SKKN SOME TECHNIQUES TO EFFECTIVELY HELP STUDENTS DEVELOP THEIR RECEPTIVE SKILL

Technique 1: Reading /Listening To Answer The Questions ,To Decide True Or False Statements ,To Choose The Best Option .... a.For reading comprehension tasks: -First, Ss should skim th

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DONG NAI DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION & TRAINING

NGUYEN DINH CHIEU HIGH SCHOOL

PRESENTED BY PHAN VAN HOA

RESEARCH AREA: ENGLISH-TEACHING METHOD

Academic Year: 2011- 2012

APPENDIX

3.Introducing some types of receptive skill tasks Page 3 4.Introducing some techniques to deal with the receptive skill tasks Page 4

I REASON FOR CHOOSING THE THEME:

Learning a foreign language,as we all know,requires language learners to learn enough four skills:Listening,Speaking,Reading and Writing.Listening and reading are called a receptive skill meanwhile speaking and writing are considered

a reproductive one

For teaching and learning foreign languages in general and English in particular,listening and reading skills are widely used along with other skills like speaking and writing But in reality,these are two significant skills to get

information and most regularly used in communicative activities in daily life.It can't be denied that bad listening and reading skills can result in a breakdown in communication.As a result,listening and reading are regarded as a basic

communication factor A language learner with no other option must improve these two skills if he wishes to be successful in communication

At present,most school children are still shy and passive when learning English while others seem not to be interseted in studying and aren't aware of the importance of English learning.For the most part,they learn English because it is one of their subjects at school.More importantly,school children haven't set realistic goals for their own learning Instead ,they only take a course in English for exams and have no effective ways of learning But how can we teachers help language leamers,especially school children improve their receptive skills?.That's the reason why I have selected this theme:

SOME TECHNIQUES TO EFFECTIVELY HELP STUDENTS

IMPROVE THEIR RECEPTIVE SKILL

II WAYS TO CONDUCT THE THEME:

1.Basis Of Reasoning

Basing on many basis like goals,contents and methods of teaching and learning a foreign language,the ability to use it and its role.At the same time, some techniques of teaching and learning receptive skill for English are put forward In order to have an effective receptive skill-teaching period,it is required that a teacher be aware of the significance of improving this skill for students as well as provide them with some essential techniques to deal with the tasks related to the skill.Furthermore,through this theme,a teacher can have an overall view and systematize the techniques of teaching the receptive skill in an effective way

It is hoped that the techniques having been mentioned in this report will bring about teachers along with students several benefits in teaching and learning English in general and listening and reading skills in particular

2.Contents,solutions to complement the theme

Following are some basic techniques that assist students develop their receptive skill effectively.I do believe that if teachers know how to apply these techniques fully and flexibly,they certainly will help students promote positiveness,initiative and creativity of students of all levels while teaching listening and reading skill.In addition,the very techniques create an exciting atmosphere of studying for the whole class,shorten the amount of time doing tasks and listening and reading -teaching period really become more effective than ever

A.Introducing some types of receptive skill tasks applied by this topic

Listening and reading tasks in English textbooks mainly focus on the

1 True / false Statements

2.Multiple choice

3.Listening/Reading comprehension questions

4.Gap-filling exercises (with or without given words)

5.Matching exercises

B.Introducing some techniques to deal with these above-mentioned tasks Technique 1: Reading /Listening To Answer The Questions ,To Decide True

Or False Statements ,To Choose The Best Option

a.For reading comprehension tasks:

-First, Ss should skim the statements or questions given to

understand them.As Ss do this, they:

* Underline the key words or phrases to decide which information

they need to find in the text

* Look for question words like "why" indicates Ss should read for

specific things like a reason.

- Then, they should go back to the passage and locate the key words/

phrases in the passage with a marker or a pencil.

-Finally,Ss should read around the key words/ phrases carefully to

find the answer

Types of reading comprehension questions include:

• Read the passage Then answer the questions

• Read the text Then answer the questions that follow

• Read the article to find answers to the following questions

• Read the passage Then decide whether the following statements are True(T) or False(F)

• Read the passage Then decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F) or not mentioned (NM) in the reading passage Then choose the best option(answer)

• Find the words or phrases in the text which have the following definitions/meanings

• Read the passage Then find out who did each of the followings

• Read the passage Then complete the sentences, using the

information from the passage

• Read the text Then match the headings to the paragraphs

• Read and find the evidence in the text to support these statements

The following example illustrates the above- mentioned technique

Unit 4: Volunteer Work

A Reading (Page 46) English 11

Read the passage and then do the tasks that follow

Each nation has many people who voluntarily take care of others For

example, many high school and college students in the United States often spend many hours as volunteers in hospitals, orphanages or homes for the aged They

read books to the people in these places Sometimes the students just visit them, play games with them or listen to their problems

Other young volunteers work in the homes of sick or old people They clean up their houses, do their shopping or mow their lawns For boys who no longer have fathers, there is a voluntary organization called Big Brothers College students take these boys to baseball games and help them to get to know things that boys usually learn from their fathers

Some high school students take part in helping disadvantaged or

handicapped children They give care and comfort to them and help them to overcome their difficulties Young college and university students participate in

helping the people who have suffered badly in wars or natural disasters During summer vacations, they volunteer to work in remote or mountainous areas to provide education for children

Each city has a number of clubs where boys and girls can go to play games Some of these clubs organise short trips to the mountains, beaches or other places of interest.Most of these clubs use a lot of high school and college students

as volunteers because they are young enough to understand the problems of younger boys and girls

Volunteers believe that some of the happiest people in the world are those who help to bring happiness to others

Task 3 Answer the questions

l What do high school and college students usually do as volunteers in

hospitals, or phanages, or homes for the aged?

2.How do volunteers help disadvantaged and handicapped children to

overcome their difficulties?

3.Where do students volunteer to work during summer vacations?

+Steps of reading to solve the task above:

Step 1: Ss should skim the three questions given to understand them.As Ss do

this,they underline the key words in each question to decide what information they

need to find in the text.For instance, the key words in question 1 are: what, high school ,college students,do, hospitals,orphanages, homes for the aged while those in question 2 are: How,volunteers, help ,disadvantaged .handicapped

children,

Step 2:Then,they go back to the passage to locate the information for the

questions 1,2 by finding the key words having been underlined in the passage and mark the place.For instance,Ss can find the information for question 1 in lines 1,

2,3 of paragraph 1 whereas that for question 2 in lines 1,2 3,of pargraph 3

Step 3:Finally,they read that part with the key words located or the one nearby

carefully to decide on the answer.Ss can use their own words.In this case, the

answer to question 1 is "They read books to the people in these places Sometimes the students just visit them, play games with them or listen to their problems " meanwhile the answer to question 2 is" They give care and comfort to them and help them to overcome their difficulties ".SS continue doing the same with the

rest of the questions

b.For listening comprehension tasks:

-First, Ss should also read through the statements or questions given

to understand them.As Ss do this, they:

* Underline the key words or phrases to decide which informmation

they need to listen for

- Then.try to work out (guess) what they are going to hear

-Finally, while listening they just focus on the key words/phrases or

main information having been determined to decide on their answers by

taking notes

Notice : The key words can be content words like nouns, verbs, adjectives ,adverbs ,question words,dates or numbers.etc,

Types of listening comprehension questions include:

• Listen to the recording / speaker/ passage Then answer the questions

• Listen to the interview/talk(dialogue)/story Then answer the questions

• Listen to the recording/passage Then decide whether the following statements are true(T) or false (F)

• Listen to the story/talk/interview Then choose the best option

• Listen and complete the sentences by circling the letterA,B,C or D

• Listen and choose the best option to complete the following sentences

The following example demonstrates the above- mentioned technique

Unit 2: Personal Experiences

C Listening (page 27) English 11

* Task 1 Listen to Christina's interview about the most unforgettable experience in her life and decide whether the following statements are true (T) or fasle (F)

l.Christina is a businesswoman.

2.The fire happened three years ago.

3.The fire started in the bedroom

4 When the fire started,Christina was reading a book

5.Her mother came and rescued her

+Steps of listening to solve the task above:

Step 1: Ss read the five statements given carefully.As they do this,they should:

* Underline the key words or phrases in each statement with a marker or a pencil

For example,the key word in the first statement is :businesswoman while the ones

in the second statement are: three years ago

Step 2: Then,they try to work out/guess what they are going to hear For instance,Ss might guess Christina can be a doctor,a teaacher and so on and the fire could have happened thirteen or thirty years ago,etc

Step 3: Finally,while listening to the interview, they concentrate only on the key words/phrases having been determined and take notes of their answers If they hear the same information like a businesswoman and three years ago, then select True.And if they hear different information like a doctor/director for sentence 1 and thirteen or thirty years ago for sentence 2, then select False So

the following tapescript indicates that the answer for the statement 1 is True as

Ss will hear the same key word" businesswoman "having been determined On

the contrary False is for the statement 2 since they will hear the different

information from the one they've identified like "thirteen years ago" instead of three years ago Ss Continue doing the same with the rest of the statements

Following is theTapescript of the listening lesson:

Note:The key words/phrases in the following Tapescript are underlined and in

bold.

Interviewer: This is Radio 3.In our "Unforgettable Experiences" programme

tonight we talk to Christina,a successful

businesswoman.Hello,Christina,welcome to our programme

Christina: Hello and thank you!.It's nice being with you tonight

Interviewer: Christina,could you tell our audience about the most

memorable experience in your life?

Christina: Well,my most unforgettable experience happened thirteen years ago

when my house burned down

Interviewer: Really?How did it happen?

Christina: The fire started in the kitchen where I forgot to turn off the gas stove

Interviewer: What were you doing at that time?

Christina: I was sleeping when I was suddenly woken up by terrible heat.I

opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by wall of fire

Interviewer: That's terrible.How did you escape?

Christina: I was terrified when I heard my mother's voice calling my name.I

rushed to her.She carried me out.Luckily,I got away without even a minor burn

Technique 2 Reading /Listening To Fill In The Gaps With The Words

Given Or Missing/ Match The Half -Sentences Or Sentences Together

-First, a teacher might want to check that Ss understand all the words given

correctly by calling on some Ss to tell the meaning of the words in Vietnamese

-Then,the teacher asks Ss to go back to the task and study (read through)

all the sentences given.As Ss do this,they need to guess which part of speech

they need to deal with in each case, etc.In addition,Ss can do these types of tasks based on grammatical structures

- Now, Ss can use both their knowledge of the words in the box and their

guess - work with the given sentences to match them correctly

Types of listening /reading questions to fill in the gaps include:

• Complete the summary with the words/phrases from the box

• Fill each blank with one suitable word/phrase given in the box

• Fill in numbered spaces in the following sentences with the words/phrases

• Complete the sentences Change the form of the words given in the box where necessary

• Use an appropriate form of the word " abc" to complete each of the following sentences

• Match the words/phrases in colunm A with their suitable definitions in B

• Match the half sentences or clauses together to make meaningful ones

• Fill in the gaps in the summary with the missing words

• Listen and complete the passage /sentences/story with the missing word

• Listen and fill in the missing information

• Listen and write in the missing word

• Listen and match each name to an activity

Example 1:The following reading comprehension task proves the

aboved-mentioned technique

Unit 2: Personal Experiences

A Reading (p 22) English 11

 Read the passage and then do the tasks that follow

* Task 1 Fill each blank with one suitable word/phrase given in the box

making a fuss - sneeky - glanced - embarrassing - idols- works

l.The girl was so shy that she didn't look at him in the face.She just _at him and looked away (past verb)

2.She complains noisily about anything she doesn't like.She is the type of person who is always

(present participle)

3.She was in a very situation She felt so stupid and didn’t know what to say

(adjective)

4.Teenagers nowadays often have their own who they really love and imitate

in different ways (noun)

5.I don't like the look of that man.There is something _about him

(adjective) +Steps of reading to solve the task above:

Step 1 :Fisrt,a teacher might want to check that Ss understand all these words

given in the box correctly by calling on some Ss to tell the meaning of the words

in Vietnamese as well as their parts of speech

Step 2: Then,the teacher asks Ss to go back to the task and study the five given statements carefully.As they do this, Ss need to have a guess which part of speech

they might fill in each blank For example,for sentence 1 ,they might need to

supply a verb in past tense which is the verb "glanced", but for sentence 2, they

might need to supply a verb in present continuous tense that is making a fuss ,etc.In addition,Ss can do this gap-filling task based on grammatical structures For instance for the very sentence 1,they might need to supply a verb followed by preposition "at' ,specifically glanced “at “while “sneaky’ should be in sentence 5

as we all know following the undefinite pronoun " something" is an adjective

Step 3:Finally,Ss can use both their knowledge of the words in the box and their

educational guess with the given sentences to match them correctly Go on with the rest of the sentences

Here is the key to the task :

1.glanced 2.making a fuss 3.embarrassing 4 idols 5.sneeky

Eg 2: This technique is also applied to dealing with a listening comprehension task Unit 2: Personal Experiences C Listening (p 27) English 11

Task 2 :Listen to the second part of the dialogue and fill in the gaps in the

summary of Christina's story below

Although I lost many things in the fire,the experience helped me to grow up.Before the fire,I was selfish.I always complained to my mother about how (1)

Adj my room was or how few clothes I had.Then the fire came and destroyed

(2)N/Pron we owned But I slowly began to realize that I didn't need those

things.I just need my (3) N After all, you can get new clothes any time,but a

family can never be (4) N/AdjlV The fire (5) V many things from

me,but it gave me something.too.It taught me to (6) V my family more than

things

+Steps of listening to solve the task above:

Step 1: A teacher gets Ss to read through the summary and identify which part of

speech they need to fill out each space For example, for number 1 Ss might need

to fill in an adjective whereas for number 2, they might need to fill in a noun phrase or pronoun.Ss continue doing the same with the rest of the numbered

spaces

Step 2: They can make an educated guess by using both their knowledge of words

and grammatical structures as well as their background of the topic to fill in the

summary For instance, their guessing words might be small/tiny for number 1 thanks to the contextual words like always,complained about ,how few clothes,had

meanwhile everything/many things might be for number 2 through the ones :fire,destroyed,owned

Step 3:They just focus on the part of speech identified together with their guess

ing words while listening to decide on their answers

Following are the answers to the task:

1 small 2.everything 3.family 4.replaced 5.took 6.appreciate

Technique 3.Listening/ Reading To Discover The Writer's Mood,Attitude And Opinion

-Texts/stories often contain more than simple facts and information.They can also

express a mood,or convey the writer's attitude and opinion,but These are not

always stated directly

Therefore,we need to use context and language clues to guess what they are

about

Types of questions to discover a write's mood, attitude and opinion include

• What does the writer think of in the passage/story?

• What does the speaker imply through his talk/lecture?

• What was the writer's opinion ?

• _ Which word best describes the wirter's attitude towards _?

• What does the speaker think about ?

Or some questions to fill in the blanks include:

• The writer's attitude towards in the passage can be described as _

• The passage/writer implies that

• The author feels that

• The writer thinks that _

The following examples illustrate the above- mentioned technique

Ex 1: Unit 4: Special Education A.Reading (page 44) English 10

 Read the passage and then do the tasks that follow

A TEACHER IN A SPECIAL CLASS

Like other teachers, Pham Thu Thuy enjoys her teaching job However, her class is different from other classes The twenty-five children, who are learning how to read and write in her class, are disabled Some are deaf, some dumb and others mentally retarded Most of the children come from large and poor families,which prevents them from having proper schooling

At first, there was a lot of opposition from the parents of the disabled children They used to believe that their children could not learn anything at all In the first week, only five children attended the class Gradually more children arrived Their parents realised that the young teacher was making great efforts to help their poor kids

Watching Thuy taking a class, one can see how time-consuming the work is During a maths lesson, she raised both arms and opened up her fingers one by one until all ten stood up She then closed the fingers one by one She continued the demonstration until the children realised they had just learned how to add and subtract.The children have every reason to be proud of their efforts They know a new world is opening up for them

Task2:Read the passage again and complete the following sentences by

circling the corresponding letter A,B,C,or D

Question 5 The writer's attitude towards Thuy's work in the passage can be

described as

A.humorous B.angry C.suspicous D.admiring

+Steps of reading to solve the task above:

Step 1:Ss should skim the four options given to make sure they have to

understand them

Step 2:They go back to the passage and scan it to look for the context and

language clues For instance,the context and language clues in this passage might

be: Twenty- five children.disabled,from poor families,opposition from the parents ,how time- consuming the work is

Step 3: Basing on the meaning of the context and language clues stated in the text

by the writer himself can help Ss guess what his attitude is about to decide on their

answer Through the language clues referred to above, it can be concluded that the

writer really admires Thuy’s work for she teaches a class with twenty-five children disabled from poor families, with lots of opposition from their parents ,and especially her work takes a lot of time Therefore, the best choice for this question

The girl in the paragraph felt _

A Angry because the letter was not what she had expected

B Unconcerned because she had been expecting this news

C Delighted because she could finally sit down and relax

D Excited because she got the good news from the company

+Following are the steps of reading to solve the task above:

Step 1 : Ss should skim the four options given to make sure they have to

understand them.As they do this,they should underline the adjectives that can

be described the girl's feeling like angry, unconcerned, delighted and excited Step 2:They go back to the passage and scan it to look for the language clues.For instance,the language clues in this paragraph might be: Her hands were shaking,.however,regret to inform,screwed the letter and tossed it

Step 3:Basing on the meaning of the context and language clues stated in the

paragraph by the writer himself can help Ss guess what the girl's feeling is about

to decide on their answer Through the language clues referred to above, it can

be concluded that the girl really felt furious reading the letter Therefore, the best

choice for this question is A.angrv because the letter was not what she had expected

Technique 4 Listening /Reading/To Find The Main Idea/Topic For A

Note:The concluding sentence can also cover the main idea of the whole

paragraph

Types of questions to find the main idea for a paragraph include:

• What is the most suitable main idea for the paragraph?

• What is the best summary for the paragraph?

• What does the fisrt (second) paragraph mainly discuss ?

• What is the paragraph about ?

• What is the main topic of the paragraph?

• What does the speaker mainly discuss ?

• What does the main topic of the lecture?

• What is the main purpose of the talk?

• What does the lecture mainly discuss ?

Or some questions to fill in the blank or choose include:

• Circle A,B,C or D that best sums up each paragraph

• Choose the most suitable main idea for each paragraph

• The main idea for this paragraph is

• The paragraph is about

• The paragraph mainly discusses

• _The best summary for the paragraph is _

• The writer of this paragraph is trying to

Let's find out more about this technique through the following example

A.Reading (p 114) English 11

 Read the passage and then do the tasks that follow

(1) The human race is the only one small species in the living world Many other species exist on this planet However, human beings have a great influence

on the rest of the world They are changing the environment by building cities and villages where forests once stood They are affecting the water supply by using water for industry and agriculture They are changing the weather conditions by cutting down the trees in the forests And they are destroying the air by adding pollutants to it

(2) It can be said that human beings are changing the environment in all

aspects through their actions and their habits.This has resulted in two serious consequences The fisrt is that many kinds of rare animals are killed

(3) In order to make sure that these rare animals do not disappear,efforts have been made to protect the environment in which they live Scientists have made lists of the endangered species and suggested ways to save them

(4))If people's interference with the environment decreases,more species

will survive and produce offspring The Earth will be a happy planet where