Bassfield, Mississippi TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

Reasons and motives for reading and listening can be divided into two categories: for a purpose and for entertainment. Reading and listening for a purpose is done because it helps us achieve a particular aim or goal, such as reading instructions to complete a task. Reading and listening for entertainment is done because we find it pleasurable or enjoyable in some way such as reading a novel or listening to a joke. Reading and listening may also be a mixture of both motives. When reading and listening, the person's understanding of the context will depend on their expertise in these areas: predictive skills, specific information (scanning), general idea (skimming), detailed information, and deduction from context. A number of potential problems with the teaching and learning of receptive skills need to be addressed. Sentence length, word length, and unfamiliar words can present problems to learners of English. There are many ways of approaching language difficulty. Pre-teaching vocabulary is a way of helping students learn difficult or unknown language structures that they will have to know beforehand in order to understand the reading/listening activities that will be given later in the lesson. It's good practice for teachers to only pre-teach vocabulary essential for understanding and leave other vocabulary for students to discover for themselves,or to teach later. Careful selection of texts by the teacher is helpful in order to maximize the effectiveness of teaching receptive skills to students. It is good for students to be exposed to a variety of authentic and non-authentic texts in their areas of interest. Non-authentic texts will allow students access to materials more suitable to the students' abilities, whereas authentic texts will expose students to texts that should give them confidence in their skills. Teachers should ensure that texts given to students are appropriate for their learning level. It is important for teachers to select topics for texts and materials that are interesting to the students. This will help motivate the students and they will be more likely to engage with the material. Teachers should try to elicit interest in the topic to be discussed during the engage phase. Teachers can get students engaged by discussing the topic using pictures, props, mime, etc. to elicit language that will be related to the text. It is good for teachers to provide comprehension tasks that promote understanding for students. A good task shouldn't be too easy or difficult so it is a challenge that is realistically achievable. I learned a lot about teaching receptive skills in this unit. I think building a rapport with students and knowing their interests is of major importance so teachers can select texts that keep students interested, motivated, engaged and active. Teachers can select a variety of text material that cater to all of the students' interests over time in a balanced way. If teachers plan lessons around the general interests of the students, classes will be more enjoyable for them and learning will be a positive experience so they are motivated to continue learning throughout their lives. A teacher who has a positive and enthusiastic attitude toward reading and listening will make lessons most effective. The more exposure students have to the language, the more they will learn. It is good for teachers to encourage and promote outside reading and listening for students' own enjoyment giving them more exposure to the language.