Teaching language skills

Lecturer : M.Pirdavari
Summer 2012
Skills together
No language skill can be employed in isolation.

Input and output :
Receptive skills and productive skills feed off each other in a number of ways
Some of the output comes from ourselves, whether or not we are language learners
We modify what we write or say as we go long, based on how effectively we are
Communicating
Teachers provide students with feedback



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The circle of input and output
Teachers
feedback
Other
students
feedback
Other
students
participate
Student
modifies his/her
understanding
Student
sees how It
turns out
Audio/Video tapes
Native speakers
Native speaker media
Reading and pedagogic texts
The teacher
Language
Students
Speech
writing
Input
Output
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Receptive and Productive Skills
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Receptive Skills
A basic methodological model for teaching receptive skills

Lead-in
T directs
comprehens
ion task
SS
read/listen
for task
T directs
text-related
tasks
T directs
feedback
Teacher
directs
feedback
T directs
comprehens
ion task
SS
read/listen
for task
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Productive Skills
A basic methodological model for teaching productive skills

Lead-in
T sets the
task
T monitors
the task
Task related
follow-up
T gives task
feedback
T gives task
feedback
T sets the
task
T monitors
the task
Ss have all
the info they
need
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Teaching listening
The listening process
We listen to a wide variety of things, for example:
- What someone says during a conversation
- Announcements
- The weather forecast
- A play on the radio
- Music
- Eavesdropping
- A lecture
- Instructions
- Directions
- A tape dialogue in the class

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Listening sources
- Recorded extracts
- Live listening
We listen for a purpose ( depending on the situation )
- Listening for specific details
- Listening for a general meaning
- Listening for the general idea or gist

There is also a difference between listening :
- For information
- For enjoyment or social reason
- To learn new language
Although listening is a receptive skills It is not necessarily a passive one
- A listener can either be active or passive
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Listening skills
Learners need to develop the following skills:
- Learning to listen in various ways
- Adapting the way they listen according to the text and the reason for listening
- Recognizing the features of spoken English
- Using visual and textual clues to help them
- Listening actively- asking for repetition, clarification, etc.
- Developing their background knowledge

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Stages of the listening in the classroom
Pre-listening - Activities which help your learners prepare for what they will hear

Listening - Activities which are usually a type of task, e.g. filling in a chart,
answering questions, making notes, etc.

Post-listening Activities which are a chance to check learners understanding of
what they have been listening to, give feedback and consolidate what they have
learnt

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Pre-listening stage
Should help learners by focusing their attention on the topic, activating any knowledge
they have about the topic ( schema ), and making it clear to the learner that they have
to do while they listen, for example:
- Discussing the topic or type of conversation with the learner
- Helping the learners to develop their vocabulary related to topics
- Getting the learners to predict what they will hear(Using mind maps esp.)
- Giving learners information about the context, for example, who is talking, where
they are
- Making sure learners understand what they have to do while they are listening, i.e,
do they have to do something?, write something?, draw something?, and so on..
- Make sure they understand why they are doing the activity, for example to
introduce new language, to practice listening to native speakers ,etc.
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Listening stage
Listening activities are about the learners finding the answers or doing the task.
There are various types of activities, for example:
- Answering questions comprehension, multiple choice, true or false
- Completing something a form, grid, chart, etc. using info that learners hear
- Following directions on a map
- Matching what is being said with a set of pictures
- Doing something in response to what learners hear, for example, draw something,
move in a certain way ( stand up, sit down).
Some listening activities require learners to listen to a text and answer
questions,while other activities require more interaction,i.e. learners listen then
respond or react.
Listen respond/react listen respond/react listen...
To encourage active listening the learners should be given the chance to ask for
clarification,repetition,check they have understood and so on.
Listen ask for repetiotion listen ask for clarification
listen...
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Some examples of listening activities
Listen and draw
Listen and match
usually with pictures
Listen and order pictures or a dialogue
Ss listen to the story and then have to put the pictures or sentences into the right
order
Listen and follow a route on a map
Listening for directions
Listen and complete a form
Listen and correct
error identification
Listen and physically respond
often known as (TPR)
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Post-listening stage
Checking and summarising
-How students come to their answers!
Practising other skills
-Speaking activities
-Writing activities
Personalisation Internalisation
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Teaching Reading
We read a wide vriety of
things:
-novels
-text messages
-letters
-emails
-time tables
-news papers
-magazines


-menus
-coursebooks
-street signs
-labels
-application forms
-websites
-flight or train information boards


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Extensive and Intensive Reading
Extensive Reading
-Extensive reading materials: Ss should be reading materials that they can
understand.
-Specially written materials for extensive reading: graded readers Or
simplified readers
specific list of allowed words and grammar
-The main goal of this activity:Reading for pleasure
Intensive Reading
-The roles of the teacher
Organiser: tell the Ss exactly what their reading purpose is,clear
instructions,how to achieve it and how long they have to do it
Observer: dont interrupt the reading process,observe the progress
Feedback organiser: how successfully have the Ss completed the task/checking
the answers first in groups then in class/how have they come to their
answers/by chance or not
Prompter: prompt them to notice language features within it,we may also as
controllers point out features of text construction,clarifying ambiguities,etc.
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-The vocabulary question
A compromise!
Time limit: in a time limit of say,five
Word/phrase limit: we can say that for example we will only answer questions
about five or eight words or phrases
Meaning consensus: get Ss to work together and step by step enlarge the
group to the whole class
-Letting the Ss in
Students bring their own feelings and knowledge to the task, rather than only
responding to someone elses ideas.
One of the most important questions we can ever ask Ss is Do you like the
text? This provides an effective response to the content of the text
Another way of letting our Ss in is to have them create their own
comprehension task,usually about topics,ppl and events that everyone is
most likely to know sth about,you discuss the subject of the text with the
class before they read! They can complete a chart on the board:

Things I/We know Things I/We are not sure of Things I/we would like to
know
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What reading Skills should Ss aquire?
Reading for gist/Skimming: we do not try to understand the everything
in the text,just what its about generally
Scanning: we want to find out about sth specific,we run our eyes over the
text looking for a specific word or phrase
Reading for detail: Skimming and Scanning are done fairly rapidly,but if we
want to follow a text in detail we read more slowly,we also tend to make
notes as we go along
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Top-down and Bottom-up
In the top-down processing, the reader ( or listener ) gets a
general view of the reading or listening passage by, in some
way absorbing the overall picture.
In the bottom-up processing, on the other hand, the reader
or listener focuses on such things as individuals words,
phrases or cohesive devices and achieves understanding by
putting these detailed elements together to build up a
whole.
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We can break a reading lesson down into three
stages:
- Pre-reading stage: Activities that prepare the learners for
what will they read and set the task for the second stages
- Reading stages: Activities that provide a purpose for reading
and enable the teacher to monitor the learner
- Post-reading stage: Activities for checking, giving feedback,
and follow-up work
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Pre-reading activities
Tasks can be divided into two basic types :
Answering questions
Doing something, for example, drawing, moving, problem solving
Answering questions
Teachers use questions to check whether the learners have undestood a text.
The questions should reflect the type of reading skill being practised,i.e.
-gist questions
-detailed comprehension questions
-scanning questions
Questions can also ask the reader to interact with the text--comment on
it,evaluate it,say what they liked about it or found interesting.
Questions can also be set to be answered in the pre-reading activity and then
checked in the reading activity.
Doing Somthing
A task will encourage students to interact directly with the text,e.g.
-jigsaw reading

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-problem solving
-moving,e.g. miming a story
-order,e.g. in time sequence
Pre- reading activities should help learners achieve the aims of the activity,i.e.
Stimulate what they already know about the topic
Provide them with background information that they need before they
read
Help them with words and phrases they Will need to know
You can get your learners to brainstorm
Pre-teaching the vocabulary
Teach only the new words which are neccessary to understand the text.
It is useful to distinguish between receptive and productive vobaulary:
-receptive vocabulary:the words which are neccessary to understand the
text,but in general are not useful for learners at their present level
-productive vocabulary: the words which appear in the text which are useful
and therefore should be focused on fully so that the learners can use them
correctly
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Reading activities
Here are three types of activities:
-teacher learner interaction activities
-learner-learner interaction activities
-text only activities:the learners read the text all the way through,answering
questions or doing the activities set
teacher learner interaction activities
You can stop learners during their reading to ask them questions,more
suitable with short,stories
learner-learner interaction activities
-jigsaw reading
-problem solving
-reading race
text only activities
-ordering
-jumbled paragraphs
-note-taking
-checking pre-reading activities
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-identifying a picture realted to the text
-following directions
-drawing a picture from a text
-chooosing a title or headline

Post-reading activities
As with listening this stage can involve other akills,such as
writing,speaking or vocabulary development

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Teaching Writing
We can break down the writing process into three
stages:
-preparation_think about the reader,consider why we are
writing,think about the content,decide the appropraie layout
and style
-draft_put our ideas together in a draft form.
-editing and rewriting_we will probably need to re-write
several times so that the text is coherent,and has few or no
mistakes
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generate/gather ideas for content(brain storming)

Organise and order ideas

Write first draft

Edit content for meaning

Write second draft

Edit language and spelling

Write final draft
This figure shows how we might produce a longer text such as a composition


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Writing in the classroom
Writing activities in the classroom are used:
-to develop writing skills
-as part of the process of language learning
Writing longer texts: writing longer texts such as
compositions,reports,short stories,letters and so on requires a range of
sub-skills and use of language,and learners need considerable practice in
these. Longer writing activities are usually divided into three stages:
_Pre-writing stage:the teacher sets the task;learners prepare for what
they will write
_wirting stage:the learners do the task,for example,writing a report,a
story,a letter
_post-writing stage:feedback and follow-up work
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Pre-writing stage
In order to prepare for a writing activity learners can:
-think about the audiance or the reader
-brainstorm-e.g. gathering for or against ideas,relevant vocabulary
-gather information
-practise specific writing skills-e.g. Using punctuation,using linking words and
so on
-practising particular language forms for example past tense if they are going
to write a short story
-decide on the content-what to include and what not to
-look at a model text
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Writing stage
As we saw on slide 26 learners write a draft,edit and rewrite until they
complete the final version. They should refer back to decicions made in
the pre-writing stage regarding audiance,content,aims and outline.
They should also check for use of any language they practised and
make sure that their text is both cohesive and coherent.
The learners can work in groups and give advice and feedback to
eachother.As the learners go through this process the teacher should
monitor and also give advice and feedback. At the same time teachers
should let the learners work as independently as possible.
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Post-writing stage
In this stage learners display and hand their writings to either the
teacher or the whole class for evaluation.
In checking and correcting the written work you may use one of
these methods:
-peer correction(peer editting)
-student correction(self correction)
-teacher correction
Symbols for feedback
As for student or self correction it is often useful if you let them figure it out
on their own,i.e. correct their own writing.
One way og giving learners guided correction is to give them symbols
indicating the kind of mistake they ae making.
sp ww t rp
wo st p #

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Teaching Speaking
Speaking is a productive skill. It involves putting a message
together,communicating the message, and interacting with
other people.
Speaking skills
learners need to develop the following skills:
-producing connected speech
-the ability to interact
-talking round gaps in their knowledge
-speaking in a range of contexts
-balancing accuracy and fluency
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Speaking in the classroom
In the classroom we need to get our learners to practise both production and
interaction. Sometimes we want our learners to practise producing error-
free language;at other times we want our learners to concentrate more on
interaction and on becoming more fluent.
Speaking activities that concentrate on getting learners to produce sounds,
phrases, or grammatical structures range from activities which are
controlled by the teacher to activities where the learners have more
freedom to choose the language they use. Controlled activities generally
focus on the learners producing the language accurately,while less
controlled activities focus on developing the learners fluency.
Drills
Using drills,the teacher has a lot of control over what the learners say-they
must respond to the teacher or to eachother, and the answers to the drills
are fixed-the learners must answer correctly and according to a practise
pattern. Here ae three types of Drill:
Substitution drills
The learners substitude one word for another. You can use substitution drills
to practise structure as well as vocabulary. 32
Transformation Drills
We can get learners to convert to change for example anf affirmitive sentence
into a question.
Functional-situational Drills
In this drill the learner is given different situations to respond to.

One problem with Drills is that the learners can produce correct sentences
without actually understanding what they say. We can add a meaning
element to drills by varying the prompt ,for example:
Teacher pen
Learner theres a pen on the table
Teacher book
Learner theres a book on the table
Teacher floor...
Learner theres a book on the floor
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Types of interactive activities
Information gap activities
-describe and draw
-describe and arrange
-describe and identify
-find the differences
-asking for information
-asking for and giving directions
Discussion activities
-surveys
-ranking activities
-planning
-discussing and solving problems
-debates
Role plays
Games
Informal interaction

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Feedback during oral work
Mistakes ,errors and slips
Mistakes occur whenever Ss produce language that is not correct
Errors are the mistakes the Ss make due to the lack of knowledge or not
having learnt the language correctly
Slips are small mistakes of production which Ss can usually self-correct if they
are pointed out(i.e.they actually know the right way of saying it, but have
just slipped up)
Feedback during accuracy work
Correction is usually made up of two distinct stages. In the first, teachers
show Ss that a mistake has been made, and in the second, if neccessary,
they help the Ss to do sth about it. The first set of techniques we need to
be aware of, then, is devoted to showing incorrectness. These techniques
are only really beneficial for what we ae assuming to be language slips
rather than embedded or systematic errors.
Showing incorrectness
-repeating


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-echoing
-statement and question
-expression
-hinting
-reformulation
Getting it right
If Ss are unable to correct themselves or respond to reformulation,we then
need to focus on the correct version in more detail. We can say the correct
version emphasising the part where there is a problem.
We can also ask ss to help and correct eachother, of course you need to bare
in mind that this only works where we have a genuinely cooperative
atmosphere.
Feedback during fluency work
We as teachers need to be able to untangle problems which our Ss have
encountered or are encountering, but we may well decide to do this after
the event, not during it. Our tolerance of error in fluency session will be
much greater than it is during more controlled sessions.
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Gentle correction
If communication breaks down completely during a fluency activity, we may
well have to intervene. If our Ss cant think of what to say, we may want to
prompt them forwards. However we need to be careful of over-correction.
Recording mistakes
One of the problems of giving feedback after the event is that it is easy to
forget what Ss have said. Most teachers therefore, write down points they
want to refer to later on.
After the event
When we have recorded student performance, we will want to give feedback
to the class. We can do this in a number of ways,we might want to give an
assesment of an activity,saying how well we thought the Ss did in it, and
getting the Ss to tell us what they found easiest or most difficult.
Alternatively, we can write both correct and incorrect words, phrases or
sentences on the board and have the Ss decide which is which.
When we write examples of what we heard on the board it is not generally a
good idea to say Who made the mistakes.
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Teaching Vocabulary
At beginner levels,teachers ferquently use explain and paractice
procedures. For example,we might have individual pictures on
flashcards showing ppl who are tired,sad
happy,frightened,exhausted,etc. We hold up a picture point to
it and say tired...shes tired,while miming a yawn. Then we
model tired and get the Ss to repeat it. Next, we hold up or
point to the next picture and model sad. As the Ss learn more
words,we conduct a substitution drill,holding up different
flashcards(or pointing to different pictures) so that the Ss give
the correct word. Ss can then use the words in their own
sentences.
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For any classes above the complete beginner level we can assume
that different Ss will know a different range of lexical items. A way
of exploiting this is to get the class (with our help) to build their
own vocabulary tree. For example,suppose that intermediate Ss are
working on a unit about homes and houses,we might put this
diagram on the board.
The Ss are asked to add to the diagram as extensively as they can.
Perhaps we put them in different groups,one for each
room(kitchen,bedroom,dining room,etc) and they have to come up
with as many words as possible for their room. Or perhaps they just
come up to the board,one by one, to add to the diagram.While they
are doing this we can help with spelling or pronunciation. And
finally we may add any word important or missing to the diagram
ourselves.
This kind of activity draws on the Ss existing knowledge(which is
why it is appropriate for elementary levels onward);the Ss are
involved;there is movement and discussion, and the teacher is on
hand to explain and practise when its neccessary.
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At higher levels,we can ask Ss to take even more responsibility for
decision-making about how words are used.
Planned vovabulary those words for which you have a syllabus and
schedule to work with. The vocabulary you were already going to tech to
your Ss.
Unplanned vocabulary those words that just come up in the class and Ss
are curious to know what they mean. You define them briefly and spend
as small amount of time possible teaching them.
Ss usually need to see words in context to see how they are
used,accordingly,perhaps,of introducing new words is for Ss to read text or
listen to audio tracks and see or hear those words in action.
A major reason for reading texts in class (in contrast to extensive reading)
is to give Ss new language input.
In dealing with texts,we may ask Ss to do exercises such as matching the
words in the texts with their defenitions. If they read a text about plastic
surgery for instance,we may ask them to find a word in the text that
meansppl whom doctors see and care for(patients),etc.
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We may ask them to say what a word means or, ask them which word in
the text is the opposite of a given word,etc.
The three basic steps in teching Vocabulary: the 3Cs
- Conveying the meaning followed by repetition
- Checking(spot checking) by games,questions,etc.
- Consolidation by asking Ss to make sentences with the newly learnt
vocabulary or by giving them vocabulary activities,sometimes even asking
your Ss to tech the vocabulary item in the workbook is helpful.
A new word has three dimensions: 1. meaning 2. grammar: that is its parts
of speech 3. form which includes pronunciation,syllable stress,etc.

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Teaching Grammar
Grammar can be presented two ways: Inductive Deductive
In deductive method the general rule is given, and afterwards Ss are asked to
do agood deal of repetiotion,substitution drills and as a result learning is
more mechanical than meaningful.
Ss are taught inductively when they first understand the meanig of the
grammatical point. The meaning is completely clarified for them. In an
inductive approach Ss themselves figure out the grammatical point.
Teaching grammar the three Ps:
-Presentation(warm-up in form of questions,discussions,diagrams
contexts,visual aids, translation, etc.)
-practice a)mechanical b)meaningful
-production Ss will be using the newly taught grammar in
sentences,producing a piece of writing with it,describing something,all
different kinds of oral production. Production is getting feedback. Having
practised meaningful activities Ss will be able to personalise the
information,i.e.talk about personal experience using that grammar.
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