Listening
The top-down processing - drawing on our intelligence and experience, the predictions we can make to understand the text. The bottom-up approach - building up a meaning by recognizing letters and words, working out sentence structure and making conscious use of it when an initial reading leaves us confused. Skimming - reading very fast to find only the main ideas of a text
Scanning - reading very fast to find specific pieces of information
Developing strategies for listening:
-giving children confidence - listening to understand the “gist” (the general content of a spoken word) not every single word -predicting - encourage children to predict what they think might come next in a spoken message (successful prediction makes them feel more confident) -inferring opinion or attitude - an awareness of stress, intonation and body language help children work out meaning, especially in dialogues or story telling -working out meaning from the context - encourage children to use pictures and their general knowledge about a topic to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words
-recognizing discourse pattern and markers- when listening to a sequence of events (a set of instructions, a story) word such as first, then, finally, but, and, so give importnat signals about what is coming next in a spoken text Reading strategies: -keep my eyes moving past the unfamiliar words and thus try to understand the main ideas
-start reading without panicking or thinking: Help! I'm not going to understand -look for linking words that help explain relationship between sentences (e.g. in contrast, for example)
-use different reading strategies to read different types of texts
-look at titles, subtitles, pictures and other visuals before reading Problems with speaking activities: 1.Inhibition (real - time exposure to an audience - mistakes, fear of criticism, losing face, shyness). 2.Nothing to say (complaints about having nothing to say, lack of motive to express themselves). 3.Low or uneven participation (some learners tend to dominate, others speak very little or not at all). 4.Mother-tongue use (easiness, it feels unnatural to speak in L2, students feels less exposed). Possible solutions to the problem: 1.Use group work (increases the amount of STT, lowers the inhibitions of learners who are unwilling to speak in front of the full class). 2.Base the activity on easy language - the level of language for a discussion should be lower than in intensive-learning activities; it should be easily recalled and produce by the learners - teach or review essential vocabulary before the activity starts. 3.Make a clear choice of topic and task to stimulate interest. 4.Give some instructions of training in discussion skills (include instructions about participation, appoint a chairperson to each group, etc.). 5.Keep students speaking the target language - monitor the activity, model the language. Types of oral fluency activities: Topic activities - learners can use ideas from their own experience and knowledge. A good topic should be appropriate for the learners, represent a controversy to divide the participants, stimulate the learners' initiative and originality. Task-based activities - are goal-oriented, require learners to achieve an objective (a brief note, list, drawing, spoken summary, a rearrangement of jumbled items), involves interaction between participants. Task-based activities - more talk, more even participation, more motivation and enjoyment. Teaching speaking - activities. Encouraging students to speak (elicitation): 1.Pictures as stimuli (flashcards, cuecards, photos, maps, postcards, slides, video). -describing pictures and talking with pictures -picture differences -guessing games -picture stories -making inferences about pictures
2.Questions and answers.
3.Describing a situation.
4.Summarizing.
5.Problem solving.
6.Discussions.
7.Dialogues.
8.Role plays (learners are given a situation plus problem or task and they are allotted individual roles) and simulations (participants speak and react as themselves in an imaginary situation or task). Integrating speaking with other skills. Speaking activities:
-acting from a script
-communication games
-discussion
-prepared talks
-questionnaires
-simulation (reality of function, a simulated environment, structure) and role-play The aims of early learning of English. Overall aims:
-to support the learners' overall development (social, physical, emotional, intellectual),
-to develop skills that will enable them to acquire knowledge,
-to arouse children's curiosity to discover the world around them,
-to encourage the learners to act in various situations.
Learning to communicate in English:
-learning to listen (in order to hear and understand properly)
-learning to speak (in order to be understood)
-learning to read and write
-other abilities to be developed (in order to learn how to communicate)
learning to memorize, learning to create, learning to discover