there are, how quickly they speak, accents.
type-face, etc.
Activate existing knowledge of the topic – make predictions, ask questions, pre-teach key
words, etc.
Make students aware of verbal and non-verbal cues – body language, facial expression, etc.
Comprehensible input.
Visual aids.
Reading
Know your purpose for reading.
Use all the information in the book – title, sub-titles, introductions, summaries, conclusions.
Learn the important words that organise the text – cohesive markers.
Authentic texts are those designed for native speakers, that is, texts not designed for language
students, but for speakers of the language in question. A non-authentic text is one that has been
written especially for language students.Whether these texts are always authentic, is not such an
“Although the use of authentic text has the advantage of being language put to a real communicative purpose, and
prepares learners for life beyond the classroom, it does not automatically guarantee success. In the final analysis
what is done with the text and the way it is handled in the classroom is more important than whether the text is
Putting pictures (or other things, e.g., paragraphs, words, events, etc.) in order.
Completing/drawing pictures.
True/false statements.
that they have listened to or read. Accuracy is relevant but is not the priority.
Aims:
To make students aware of the way language works.
To encourage them to reflect and share opinions about the text with other
students.