Teach English in QianzhAn Zhen - Jieyang Shi

Teaching receptive skills. As was mentioned, our reasons and motivations for reading and listening fall into two categories: For a purpose, when we want to achieve a particular aim or goal, and for entertainment, for example reading a novel - because we find it pleasurable or enjoyable. Of course, our minds should be able to grasp the overall meaning of the words we read or listen to based on our pre-existing knowledge of the world and we must be able to understand and recognize them. Readers and listeners employ a number of specialist skills which are: predictive skills, scanning, skimming, detailed information and deduction from context. Some problems in teaching and learning receptive skills may arise due to the language contained in the text, the choice of topic and the tasks given to students. Sentence length, word length and a number of unfamiliar words can also be a problem to learners of English. Reading presents fewer problems as the text is captured and students have more time to absorb or they have more time to think about it, as opposed to listening where students don't have time to deduce the meaning and the language isn't \"captured\". So how do we approach these difficulties? By pre-teaching vocabulary, careful selection of texts, finding a topic that is interesting, create interest and giving tasks that is realistically achievable - provide a task that is neither too easy nor too difficult. To be able to do these effectively, the teacher has to get to know his/her students and their interests. The basic skills to successful receptive lessons are: Choose materials that interests and motivates the students, build interest before reading/listening, pre-teach complex vocabulary or structures if necessary but without exaggerating, vary the type of material, use material to practice different skills, use realistic comprehension tasks that aid understanding and incorporate activate phases that naturally lead on from the text.