3 - Fostering receptive skills (listening&reading)

Using (our) linguistic knowledge and information in speech (sounds, words, phrases, stress, intonation…) + segment the text

·       recognize individual sounds

·       Discriminate between sounds

·       Identify reduced forms

·       Identify stress

·       Recognize intonation patterns

·       identify words and their meaning

·       Discourse markers

·       Use syntactic and lexical knowledge to organize meaning

Using prior knowledge (world knowledge)

—> the world knowledge the listener brings to the speech

—> Non-linguistic, general knowledge

—> Knowledge of the context, facts, etc.

—> memory

·       scripts & schemata: familiar sequences of events, describing the organization of discourse

·       context: visual and non-verbal information

·       It’s natural that you don’t understand everything from the start but it’s important to listen anyway

·       You have to explain convincingly why you are doing what you’re doing to the student

·       Watching movies

·       Learning scripts (telephone calls, ordering in a restaurant…)

·       Contextualizing

·       Also creating "natural" situations, e.g., the news, podcast students are interested in (motivation!)

·       visualization and contextualization

·       Purpose

·       Elicitation of prior knowledge / activating schemata

·       Conversational modification

·       Pre-, while- and post-listening tasks

o   Focus on listening (pictures) —> reduce script

o   Compare thoughts (partner work)

o   Passive comprehension checks (e.g., Total Physical Response)

o   Progress in difficulty

o   Pair work

o   Consolidation of language

o   Clear task

—> easier because you know when a word ends and starts

—> You can go back and reread the sentence / own pace

What types of knowledge do you need to be able to read/understand a text?

·       basic pronunciation rules, sounds

·       Decoding: Blending and Segmenting

·       Comprehension:

o   Active process between reader and text

o   Includes both top-down and bottom-up processes

Reading strategies

Ø  guessing from the context

Ø  distinction between major ideas and minor details

Ø  using world knowledge to understand the text

—> Which strategies do you use when you read?

Ø  skimming

Ø  scanning

Ø  Intensive reading vs. Extensive reading

Ø  use pre-reading questions!

Ø  motivational strategies: let students read something they enjoy