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Reading and listening are the two receptive skills which students learn and use for English classes. The other part of teaching, the productive skills; speaking and writing, depend on input before they can be produced correctly, and these receptive skills provide the input. As teachers, this is the main importance of the receptive skills. But the student also has his or her own reasons for utilising the receptive skills. The student will recognise the importance of reading and writing for the everyday activities around the English speaking environment. This will include reading and listening to information at travel points, workplace information, accommodation details, and many more. The student will also want to use the productive skills for entertainment purposes. When they want to see a movie, read a book, or just listen to a good story or joke being told by a friend, the receptive skills are vital. We, as Teachers, can utilise these other needs to improve the quality, correctness, enjoyment and vitality of the lessons. Entertainment is an important ingredient in the classroom which will improve the results. We can use the entertainment side of the receptive skills to create interest in the classroom. This can be very effective, for example, in the Engage section of the lesson. At this stage of the lesson, the students will usually be participating in group conversation, and if it is conversation which they enjoy, then the Engage section will be more effective. This Engage part sets the stage for the rest of the lesson. The more engaged the student is, the better will be the outcome of the lesson. Of course the above reason only uses the listening part. Some activities can include a reading component, but these tend to not be used so often. So it can be seen that the reading side of the learning process will tend to be neglected in the classroom. As we have seen, the reading is also very important, so it is important to include activities which will promote this talent. We promote the reading skill every time we hand out a worksheet, or write on the board, or give the students an extract to read and comment on. These should be included in the day’s activities. We can optimise the experience in several ways; choosing the material is vital. We should select a variety of texts which the student will find more interesting. Also understanding the general inclinations of the students in a monocultural classroom can lead the teacher to an understanding of what the students will find more interesting. We should choose materials which are at an appropriate level of understanding, so the students don't get bogged down in material which is largely beyond their comprehension or is too easy. But even before the topic, the introduction itself can influence the success. We can promote it by making our introduction interesting and pertinent to the class as a whole. We can also tailor the topic to suit the student profile. For example, a class full of business students will all have similar reasons for using this skill, and a similar background, so we can incorporate this into the topic. In conclusion, it can be seen that the receptive skills are indeed very important in a successful English class. Maximising the learning and use of these skills will improve greatly the overall outcomes of the students.
