Teaching the language and the skills

1. Teaching the language
and the skills

2. LANGUAGE SKILLS
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
LANGUAGE
SYSTEMS
Lexis
Grammar
Pronunciation

3. Receptive skills
Listening and Reading

5. Receiving language

7. Top-down and Bottom-up
language processing
• Using your knowledge of the
world in general to
understand what you read or
hear.
• Using your knowledge of
typical text layout and staging
to locate specific information.
• Using your knowledge of the
topic to help you understand.
UP
DOWN
BOTTOM
TOP
using your formal linguistic knowledge
of:
• the pronunciation of English to
distinguish (, e.g.,
between pin and bin)
• lexis and how it is pronounced to
understand meaning in a written or
spoken text.
• intonation to understand a speaker's
emotional state and intention.
the grammar of the language to
distinguish, e.g., between He
arrived and He has arrived
• conjunctions, discourse markers and
sequencers to identify connections
and relationships between ideas.
.

8. LISTENING

9. Schema Theory & background
knowledge

10. a) What sorts of texts are they?
b) where will you find the most important information?

11. The first text is a newspaper article:
◦ It has a banner headline to catch the eye
◦ There is a large graphic to intrigue the reader
◦ The text is divided into columns
◦ Paragraphs are short and spread out to make reading easy
The second text is a technical article of some kind:
◦ The title comes in two parts
◦ The authors' names are at the top
◦ There is a subtitle which is probably 'Abstract' or 'Summary'
◦ There's a graphic
◦ The text is dense and continuous
The third text is a recipe:
◦ There's a picture of the finished meal
◦ There's a list of ingredients
◦ The procedure is numbered in stages
Important information
◦ Text 1: the first paragraph will set the scene: when, where, who? The final paragraph will sum up the situation. Everything in
between can be ignored.
◦ Text 2: the abstract at the beginning will tell you if you need to read it. At the end there will probably be a summary of the
main points and that will often include suggestions for further research and work. Detail will be in the text.
◦ Text 3: the list of ingredients will tell you if you have what's needed. All the text is important because it is a set of
instructions.

12. What are the teaching
implications of teaching
RECEPTIVE skills?

13. Developing reading comprehension

14. Top-down
reading
procedure

15. Developing listening comprehension

16. Top-down
listening
procedure

17.  Expose learners to a range of text types and explicitly focus them on things like staging and
layout. If our learners can recognise the text type and know where information will come, it
will help them considerably.
 Establish a purpose. Learners need a reason for listening or reading so that they know which
skills to use and how to 'attack' a text. You can't understand easily if you don't know what you
are looking or listening for.
 Include both bottom-up and top-down strategies.
 Encourage the development of reading and listening strategies
 Balance authenticity and readability
 Subdivide your techniques into pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading.

18. Task
In groups, develop
different reading
strategies to
approach this text

19. Productive skills
Speaking and writing

22. Speaking is… Because…
Contextualised
Unplanned
Transient
Dynamic
Innovative
Informal

23. Speaking is… Because…
Contextualised When we speak to someone we do so in a context, not alone. We have our surroundings to refer to and we know the
time and place of our conversation. If, for example, some says, Over there!, it is clear what they mean with no further
explanation needed.
Unplanned Unless we are presenting a formal talk or making a speech (something few learners need to do), we do not plan what
to say in advance. We must think on our feet.
Speakers in all languages use hesitation (err, um etc.) and fillers such as well, like, and sort of to give them time to
think.
Transient Unless we are making a recording (leaving a telephone message, for example), what we say is immediately gone with
only our memories left.
Speaking moves quickly and few people can remember everything that is said.
Dynamic When we are speaking, we have to respond to our listeners and adapt what we say if they look puzzled, interested or
bored, for example.
Speaking is a much more active, two-way process than writing because feedback is usually immediate.
Innovative When we are speaking, we do not have time to select exactly the right word or piece of grammar that we
need. Native speakers rarely use all the right words and correct grammar when they speak (in any language).
Speakers make things up as they go along, saying, e.g., the thing for trimming the lawn or the whatsit for cleaning
windows etc.
Informal Almost all speaking is more informal than writing so we use colloquial expressions, contractions and even slang when
we speak.
Some speaking (such as presenting at a meeting or giving a speech) can be formal but even here, using contractions
and some colloquial or vague language is very common.

24. Style and
Register

25. Both speakers and writers need some
understanding of these two ideas
.
stylerefers to levels of formality and can affect
grammar: Wish you were here / I wish you were here
Listen up! / Please listen to me
lexis: Sort out your stuff / Please clear up your property and put it away
pronunciation: informally, we shorten words, drop the /h/ sound at the beginning or change the /ŋ/ to /n/
at the end of words. In formal style, we are careful to pronounce more carefully.
registerrefers to language appropriate for our topic or field
grammar: technical literature often avoids the use of the first person, contractions and active voice sentence
lexis: using technical terms such as catalyst, socio-economic class, goalie, mens rea etc.

26. Speaking

27. Topic and genre
Explore the CD and list all the topics and genres young
children are exposed to

28. Typical
listening/speaking
genres for
children

29. Typical
reading/writing
genres for
children

30. Basic speaking
sequence:

31. Task:

32. Approaches to teach writing

35. GRAMMAR

38. Learning a new item of language…
Exposure
Oral and written language
Plenty, comprehensible,
authentic..
Notice
•Notice items in use (dialogues, texts).
•Text containing multiple examples
•Guided discovery
Understand
Form and function,
,meaning.
Remember
• Recycle and review.
Use
• Oral or written
• Tasks that allow learners use
the language they know..
Try out/Practice
• In a safe environment.
• Limited linguistics demands
• Oral and written
• Provide encouragement and feedback.
03
01
04
02 05
06

39. Expose
01

40. Notice
02

41. Understand
DEDUCTIVE
the teacher conducts lessons by introducing and
explaining concepts to students
Students complete tasks to practice the concepts
teacher-centred.
INDUCTIVE
the teacher presents students with many
examples showing how the concept is used.
Students “notice”, they create rules to
understand how the concept works. Teacher may
scaffold (guide, ask questions).
• Student-centred
• Contextualized
• Meaningful and engaging
• Similar to L1 acquisition, natural
development of language
03

42. Try out/Practice
Drills
Exercises
Dialogues
Games
04

43. Use
05