The document summarizes the key findings from a mini-course on developing receptive skills (listening and reading) for language teachers. [1] It found that common practices like reading aloud in class and not teaching reading strategies were not effective based on changes in teacher beliefs before and after the course. [2] The mini-course was effective at raising awareness of using both top-down and bottom-up processing and the need for explicit strategy instruction. [3] Teachers reported changes in their practices, like incorporating more reading activities and genres.

1. Isabela Villas Boas
Marta Diniz de Rezende

2. Classroom • Our own and our
observations colleagues’
Identification • Not in keeping with the
institutional guidelines
of and experts’
problematic recommendations.
areas
• Mini-course
to raise
Action awareness;
Experiential
approach

3. Reading is seen as a boring
activity that needs to be
“packaged” in a fun way, which
may actually hamper the
development of reading skills.
In an attempt to make the reading and
listening more palatable to students,
teachers fail to help them develop
strategies that will lead them to
become independent readers and
listeners.
Listenings and readings,
especially, end up becoming
more of a springboard to
speaking or to learning grammar
and vocabulary.

4.  Answer pre-course questionnaire: knowledge and beliefs
concerning the teaching of listening and reading.
 Engage in an authentic, integrated listening and reading
lesson tailored to the group´s needs.
 Explore main theoretical principles underlying listening and
reading comprehension.
 Examine what proficient readers do, focus on reading
strategies, and go over the necessary steps in every listening
and reading class.
 Reexamine the questionnaire answered prior to the course, in
the light of what was discussed on the four days.

5.  Context: Private language institute
 Participants:
Most teachers with 5+
years of experience; 32 in two
sessions, delivered in 2011 and 2012
 Analysis
of pre and post-mini-course
questionnaires

7. Which items do you
think propitiated the
greatest awareness-
raising?

8. 1) Good readers believe that reading is decoding
and pronouncing the words correctly.
35 31
30 27
25
20
15 9%
10
5 3
1 0 0
0
True False Not answered

9. 2) Reading aloud in class enhances students’
understanding and pronunciation.
35 32
30
25 24
20
25%
15
10 8 True
5 False
0
0

10. - If a teacher says ‘My students really enjoy
X’, you can usually interpret this as ‘I like
X, and I ask my students to do it a lot’. Which
CAN be a good thing. But not with reading
aloud.
- The idea that this kind of reading aloud is
good speaking practice is patently absurd. It
isn’t real speaking at all, it’s reading aloud, a
sub-skill that very few people have in their
own language, let alone in one that they are
learning.
- Good for their pronunciation? Not in my
experience. In fact, when I’ve had to the
chance to talk to students afterwards, I
discovered that their speaking was markedly
better than I might have imagined if I had
only heard them struggling through the text.
http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/reading-aloud-in-class-is-a-complete-waste-of-
time-discuss/

11. (...) This reading around the class is something
we recall from our old school days. Why might
this popular technique not be effective?
-I read faster than he speaks.
- It’s so boring.
- She makes mistakes.
- I’ve already read to page 37 myself.
- He can’t pronounce it and he gets embarrassed.
- I’m so nervous about reading, I miss the story.
- I can’t follow the story with all these different
people speaking.
- I prefer to read to myself.
- It’s going to be 35 minutes till my go.
Round the class reading tends to be
a slow, tedious, turn-off rather than a
rouser of enthusiasm.
(Scrivener, 2005, pp.
189, 190)

12. Frequently the task of processing
meaning and speaking aloud at the
same time is too much for the
learner, with the consequence that
processing meaning gets dropped.
Thus, it doesn’t improve reading
skills, and neither is it useful for
language reinforcement, as the learner
is reading without understanding.
Sue Swift
@eltnotebook
http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com.br/2006/12/reading-aloud.html

13. 3) Teaching reading and listening
strategies guarantees students’ success in
both skills.
30 28
25 12%
21
20
TRUE
15
FALSE
10 Blank
8
5 4
1
0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

14. Being strategic while reading
does not guarantee successful
comprehension. Readers may
apply a variety of
strategies, monitor their
comprehension, and still not
understand what they are
reading. But the strategic reader
will not give up. A strategic
reader focuses on successful
(Anderson, 2009, p.
comprehension and does all 136)
that it takes to understand. Non-
strategic readers give up soon.

15. 4) The Communicative Approach
emphasizes bottom-up processing at the
expense of top-down processing.
35
30
30 40%
25
20
17 TRUE
15 FALSE
12 Blank
10
5 3 2
0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

16. Types of comprehension processing
Top Down
Concept-driven
Comprehension is the
process of using The starting point is
linguistic knowledge to within the mind of the
decipher the little black listener or reader.
marks in the text.
Comprehension is a
The starting point is the process of making sense
text itself. of a text in the most cost-
effective way.
Data-driven
Bottom Up

17. READING FOR COMPREHENSION
DUAL
APPROACH
Han and D´Angelo (2009)
READING FOR ACQUISITION

18. Reading is a process of
constructing meaning
from text. Readers use
background knowledge
and linguistic cues
from the
graphophonic, syntactic,
and semantic systems
Freeman and Freeman (2009) as they read.

19. The almost exclusive
focus on top-
down, schema-based
approaches to reading
instruction emphasized
in Communicative
Language Teaching is
insufficient to develop
effective readers.
(Grabe, 2009)

20. 5) The word “text” refers to any
communicative unit.
35
31
30 34%
25
20
20
TRUE
15 FALSE
11 Blank
10
5
1 1 0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

22. 6) Reading and listening are passive skills
which involve top-down and bottom-up
processing.
35
31
30 50%
25
20
17
15 TRUE
15 FALSE
10
5
1
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

24. 7) Letters, labels, comic strips, and
reports are examples of text genres.
35
32
30 15%
27
25
20
TRUE
15 FALSE
10
5
5
0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

25. “Genres are forms of life, ways of
being. They are frames for social
action, the place where meaning is
constructed.” (Bazerman, 2006)

26. 8) I often assign readings for homework
due to the lack of time in class.
16 15
14 12%
12 11
10
10
TRUE
8
6 FALSE
6 Blank
4
2 1 1
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

27. Snow
Scrivener
Anderson
Brown

28. 9) I feel uncomfortable assigning a ten-minute text for
students to read in class because I feel I’m not
teaching.
30 28
26
25
09%
20
TRUE
15
FALSE
10 Blank
6
5 3
1
0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

29. 10) When the listening is too long or more
challenging, it should be broken into smaller
chunks.
35
32
30 62%
25
20
20
TRUE
15 FALSE
10 Blank
10
5
2
0 0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

30. Students should first listen to the whole
recorded passage once, trying to get the
general outline.
(Snow ,2007, p. 94)
A simple plan would be as follows:
-Set questions.
-Play recording.
-Check if students have found the answers.
- If not, play the recording again as often as
necessary. (p. 172)
(Brown, 2001, p. Utilize authentic language and
258)
contexts: authentic language and
real-world tasks enable students
to see the relevance of classroom
activity to their long-term
communicative goals

31. 11) Before students read a text, it is a good idea to
pre-teach them all the most difficult words to lower
their anxiety.
30 28
25
37%
20
16
14 TRUE
15
FALSE
10 Blank
5 4
2
0
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

32. In order to make students, better
readers, we need first of all to raise
their awareness that it‟s not always
essential to understand every
word, and that practising some
different reading techniques in English
may be very useful to them. (p. 184)
1. High frequency words deserve
sustained attention.
2. Low frequency words are best
ignored or dealt with quickly.
3. The vocabulary learning strategies
of guessing from
context, analysing words using
word parts, and dictionary use
deserve repeated attention over a
long period of time. (Nation, 2009. p. 38)

33. Bargain with students: They do more or
less what we ask of them provided that
we do more of less what they ask of us.
We may encourage students to read for
general understanding without
understanding every word on a first of
second read-through. But
then, depending on what else is going
to be done, we can give them a chance
to ask questions about individual
words and/or give them a chance to
look them up.
(Harmer, 2007, p.
287)

34. 12) When the text is too long, we can break it into parts
and have each group read one part and share it orally
(jigsaw reading). This way, the class becomes more
communicative and students won’t get bored by having
to read the whole text.
35
65%
30 29
25 23
20
TRUE
15 FALSE
Blank
10 8
5
2 1 1
0
Pre-questionnaire Post-questionnaire

35. Controlling the formal aspects
of language use in reading and
writing is a way out from
subordinate and marginalized
uses of language. (...) Leaving
language instruction at an
intuitive and „mystical‟ level of
„natural language acquisition‟
may be easy for the teacher
and may make some students
feel good, but it leads to
disempowerment.
(Grabe, 2002, p
. 279)

36. Teachers’ Voices
The mini-course Tips to activate
“Receptive Skills” was eye-opening
in several aspects. Specifically, I
have integrated reading activities
involving both bottom-up and top-
down processing skills in my
teaching practice.

37. Teachers’ Voices
The mini-course did have impact on my
teaching. During this semester, I tried to work
with different text genres to raise students'
reading comprehension skills, which led to
much more colorful debates in class.
Also, I didn't feel I was wasting time while doing long listening and
reading exercises in class; on the contrary, the students benefited
from the time given to read and understand the texts (especially
adults) and to explore the vocabulary in a meaningful way.

38. References
Anderson, N. J. (2009). ACTIVE Reading: The Research Base for a Pedagogical Approach in the Reading
Classroom. In ZhaoHong Han & Neil J. Anderson (Editors). Second Language Reading Research and
Instruction – Crossing the Boundaries. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Bazerman, C. (2006). Gênero, Agência e Escrita. São Paulo: Cortêz.
Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by Principles. White Plains, NY: Addison Wesley, Longman.
Freeman, D. and Freeman, Y. (2009). Effective Reading Instruction for English Language Learners. In
ZhaoHong Han & Neil J. Anderson (Editors). Second Language Reading Research and Instruction – Crossing
the Boundaries. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
Grabe, W. (2002). Dilemmas for the Development of Second Langauge Reading Abilities. In J. C. Richards and
W. A. Renandya (Eds). Methodology in Language Teaching – Na Anthology of Current Practice. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.
Grabe, W. (2010). Reading in a Second Language. Cambridge University Press.
Han, ZH. and D’Angelo, A. (2009). Balancing between Comprehension and Acquisition: Proposing a Dual
Approach. In ZhaoHong Han & Neil J. Anderson (Editors). Second Language Reading Research and Instruction
– Crossing the Boundaries. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

39. References
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited.
Nation, I.S.P. ( 2009). Teaching EFL Reading and Writing. New York, NY: Routledge.
Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. Oxford, UK: Macmillan Education.
Snow, D. (2007) From Language Learner to Language Teacher – An Introduction to Teaching English as a
Foreign Language. Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
Swift, S. (?). Reading aloud. [web log post]. Retrieved from http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com.br/2006/12/reading-
aloud.html.
Wilson, K. (2010, October 14). Reading aloud in class is a complete waste of time – discuss. [web log post].
Retrieved from http://kenwilsonelt.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/reading-aloud-in-class-is-a-complete-waste-of-
time-discuss/.