,F-SKtLLS

\r<
-
oasic
nethodological
nodel for the
:eaching of
receptive skills
that we detailed in 10.1.3. (a).(b) and
(c)' and it is suggested
tasks form the basis for the first activities that students are aske'
perform when learning receptive skills' Type 2 skills are those th'
subsequently
used wh-n studying reading or listening material ano
involvedetailedcomprehensionofthetext(afterstudentshaveper.urmed
tirpe 1 skills)l the study of vocabulary to develop guessing strategies: the
iilntification
of discourse markers and construction
and an investigation
into the speaker's or writer's opinion and attitude.Type
2 skills' then. are
g.n..utty concerned
with a moie detailed analysis of text and for this reason
Ire generatiy practised after type 1 skills have been worked on (see
10.1.3 (d), (e) and (f)).
'We
can now \ook a\ a mode\ tol teaching the receptive skills which is based
on the discussion of methodological principles in the first part of this
chapter. Just as in our model for introducing new language (see Figure 9 on
page 58) this model is not designed to be followed slavishly but is intended
to provide general methodological guidelines.
The model has five basic stages which are:
Here the students and the teacher prepare themselves for
the task and familiarise theniselves with the topic of the
reading or listening exercise. One of the major reasons for
this is to create expectations and arouse the students'
interest in the subject matter of the spoken or written text
(see
10.2.3).
Leod-in:
T directs Here the teacher makes sure that the students know what
comprehension they are going to do. Are they going to answer questions'
task: fill in a chart. complete a message pad or try and re-tell
whattheyheard/saw?Thisiswheretheteacherexplainsand
directs the students' purpose for reading or listening (see
10,2.3).
SS tistenl The students then read or listen to a text to perform the
read for task: task the teacher has set.
When the students have performed the task the teacher will
help students to see if they have completed the task
successfully and will find out how well they have done. This
may follow a stage in which students check their answers
with each other first. (See 8.1.1
(c) and examples in 10.4
and 10.5.)
T tlirects The teacher will then probably organise some kind of
text-related follow-up task related to the text. Thus if the students have
task: answered questions about a letter the text-related task might
be to answer that letter. The reasons for text-related tasks
have been argued in 5.5 and I0.2.1.
The five stages are concerned with type 1 skills. In other words the
students perform one skiil operation on the text and then move on to a
T directs
feedback:
THE PRACTI'
,ACTICE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
10.4
Reading material
text-related task. This procedure mav varv, however. in two particular
circumstances.
When the students have performed tasks for type 1 skilis the teacher
may then ask them to re-examine the text for type 2 skill work. Thus if the
first task involved getting the general picture (see 10.4..1) the teacher might
return to the text (after directing feedback) for a type 2 skill task such as
infcrring attitude or deducing meaning. This takes place before the student.
move to a text-related task.
If the students perform verv unsuccessfullv in their first comprehension
task (type l) the teacher ma;- redirect them to the same task to try again.
This will take place before the text-related task.
These procedures are represented diagrammatically in Figure 18. The
solid lines (-)represent a course of action that will generallv be taken
The four stages of type I skill work and the three stages of type 2 skill work
(if the t.vpe 2 option is taken up) are examples of this. The broken lines
(-
- - -)
represent optional courses of action. Thus the text-related task is
optional (although we have stressed that it is a good idea) and so is
the re-reading of/listening to the text for ty'pe 2 skills or for repair work on
t1,pe 1 skills. The latter case explains the (1) in brackets.
ln general, then. this is the model n'e u,ill follow when looking at
materials for reading and listening in 10..1 and 10.5.
T\PL I SKILI 5
fYPt (l)
SKII I 5
______J
Figure I8 A methodological model for the teaching of receptive skills
Before looking at eramples of reading material u'e u'ill make some general
comments about reading in the classroom.
Reading is an exercise dominated br,the ey'es and the brain. The eves
receive messages and the brain then has to work out the significance of
these messagcs. Unlike a listcning text, a reading text moves at the speed l
thc reader (except u'here the reader is trying to read an advertisement that
flashes past a train windou'). In other u'ords it is up to the reader to decidu
how fast he or she wants to (or can) read a text. \\,hereas listeners often
have to do their best with a text whose speed is chosen b1' the speaker. Th.
fact that reacling tcxts are stationarr.'is clearlv a huge advantage.
:
l
;
I
ll
tl,
lI
7 directr
com preh ensron
tas k
.5"S readr listen
IOt la\x
I direcrs feedback
f directs
eomprehension
5.S read. listcn
1or ta\k
f directs feedback
f directs te\i
related tasl
190
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