Language skills

1. Language skills Four skills – L,S,R,W • Receptive skills • Productive skills Receptive skills and productive skills feed off each other. What we say or write is heavily influenced by what we hear and see. Harmer,J. (2007)

2. Listening Defined as the process of : • Making sense of spoken learning • Making sense of what they hear • Making sense of verbal /non-verbal response

3. Problems faced by L2 listener • Cultural knowledge • Knowledge of the subject matter • Language difficulty • Communication difficulty

4. Research using a tech “Referential communication paradigm” Children up to the age of 7 face problems in 3 areas: • Listener blamers- blame themselves than the speaker who use descriptions or message that are incomplete, confusing or uninformative. • Poor at evaluating message. • Rarely provide feedback to the speaker.

5. Training to help young children in listening Teacher to model effective strategies to: • Create an awareness of message quality • Make comparisons and formulate questions • Make clarifications • Make specific requests to the speaker

6. What makes listening difficult? • Language • Topic • Visual support • Purpose/task • Context • Organization of information • Explicitness of information (redundancy, sufficiency, referring expressions) • Processing load • Group format

7. Stages in a listening lesson Pre Listening activity • Arouse students interest & establish a need or purpose to listen • Set up predictions • Intellectually challenging • Avoid discussing difficult learning items

8. While Listening • Content or the message of the text rather than the forms • Exercises should focus on general comprehension and gist not on students ability to recall every word • Exercises should help learners focus on text and promote understanding by translating mental knowledge to something more concrete

9. Post Listening • Extension work • Convert the information gathered in while listening activities to other forms- essay, map, picture, plan, a diagram etc. • Procedural drawing for texts on instructions or processes • Product drawing for instructions • Picture strip for a narrative

10. Teaching the spoken language Two distinct processes: • Speaking to learn • Learning to speak

11. The Role of the teacher • Provide conducive situations for learning to take place • Plan your teaching • Motivate students towards learning • Manage your class efficiently • Reassure that they are making progress • Do not discourage students by your corrections • Provide ways for students to best express themselves

12. Three stages in the Teaching of Speaking P-P-P model developed by Byrne (1991) • The presentation stage • Teacher acts the informant • Select material, prepare it and present it in a meaningful way • Students listen and comprehend new input

13. 2.The practice stage • Learners do the talking • Learn to use the new language or skill in controlled practice • Teacher is the skillful conductor of an orchestra

14. 3. The Production Stage • Teacher acts as the manager and guide • Provide real life situations • To develop language fluency • Provide opportunity to use the language for themselves and experience the language to communicate for their personal purposes

15. Flexibility • Stages not to be interpreted too literally • Stages may overlap • Stages may be divided into a few lessons ( purpose, students needs and materials used) Teachers need to balance the 3 stages: Presentation and Practice stages- relevant for accuracy with focus on learning. Production stage- relevant for fluency where students use the language in meaningful and realistic situations

16. Activities to develop speaking skills • Information-gap activities • Describe and draw • Find the difference • Complete it 2. Mime 3. Communication games 3.1 Pair work • Describe and draw • Ask the right question • Describe and arrange

17. Activities to develop speaking skills 3.2 Group work • Deserted island • Story completion 3.4 Role play • Open ended dialogues • Role instructions • Scenario 3.5 Simulation