Teach English in Laugharne - TEFL Courses

Interpretation and Receptiveness: The Act of Teaching Receptive Skills in the Classroom When we engage in the act of reading and listening, we are doing more than merely using our eyes and our ears in a simplistic, non-complex fashion. When we interpret text and receive and analyze the sounds we hear, we are using inert mental capabilities to create an interaction that shapes each sound and produces meaning based on our pre-existing knowledge of our own worlds. Teaching these skills requires an available, social approach that must be extremely detail-orientated in nature. This article will deconstruct the analysis of how we utilize interpretation and receptiveness as mental activities as well as discuss teaching approaches that create a more solid and beneficial learning structure for the efl student. When we read and listen, we are doing so in a way that utilizes multiple different motives and reasoning. We interpret and listen to sounds for specific purposes such as understanding specific directions, or purely for entertainment, in which the sounds and text we analyze are for our own enjoyment. However, these two categories are not mutually exclusive and overlap quite normally throughout or daily lives. In the article "Editor's Introduction: Acts of Listening", Andy Kaplan makes an interesting assertion about the more nuanced aspects of how we listen, stating that, "Listening is a form of attention, not only in the sense that we await and focus on what someone else is saying but also in the sense that the utterance of another takes shape in our own mind. Listening is then a mental as well as an aural activity" (1). Kramer is arguing here that the act of listening requires us to use a process of analyzing to create our own meanings from what we have previous knowledge of. For an efl student, comprehending spoken material means attaching similar means together in a mental process and creating a meaning based on what they have already learned. We utilize a number of concentrated skills in order to comprehend the material we are reading or listening to. The rate of success in an efl students' ability to comprehend certain material is based on these skills, which include predictive skills in which we deduce the general idea of the text by reading a title or headline, scanning for specific information, skimming to ascertain the general idea, reading to locate specific and detailed information and deducing the meaning from the content we hear or read, in which we interpret a meaning of our own that may not be implied. These skills are ones that are used to interpret every written or aural form of communication in the world as well as communication between individuals, and as Kramer asserts are "social as well as physical. In addition to hearing the sounds that others produce, the act of listening implies an interaction that creates context and meaning " (2). Kramer is highlighting the fact that these are highly social skills that are critical to an efl students' learning experience, for they employ aspects that will help them to understand underlying meanings and nuances of english speech that they may not understand without understanding cultural, social context. From my previous teaching experience, many of the students I taught already were mostly capable in effectively communicating in english and knew much about cultural references when discussed. For my efl students, these cultural references were missed altogether due to lack of contextual understanding. I tried in my best efforts to expose them slowly to non-authentic written and auditory materials that would incorporate cultural references in increments that would allow them to begin forming a knowledge database that would allow them to begin to interpret meaning as time went on. Teaching receptive skills in the classroom requires a great deal of sub-categorical lesson planning that mostly deals with exposing the students to as many forms of language, in order to overcome language difficulties the students might encounter. When students read text, the text is always available for reference and deduction since it is physically present. However, listening is not the same since the material is not tangible. Pre-teaching specific vocabulary found within a text before teaching it to students is an excellent way of allowing students to understand the main point of the text. However, the students should also be able to read text without having to understand each and every word, which can be an exceptionally difficult task. Another teaching method would be to choose texts with extreme care, seeking out non-authentic material which is more suited for the language abilities of efl students. Later, students can be exposed to authentic material, that although is not specifically designed to teach english such as poetry, will give students extra confidence in their own abilities. These are general suggestions for teaching; the basic tenants of teaching receptive skills to students are choosing material that is specifically suited to the language ability of the students at hand, creating interest in the topic to hold student attention, have realistic expectations of student abilities and present exercises and activities that not only build onto each other, but that exercises different skills. I speak from prior experience when I say that getting to know students personally is the key to making any of these teaching methodologies realistically work in the classroom once utilized, and as Kaplan puts every so eloquently, "we attend to sounds and meanings in ways that make us sensitive and appreciative" (4). Always keeping the students interests in mind before thinking of ourselves, teaching receptive skills can be an extremely intimate, personal experience for both student and teacher.