3 M Sec Developing Receptive Skills Rev.pdf

Module 3. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. Listening and Reading Skills

MUPES Metodología de la especialidad Ramiro Durán Martínez (Universidad de Salamanca) [email protected]

What does “communicate” mean? Discuss with someone else, or think about, the four “definitions” of “communicate” below. a) speak b) speak to someone c) know grammar d) get a message across to someone 1. Eliminate any that you feel are obviously wrong and say why they are inadequate. 2. Which definition comes nearest to your own feelings about the word? 3. Would you accept this definition as it stands or do you need to amplify it at all? 4. If no definition comes close to your own ideas, can you suggest an alternative definition?

Linguistic vs commnunicative competence COMPETENCES LINGUISTIC – LANGUAGE SYSTEM COMMUNICATIVE – LANGUAGE SKILLS

Linguistic vs Communicative Competence Classify each activity as “mainly skills” or “mainly systems”, and then decide which skills or which language systems are being worked on a) The teacher writes a grammar exercise on the board which learners copy and then do. b) Learners read a newspaper story and then discuss the story with each other. c) Learners underline all past simple verb forms in a newspaper article. d) Learners chat with their teacher about the weekend. e) Learners write an imaginary postcard to a friend, which the teacher then corrects. f) The teacher uses pictures to teach ten words connected to TV. g) The teacher says What tenses do these people use? Learners then listen to a taped conversation.

Linguistic vs Communicative Competence Here are two teaching situations. What balance of the four systems and the four skills would make a useful course for these learners? a) A twenty-four year-old Japanese learner has studied grammar at school for nine years; she can read and understand even complex texts well. She has arrived in England to take a two-week intensive course. In her placement test (which was mainly multiple choice grammar questions) she scored very well but at the initial interview she had trouble answering even simple questions about herself and often asked the interviewer to repeat the questions. b) A group of three undergraduate science students have enrolled for an English course at a Czech language school. They know no English at all.

The communicative approach A communicative approach to language teaching is one which: 1) remembers that communication is both verbal and non-verbal 2) teaches communicative competence and not just linguistic competence 3) places the emphasis on function as well as on form 4) takes into account the notion of appropriateness 5) attaches as much importance to fluency as to accuracy 6) allows for an element of unpredictability in the classroom

Which activity is more communicative? Why? ACTIVITY 1 Aids: Wallchart depicting a family (coloured) Procedure: 1. Teacher elicits sentences from the students like “Tom's shirt is red” and “Mr Carter´s tie is blue”. 2. Teacher switches to a question and answer technique. Teacher points to the wallchart and elicits: Student A: What colour is Tom's shirt? Student B: Blue.

ACTIVITY 2 Aids: Wallchart depicting a family (coloured) Procedure: 1. Tell them they are going to play a game. 2. Divide them into pairs and make the members of each pair sit facing in opposite directions. 3. Stick the coloured wallchart up at one end of the room so that only one member of each pair can see it. 4. Give the other half of the class uncoloured line drawings and coloured pencils. 5. Tell them that they have got to colour their line drawings by asking their partners for information.

The Listening skill General Principles In Teaching/Learning Listening Comprehension 

Definite goals

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Careful step by step planning

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Active pupil participation

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Increase ss. memory spans

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Teach, not test

Training In Listening 

Intensive listening

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Extensive listening

Developing Aural Understanding (strategies) 

being aware of how lexical sets can indicate topics

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to interpret the use of stress, intonation, loudness,...

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to recognise transition words

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to predict what is coming next in an utterance or a conversation

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make guesses based on the context, tone

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to distinguish between fact and opinion, ...

Stages in Listening work 

pre-listening / while-listening / post-listening

A PROCEDURE FOR LISTENING (and reading!) 1. generate interest 2. pre-teach essential vocabulary 3. set gist task (and give a time limit) 4. first listening (or reading) 5. students compare answers 6. feedback 7. set intensive task 8. second listening (or reading) 9. students compare answers 10. feedback 11. exploit the material for follow up activities: e. g. focus on grammar from listening / reading, vocabulary work or set up a discussion / role play / writing related to the topic

The Reading Skill

Look at these different text-types. How does the way you would typically read them differ? a) instructions about how to install a printer b) the TV programme in the paper c) a news report on an air crash d) a thriller e) a postcard from a friend on holiday What implications might this have for dealing with texts in the classroom?

Reading comprehension: Reading techniques Pupil´s difficulties:  getting the global picture / misunderstanding of particular points / problems to differenciate between what the writer says and what they think. Text difficuties:  long and complicated sentences / repetitive style / implicit information / guess many unknown words simply by studying the context. Reading sub-skills 

predictive skills

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extracting specific information

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getting the general picture

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inferring opinion and attitude

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deducing meaning from context

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recognising function and discourse patterns and markers Reading activities

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pre/ while / post-reading (aim)