Teach English in Machang Zhen - Changzhi Shi

The teaching of receptive skills (reading and listening) presents quite a number of potential problems which need to be addressed. These are mainly in connection with the language contained in the text, the topic and the tasks the students will perform. Fortunately, there are many ways of approaching all those difficulties. First of all, we need to pre-teach vocabulary. We need to teach them difficult/ unknown language and structures, prior to commencing a reading or listening activity. This should at least help to remove some of the obstacles that they are likely to come across. However, if students never get past the stage of having to understand each and every word, they will never really feel comfortable with receptive skills. Learning to understand texts without knowing every word is a skill that we should also encourage in our students. So, some kind of balance needs to be struck between pre-teaching structures and letting students access unknown language. A sensible solution would be to only need to pre-teach the words that are essential to understanding and leaving other vocabulary work until later. Then, if the teacher is careful as to listening and reading materials presented to the students, he/she can expose the students to a variety of authentic and non-authentic texts. Authentic texts are not designed for language students whereas non-authentic are. Non-authentic texts will allow students access to material that contains language more suited to the students' abilities, whereas authentic texts will expose students to text that should give them confidence with their skills. Authentic materials must be carefully selected so as to focus on what the students know, rather than how much they don't know. The topic of the text or dialogue can also help to motivate the students. If the topic isn't interesting it is less likely that the students will really engage with materials. Therefore we really need to think about how we choose topics and the tasks that go with them. Knowing our students and what really interests them is vital here. Obviously individual students have individual interests and topic may interest some of the class but not others. A variety of topics, over a period of time, is needed to ensure that all of our students are equally catered for in the end. Do not assume that because a topic interests you that it will be of equal interest to your students. Get to know them and their interests. It will assist you greatly in selecting suitable material. If the teacher can get the students motivated and engaged in the tasks, there is a much greater possibility that they will read and listen with real enthusiasm, whether or not they were originally interested in the topic. We can get students engaged by discussing the topic, showing pictures, predicting what the text will be about and other "engage" phase activities. An important feature in the teaching of receptive skills concern comprehension tasks. We need to provide comprehension tasks that promote understanding, as opposed to just checking understanding. A good task shouldn't be too easy or too difficult. A quite common activity is jigsaw reading, where students are placed in pairs and each reads part of the text. They can share their information to complete other tasks. Another technique that can be used is "jumbled texts". This is where the paragraphs of a text are jumbled up, for the students to re-order. You can even jumble two stories together, for the students to sort out both. Summary, the basic keys to successful receptive skills lessons are: - Choose material that interest/ motivates the students. - Build interest before listening/ reading. - Pre-teach complex vocabulary or structures if necessary. - Vary the type of material. - Use the material to practice different skills. - Use realistic comprehension task that aid understanding. - Incorporate activate phases that naturally lead on from the text.