HOW TO IMPROVE The English

Languages SKILLS with Our

Students

Academia Bilingüe Montelimar

 FIVE SKILLS

 Listening
 Speaking
 Reading/COMPREHENSION
 Writing
 Critical Thinking
A famous saying
 "We were given two ears but only one
mouth, because listening is twice as
hard as talking."
How to become an Effective
Listener

 Understand the complexities of listening for

your students.
 Prepare your students to listen.
 Adjust to the situation, level or grade.
 Focus on ideas or key points.
 Organize material for learning and listening.
How to develop an Effective
Listener (our students)

 Motivate them to listen carefully what you

have organized or prepared.
 Delay judgment
 Don’t tune out “dry” subjects
 Accept responsibility for your students´
understanding
 Encourage all your students to talk.
How to Be an Effective Listener
(cont.)

 Establish eye contact while speaking to your

students.
 Allow/encourage to take notes if necessary.
 Involve the students in the topics.
 Avoid negative manners or comments.
Speaking
 The most valueable way to convey
information.
improve speaking skills.
 Teach how to engage an audience.
 Help your students to choose topics where
the audience (classmates) can stay focused
or interested, especially at the beginning.
 Improve speaking skills.
 Teach them (students) to think about
audiences — who they are, what the
audience is interested in, and how
they’d benefit from the provided
information an/or the speech.
Improve Speaking Skills.
 Teach to stay positive

 Teach them to choose/create/look

for/find/include/select positive
messages that focus less on
failures.
 improve speaking skills.
 Be concise

 Aside from giving the audience hints on

what they really want to hear about,
other appealing factors for the audience
include positive messages that
focus less on failures.
improve speaking skills.
 Give your work a captivating title
 Dedicating time to craft the body of your
message is as important as creating an
original name for your speech or message.
This is never stressed enough your title
should wake the audience’s interest so they
anticipate reading or listening to your
message.
 The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading
(Scarborough, 2001)

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION Skilled Reading- fluent

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE coordination of word
i nc reading and
VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE strreas SKILLED READING:
comprehension processes
ate ing fluent execution and
LANGUAGE STRUCTURES gi c l y coordination of word
recognition and text
VERBAL REASONING comprehension.
LITERACY KNOWLEDGE

WORD RECOGNITION
PHON. AWARENESS
in gl y
DECODING (and SPELLING) re as atic
inc utom
SIGHT RECOGNITION a

Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.
“Slow Readers”

They are almost always less fluent

Usually know the meanings of fewer words

Usually have less conceptual knowledge

Are almost always less skilled in using strategies to

enhance comprehension.
 Tips to Improve Reading Skills
 Get the point.
 Know WHY you're reading.
 Read only the necessary articles, magazines,
newspapers, books, blogs or information.
 Teach your students to retell to themselves
what they´ve read.
The more someone reads, the better reader
he/she'll become (and smarter, too)!
 Strategies for Improving Writing Skills

Objective:

Demonstrate to each student the need for

high quality written work, to identify
weaknesses, and to provide the appropriate
assistance.
 Writing Skills

Key points

Our students find writing the most difficult of the communication

skills.

BUT over 95% of the marks in our degree course are associated
with the assessment of written work by academic staff (so what
are we assessing?).

Outcome = Knowledge*Skills*Writing ability

AND Employers (and most parents) expect our graduates to be

able to write well after 17 years in the education system!
 Exercise

 Write letters
 Look at each letter in pairs
 Make written changes and comments
 Group chooses a representative
 Representative records good and bad points
 Representative presents points to rest of class
❑ What does “CRITICAL THINKING” really mean?

“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined

process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating
information gathered from, or generated by,
observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

Source:
Scriven & Paul, 8th Annual International
Conference on Critical Thinking and
Education Reform, 1987
❑ What does “CRITICAL THINKING” really mean?

“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined

process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating
information gathered from, or generated by,
observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

Source:
Scriven & Paul, 8th Annual International
Conference on Critical Thinking and
Education Reform, 1987
❑ What does “CRITICAL THINKING” really mean?

“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined

process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating
information gathered from, or generated by,
observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

Source:
Scriven & Paul, 8th Annual International
Conference on Critical Thinking and
Education Reform, 1987
 WHY IS CRITICAL THINKING IMPORTANT TODAY?

▪ 72% of employers say critical thinking is key to their

organization’s success
o But only half say their employees are good
critical thinkers
▪ 93% of employers say a candidate’s competencies
with workplace skills such as critical thinking are
more important then their undergraduate major

Sources:
•American Management Study, 2012
•AACU Survey, 2013
 How important is critical thinking for
today’s society
Most important skills % Parents who % District % Community
students need to agree Admin who Members who
master for future agree agree
success
Critical 85% 94% 85%
Thinking
Creativity 75% 78% 71%
Communications 66% 77% 63%
Collaboration 74% 87% 74%
Source:
Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up Research Project. Data collected in fall 2016 from
514,000 education stakeholders
 Best ways to help students develop CT

Recommended strategies for classroom:

▪Do not always jump in to help students with answers
▪Engage students in brainstorming about new activities
▪Provides opportunities for questioning and inquiry
▪Leverage activities that support classifying and categorization,
comparing and contrasting
▪Enable connection-making – how does this influence that?
▪Allow for peer learning, collaborative problem solving.
Sources:
•Partnership for 21st Century Skills
•TeacherHub
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!
ANY QUESTION?