Smithville, New York TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This is a short unit that covers an important aspect of teaching English as a foreign language, that is teaching receptive skills, which refer to reading and listening. Learning any language means learning four basic skills, reading and listening, which are receptive skills and speaking and writing which are productive skills. Readers and listeners employ a number of specialist skills when reading or listening and their understanding of context will depend on their expertise in these areas, which include predictive skills, scanning and skimming among others. The teaching and learning of receptive skills presents a number of potential problems. For example, it is important for students to learn how to understand a text without knowing every word, however, pre-teaching key vocabulary is also very helpful. Good teachers will strike a balance between pre-teaching structures and giving their students access to unknown language. This unit presents an outline of a typical receptive skills lesson, in the form of a patchwork ESA style lesson. I think the information and examples in this unit serve as a great basis and reference for teaching receptive skills, as the format of the unit begins by defining key skills and terms and then shows how to incorporate them into a lesson plan. The unit also summarizes some keys to successful receptive skills lessons in the form of helpful bullet points that are easy to remember. After completing this unit, I will keep in mind what kinds of materials I should choose when teaching receptive skills, based on the level and interests of my students and I will be realistic in the goals I set for them.