Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Alabama? Are you interested in teaching English in Thorsby, Alabama? Check out our opportunities in Thorsby, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
This unit helps understand the process of productive skills which has three stages. The first stage involves listening to people around us (listening). The second stage involves making utterances (speaking). The final stage is reading and writing. This process covers the four skills teachers need to teach students such as reading, listening, speaking and writing. Of these four skills, reading and listening are the receptive skills whereas speaking and writing are the productive skills.
There are two main reasons for why we read or listen; for either a purpose or for entertainment. In the context of learning a new language, reading and listening would be more so for a purpose rather than for entertainment initially. There are a few sub-skills that need to be taught under the reading and listening skills categories. Predictive skills are about discerning the content of an article is based on the title. Scanning skills are about looking out for relevant or specific information to us. Skimming skills are about getting a general idea or overview of the content. Detailed information skills are about in-depth reading or listening for a better understanding. Deduction from context is about making inferences.
There are potential challenges for reading lessons such as reading word for word, sentence length and structure of an article. Reading word for word is when students tend to read every word as a separate word and it makes it difficult for them to get an overview or idea of the content. Sentence length refers to how the content could be very long and may not be used to it. Structure of the article refers to whether the content is for a formal letter, a postcard or a magazine and if the students are aware of these various forms of structural differences in language for different situations.
There are potential challenges for listening lessons such as the flow of information, speed of speech and accent. The flow of information refers to how when it comes to listening to a dialogue or speech, it is difficult to stop as and when required to clarify any definitions as compared to if reading a text. The speed of speech refers to how students do not have a say or choice in the speed of which the teacher talks or the audio content. Accent refers to the accent of the teacher that students get used to and may find it difficult to understand other accents as easily.
There are five ways these challenges can be overcome such as pre-teaching difficult vocabulary or grammar, being careful with the selection of text with regards to vocabulary and language structure, topics that encourage and interest students, creating interest before starting a reading or listening task, as well as selection of the task itself, must be selected with the capabilities of the students in mind.
Reading and listening skills are equally important in the process of imparting receptive skills which act as the foundation for imparting productive skills.
