Marijana Ivančić, Anakatarina Mandić
English Department
English Language Teaching Methodology
Maja Balić Motušić, Research Assistant
Receptive and productive language skills in language teaching
Seminar paper
July, 20th 2014
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................2
2. RECEPTIVE SKILLS..........................................................................................................2
2.1. LISTENING....................................................................................................................4
2.1.1. THE TEACHING OF LISTENING......................................................................4
2.2. READING.......................................................................................................................6
2.2.1. THE TEACHING OF READING.......................................................................8
3. PRODUCTIVE SKILLS.......................................................................................................9
3.1. WRITING......................................................................................................................10
3.1.1. THE TEACHING OF WRITING.....................................................................11
3.2. SPEAKING...................................................................................................................12
3.2.1. THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING...................................................................12
4. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................13
5. WORKS CITED.................................................................................................................14
Ivančić, Mandić 2
1. INTRODUCTION
Being competent in a language implies having the following four basic language skills:
reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Reading and listening belong to the receptive
language skills, since the learners receive an input, while speaking and writing belong to the
productive language skills, because the students produce an output.
In this seminar paper, we will discuss each of the four essential language skills and also
provide an insight into the strategies of teaching each individual skill.
2. RECEPTIVE SKILLS
As already mentioned in the introduction, receptive language skills consist of the
abilities to successfully read and listen, and consequently comprehend a foreign language.
Since nobody is born with these abilities, these skills have to be learned and mastered. Even
listening, which seems an obvious inborn ability, must be learned too. An act of listening
cannot be compared merely to “tape-recording”, as Nunan nicely portrays, but has to be
actively engaged and aimed to comprehension and storing of meaning (Designing Tasks for
the Communicative Classroom, 23). At this point, we need to stress the importance of
comprehensible input. Comprehensible input, whether it is oral or written, cannot be just any
stream of sounds we hear or words we read, it is an input we clearly understand and are able
to reproduce. Then is when real learning takes place.
When we talk about the teaching of receptive skills, we have to point out that there is a
basic methodology for teaching both listening and reading (Harmer, 270). For both types of
input, students have a choice between listening or reading superficially, with the aim of
comprehending a general idea of the text, and listening or reading carefully, with the focus on
the search for the specifically required information. These are two different skills and need to
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be equally practiced. Teachers hence have a responsibility to develop both of the skills of
their students. Harmer further on suggests a few basic steps related to teaching practice, which
can be seen in Figure 1. The steps for teaching receptive skills are as following:
-
leading-in (which means introducing students to the topic of the text, activating their
background knowledge, and asking them to predict what the text is going to be
about),
-
directing comprehension tasks (which means asking students to try to comprehend
the general idea)
-
providing text or tape for students to read/listen,
-
directing feedback (which means e.g. dividing students in pairs or smaller groups to
go through answers together; the teacher informs them about the level of their
accomplishment while focusing on the positive things)
-
directing text-related task (which means questioning students about the content or
some language aspects of the text)
-
repeating of the process (this step is optional, but welcome, and includes more
detailed and focused reading/listening of the text before doing text-related task).
Figure 1.
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(The Practice of English Language Teaching, 271)
2.1.LISTENING
Listening, as well as reading, is the basic and indispensable input for a foreign language
learner. Whether it is in natural surroundings, during a random conversation between two
native speakers in a foreign country, or in more formal environment, such as classroom during
a lecture, listening is of utmost importance and relevance for language learners. It provides
them with countless new words, phrases, and interjections, which appear in their original
pronunciation and stress pattern.
In language learning there are different types of listening, which often appear as pairs of
opposites, that is, in form of a dichotomy. Nunan introduces one such dichotomy: the
reciprocal and non-reciprocal listening (Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom,
23). Reciprocal listening refers to listening from both sides, that is, a conversation. Here a
listener not only listens, but responds to a message, participates in a conversation and
interacts, which further stimulates his learning process. Non-reciprocal listening, on the other
hand, refers to the listening as a sole activity, deprived of any interaction. Here a learner
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listens in a situation where he is unable to respond, such as during formal lecture, or a radio
transmission (Nunan, 23).
Another listening dichotomy is introduced by Cook: bottom-up and top-down
processing. According to Cook, top-down implies “starting from the sentence as a whole and
working down to its smallest parts”, while bottom-up means, on the contrary, “starting from
the smallest parts and working up” (Second Language Learning and Language Teaching,
125). She further on introduces another term, parsing, which is closely connected to the
previously mentioned terms. Parsing is, namely, “the process through which the mind works
out the grammatical structure and meaning of the sentence” (Cook, 125). Hence, bottom-up
parsing involves listener’s focus on analysing the smallest constituents of a sentence first, and
then combining them and reaching the entire sentence structure and the final meaning of the
utterance. Meanwhile, top down process suggests that the listener concentrates on the search
for meaning of an entire utterance, listening to the intonation and stress of the utterance and
using his background knowledge and the context in which the utterance was pronounced.
Cook maintains that successful learners use both listening strategies, while unsuccessful ones
rely solely on the bottom-up strategy (128). As can be noticed, the same dichotomy can be
applied to the process of reading.
2.1.1. THE TEACHING OF LISTENING
One of the most common teaching strategies is a task-based approach. Tasked-based
approach is a strategy that consists of giving specific tasks to students to solve, which are
closely connected to language acquisition. The usual task is listening to a tape which contains
a conversation between two or more native speakers, and answering questions from a task
sheet about the conversation they heard. Questions may be very different in style and seek
different mental activities.
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In her book, Cook is refering to Underwood's Teaching Listening when speaking about
three stages of teaching:
-
Pre-listening (serves to acivate students' background knowledge and to get the
general idea of the listening material)
-
While-listening (improving their ability to ineterpet the message)
-
Post-listening (includes task sheets and possibly a second listening) (Seconda
Language Learning and Language Teaching, 129).
In the pre-listening stage, it is good to have printed copies of the scripts so the students
could follow the conversation more easily, especially if it is the case of beginner
language learners.
2.2.READING
There are two types of reading: extensive and intensive, and according to Harmer,
students need to be engaged in both types of reading if they want to get maximum benefit
(The Practice of English Language Teaching, 283). Extensive reading refers to the reading of
books a student chooses for himself and his own pleasure, while intensive reading refers to
the reading of special literature assigned by the professor. When a learner is reading, he can
focus on different things: reading for gist or so called skimming (i.e., the goal is general
understanding of the text), reading for specific information or so called scanning, and reading
for profound comprehension, inference and attitude (the goal is to interpret the message
“between the lines”) (Harmer, 283).
2.2.1. THE TEACHING OF READING
Since active and consistent reading can be very beneficial and enriching for the
students’ minds, teachers’ crucial role is to encourage them to keep on reading. It is not
enough to simply urge them to read a lot, their responsibility is to provide them with
guidance, selection of appropriate books, to offer them to choose their own favourite genre, to
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give them a task to report regularly on their reading, or keep a reading journal. It would also
be a good idea to organize reading clubs or events of the sort. Some of the Hermer’s
suggestions are very useful, such as: setting up a library with specialised “language learner
literature”. This specialised literature is specifically designed for beginner, intermediate and
advanced language learners, and can be either a simplified version of classic works of
literature or a completely new fiction or non-fiction novel composed within a restricted range
of available vocabulary.
When giving reading tasks in the classroom (and that involves intensive reading),
teachers should set clear rules from the beginning, so as to save time and achieve better
outcomes. Some of the rules should include:
- time limit: teacher should give students an exact amount of time to read a passage and
then answer to questions. Time frame can be extended only if most of students are struggling
with the task.
- meaning of words: since students are often eager to find out the meaning of every
single word they encounter, the search for unknown vocabulary in the dictionaries or multiple
questions can take a lot of time. Teachers should make a compromise with the students – they
could answer a certain number of inquiries, but the students need to comprehend the rest of
the text from the context
- goals: it is important to set a goal before the actual reading. Teachers should specify
what they expect from the students, whether it be skimming through the text to get some
general comprehension of the subject of the text, be it scanning the text for some specific
information. That way student can mentally prepare for the task and do it more efficiently.
- including students: a very good strategy to engage students in reading is to ask them
what they feel or think about the subject of the text they are about to read, what are their
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expectations and is the topic already familiar or not. That way a teacher can prepare the
students for the task and provoke their interest in reading (Harmer, 287,288).
3. PRODUCTIVE SKILLS
Productive language skills consist of the learner’s abilities to efficiently write and speak
in a foreign language. It seems a great deal more difficult to accurately produce language
forms, whether in oral or written form, than simply to understand a language. While
producing a language, learners must be simultaneously aware of the message they are
conveying, of the style and vocabulary they are using, and ultimately of the correct
grammatical construction. These are all the reasons why so many advanced learners still feel
inhibited when they speak in front of native speakers or their teachers. They are selfconscious about all the mistakes they can say or write, which can significantly slow down
their improvement. To prevent this unnecessary impediment, it is a teachers’ job to make their
students practice speaking and writing as much as possible. The more they practice, the easier
it becomes to express themselves freely and without fear.
As for the teaching of productive skills, there is a basic methodology for teaching both
writing and speaking (Harmer, 275). Since the students’ task is to produce sentences in
foreign language, which includes premeditating both the content and grammatical structures,
they may hesitate to express themselves. That is why teachers need to mentally prepare them
for speaking/writing by introducing the topic of discussion. The basic steps for teaching
productive skills are proposed by Harmer (summarized in Figure 2):
-
leading-in (which means introducing students to the topic of the text, activating their
background knowledge, and asking them to predict what the text is going to be
about),
Ivančić, Mandić 9
-
setting the task (at this point students are already familiar with the topic of, the
teacher explains exactly what they need to do and demonstrates an activity if
necessary, e.g. a role-play)
-
monitoring the task (the teacher is actively involved, walking around the class,
helping or directing the assignment)
-
directing feedback (the teacher responds to the outcome of the task, helps students
realize what they did right and what they need to improve)
-
repeating the process (the meaning of repetition is to ensure the student’s learning
progress, the same or similar exercise may follow the previous one).
Figure 2.
(Harmer, 275).
3.1.WRITING
Ur points out that the purpose of writing is “to express ideas, the conveying of a
message to the reader” (A Course in Language Teaching, 70). Besides expressing ideas, a
writer should also pay attention to his style and form of writing, especially to correct
vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation (Ur, 70). Many authors point out the
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substantial difference between the spoken and the written language. Not only is the written
language more complex and has more methodically arranged sentences, but it also lacks
immediate response or correction from the recipient. A similar conclusion can be find in
Richards, who maintains that the “written language needs to be explicit because the audience
for written text may be unknown to the writer, particularly with writing intended for
publishing” (The Language Teaching Matrix, 100).
To fully master good writing is difficult even to some native speakers, not to mention to
the language learners. It is a skill required for both personal and professional life. In academic
framework, writing presents a perfect evidence of the level of language learning progress, and
is useful both to the teacher and the students (Richards, The Language Teaching Matrix, 100).
3.1.1. THE TEACHING OF WRITING
The teaching of writing is an extremely demanding task for teachers. Ur split the
teaching of writing into several activities that need to be completed:
-
Classifying writing activities and giving instructions
-
Choosing the criteria for the evaluation of textbook writing activities
-
(Supervising the process of composition)
-
Giving feedback on writing (A Course in Language Teaching, 70-75)
We will now elaborate on the steps which Ur has suggested. Before the teacher begins
their instruction, it is important to know whether the students write as a means, as an end, or
both as a mean and as an end. It is the most beneficial to include both types of writing, so as
the students would pay attention simultaneous at the form (grammar, vocabulary, paragraphs
organization) and content (the message of their writing). The next step for teacher to do is to
choose between different writing tasks form the textbook. Their criteria should be composed
of the following questions:
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-
Is the task motivating and engaging enough to the students?
-
Is the task on the appropriate level of difficulty (not to easy, not to hard)?
-
Will the students benefit from this type of writing activity?
-
Will if be necessary give additional instructions for this type of activity?
-
Is it part of my teaching style?
After these criteria have been met, the teacher chooses a task. Some of the frequently given
tasks include instances like these:
a) Write a report on the book you have read
b) Write an instruction sheet explaining how to come to a certain place in a city
c) Write a letter applying to a certain job
d) Write a letter to a friend
e) Write a newspaper article reporting on some recent event
f) Give a description of your ideal holiday, etc. (Ur, 71)
While students are doing the assignment, the teacher can supervise their progress,
helping them with their form and organisation of paragraphs, giving ideas or encouraging
brainstorming in the class. After the students have finished with their essay/report/paper, the
teacher should give them feedback on their accomplishment. The teacher should, first of all,
decide what to grade, content of the paper or the language that they use. If the students are
complete beginners, their assignments could be full of grammatical mistakes. Teachers should
certainly correct them for the sake of learning; however, they should not concentrate solely on
correcting grammatical mistakes. They should give feedback on the content and style of their
writing, so they would be aware that the grammar is not all that matters. One of two
interesting questions worth considering are whether to ask students to rewrite their corrected
papers, and should teachers allow students to correct each other papers. There are certainly
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pros and cons to each of methods (concerning time consumption and learning improvement),
and teachers could individually whether to employ them or not (Ur, 74).
As it’s the case with speaking, teacher’s job is to encourage their students to frequently
practice their writing for their continuous improvement. Practicing different styles (formal,
informal, semiformal) and forms of writing (reports, essays, seminar papers, presentations,
letters, etc.) the students produce more coherent, and more reader-based (Richards, 103).
3.2.SPEAKING
The ability to speak in a foreign language is divided in two large categories: spoken
interaction and spoken production. The former one refers to a student’s ability to interact with
other interlocutors, whether native speakers or other learners. It includes the ability to listen,
comprehend, interpret the message using the background knowledge, producing response or
message relevant to the topic and grammatically correct. It is usually spontaneous and
requires quick reaction and ability to adapt to the stream of conversation. Spoken production,
on the other hand, does not include other interlocutors, but only a single person who is doing
the talking. It usually refers to giving a presentation in front of a group of people, a classroom
lecture, or any form of public speech. It could be spontaneous, but it is more often
premeditated and organized. According to Nunan, a dialogue has both the “transactual
function” which is primarily concerned with “the transfer of information”, and the
“interactional function” which aims at “the maintenance of social relationships” (Designing
Tasks for the Communicative Classrooms, 27).
3.2.1. THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING
When authors talk about teaching of speaking, they first make a distinction between oral
and written text.
While written language consists of “well-formed sentences which are
structured in highly structured paragraphs”, spoken language consists of “short, often
fragmentary utterances, in a range of pronunciations” (Nunan, Designing Tasks for the
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Communicative Classrooms, 26). Spoken language contains as well many interjections,
overlapping with the other speaker, non-specific words and repetitions, conversation fillers
etc. Bearing the complexity of spoken language in mind, Nunan suggests the following
questions that teachers need to consider:
-
What is the appropriate form of spoken language to teach?
-
What is the appropriate pronunciation to teach?
-
How important the pronunciation really is?
- Should spoken language be taught like written language only with few
conversational phrases thrown in?
- Is it appropriate to teach the same structure to the learners of different levels of
language progress, etc. (Nunan, 27).
4. CONCLUSION
To be rightly called advanced language learners, the students need to have a good
command of each of the four basic language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
None of these should be neglected and all of them should be equally practiced and
interactively used. It is a teacher’s job to prepare textbooks, scripts of the listening tapes, task
sheets and other materials, to provoke interest and motivation of learners to consistently read
and listen in the foreign language, and to encourage them to freely express themselves
through speaking and writing.
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5. WORKS CITED:
Cook, Vivian. Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. Hodder Education:
London. 2008. PDF
Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English language Teaching. London: Pearson Longman.
2001. PDF
Nunan, David. Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. 2001. PDF
Nunan, David. Language Teaching Methodology. London: Pretice Hall. 1991. PDF
Richards, Jack C. The Language Teaching Matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1995. PDF
Ur, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2012. PDF