Lesson 4.

1 The Receptive Skills

In this section you will discuss aspects related to the receptive skills. You will study some
strategies and activities to develop your students reading and listening skills. Also, you will
analyze a model lesson plan for a reading or listening class and will create your own lesson
plan based on this model.

Receptive skills can be defined as the ability to understand written or spoken language. The term
receptive may mislead you to think that during any kind of listening or reading activities the students
role will be more passive than the productive skills where students actually produce language.
Nevertheless, you will see that reading and listening require a great deal of active participation from
the students. The students need first to identify the purpose of the activity they are doing and then to
apply strategies to reach the goal. For example, a student who is looking for a telephone number in
the phone book will know that it is only necessary to take a quick look at the numbers to find the right
name and can then focus on the specific information he/she needs without reading every single word.
To make effective use of the phone book, the student should have known two strategies, skimming
and scanning. These will be discussed later in this unit. The reason for students to develop strategies
is so that they can select those most appropriate strategies according to the situation or the goals
associated with the listening or reading material.
Both receptive skills have many common characteristics. However, each one also has specific
features that may be problematic for students.
The following chart shows the specific features of reading and listening skills that may be problematic
for students.
LISTENING

READING
Because a text is well structured, it can

be read as many times as needed. However,

this limits the students to slow and careful
reading.
The students may not be proficient

readers in their own language.

The students do not have any contact

with the author of the text in order to check

interpretation of ideas.
The teacher cannot know exactly where

in the text the student is and if he/she is

having trouble in understanding the reading.

If a student reads aloud the difference

between sound and spelling may cause
difficulty, and you may be led to correct
pronunciation, instead of looking for
meaning.

If the spoken language is from a

spontaneous conversation, it may seem
unstructured and require more attention
because it cannot be repeated.
Gestures and intonation can imply most
of the meaning in a live or video
conversation, whereas listening to a tape
or telephone conversation may be more
difficult without the visual clues.
The quality of the tapes used in class
may not be very good, causing
interference in students understanding.
If a tape is being used, some students
may require the tape to be played
several times, while other students may
comprehend the information much faster

STRATEGIES
As we mentioned before, knowing the purpose of the reading and/or listening activity helps the student
to choose the most appropriate skill in order to make the task easier. For example, there is a
difference between listening to someone talking on the phone and listening to the news on the radio.
The former will demand more attention to detail, while the latter will focus just on the pieces of
information that interest the student.
Something very important to consider is that your students already have some knowledge of the world.
This is known as schemata, and helps the students to understand and infer meaning from a text or

statement. The more you relate texts and statements to what the students already know the more
confident they will feel and the easier it will be for them to understand.

The following are the most common sub-skills or strategies used by students:
a) Identifying the topic by using prior knowledge
b) Predicting and guessing
c) Reading or listening to get a general idea
d) Reading or listening for specific information
e) Reading and listening for detailed information
f) Interpretation
g) Guessing meaning from context
Lets take a look at each strategy and an example of how each can be used with this sample reading.
READING

A NEW ADVENTURE

Are you interested in visiting a very exotic place in the world? Japan is a great,
confusing, fascinating, crammed, funny, and full of contradictions country- not least of
which is the mix of ultra high technology with ancient traditions.
It's so safe that you'd have to pay someone to mug you, and teach them how to do it.
The food is superb, varied, and not necessarily expensive. Traditional hotels [Ryokan] are
relatively cheap and interesting. Domestic travel systems are superb. Try the bullet train
if you can afford it.
Sometimes expensive, crowded, and hectic. Plenty of dull, endless suburbs, hideous
overhead power cables, concrete. Quaint trad clothing, like kimonos, is rarely seen
outside ceremonial occasions. Not tourist oriented, so comprehensible signs can be rare,
and ATMs often don't like foreign credit cards.
You can visit Tokyo, a huge, busy city with lots of action, big and little. Hundreds of
elaborate temples, Buddhas and Zen gardens, though central Kyoto has the usual urban
sprawl apart from the Imperial Palace. Also see a tea ceremony, Geisha, Katsura Imperial
Villa & Gardens, and Himeji castle nearby.
So what are you waiting for? Travelling to Japan is an experience you cannot miss.
Visit your nearest agency!!

a) Identifying the topic by using prior knowledge

By using their schema, students can identify the topic very quickly and easily. This will allow them to
process the information more effectively as they read or listen. The teacher can make use of pictures,
titles, subtitles, the format of the reading material (brochure, letter, newspaper article, etc), or anything
that can give them clues about the reading or listening material.
This is an example of a task that uses this strategy:
Teacher: Look at the title and the pictures of the following text.... what do you think the topic of the
reading will be about?
A NEW ADVENTURE

Possible answer from student: about Japan, about Japanese people, their food and traditions.
b) Predicting and guessing
This strategy allows the students to use their schemata to get a general idea of what they are about to
listen to or read. Guessing motivates students to confirm if what they previously predicted will
correspond with the actual text (or statement) or not.
This is an example of a reading task that uses this strategy:
Teacher: Look at the title and the pictures of the following textwhat do you think the topic of the
reading will be about?
Student: About Japan.
Teacher: What exactly about Japan?
Student: About travelling to Japan.
Teacher: Have you ever been to Japan? What do you know about Japan? What can this article
say about Japan?
Note: The students are using their schemata that sumo wrestlers and sushi are characteristics of
Japan, and the teacher elicits all the information the students know about this country.
c) Reading or listening to get a general idea
This strategy is commonly known as skimming, which is running your eyes over a text without stopping
or reading for details, or listening for the main ideas. Skimming gives a general idea of what is to be
read or heard and prepares the student to focus on specific features.
This is an example of a task that uses this strategy:
Teacher: Take a quick look at the text, what kind of article is it?
Student: It looks like a travel guide.
Teacher: What clues indicate that?
Student: It talks about places to visit. At the end it says "visit your nearest travel agency".

d) Reading or listening for specific information

With this strategy, instead of getting the gist of a written or spoken text, the reader/listener
concentrates on specific details. It is generally known as scanning. The idea is to look for information
that is just of interest to the student. This strategy helps the learners to read and listen selectively.
This is an example of a task that uses this strategy:
Teacher: Does the text mention any specific cities to go and visit?
Student: Yes, Tokyo.
e) Reading and listening for detailed information
This strategy concentrates on every word that is said or written. For example, when following
instructions to cook a special dish, it is important to listen to all the details because missing one piece
of information may ruin the dish.
This is an example of a task that uses this strategy:
Read the article and complete the chart by checking all the things the article mentions. After that,
summarize what it says about each item you checked. Look at the first example.
The article mentions...

Food
Working hours
Traditions
Lifestyles
Transportation
Clothing
Attractions
Security

It says that it is...

superb, cheap and varied

f) Interpretation
The idea of this strategy is to go beyond the words that are read or heard by the student and to
understand what the speaker or author is implying. This strategy may be more difficult for basic levels,
but it can guarantee successful reading. If there is not real understanding, the students are likely to
echo or quote the text.
This is an example of a task that uses this strategy:
Read the text and answer True or False according to what the article implies. Indicate which text
line justifies your answers.
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Japan is a safe country.______

You can see people in Kimonos everywhere.______
It is recommended to take a credit card to Japan.______
It is not too expensive to travel by the bullet train ______.
The article implies that going to Japan is a very positive experience. ____

* Notice that the sentences are not quoted literally from the text.
g) Guessing meaning from context
This strategy is very useful, especially for those students who want the teacher to tell them what every
single word of a text means. By practicing this strategy, the students will realize that there is some
vocabulary that is not relevant and some vocabulary that can be defined just by studying the word in
context.
This is an example of a task using this strategy:
This is a sentence taken from the reading:

Quaint trad clothing, like kimonos, is rarely seen outside ceremonial occasions.
Student: What is quaint trad?
Teacher: Look at the whole sentence. Kimono is an example of the word, so what do you think
quaint trad means?
Student: Oh, it means something like traditional clothing.
Teacher: Yes, thats right.
Those were the most common strategies that can be utilized during any listening or reading activity.
Did you notice the students active participation?
The next section will demonstrate a general model for planning a reading or listening lesson. Do you
remember the steps for planning a grammar lesson? How would you relate them to this model?
A MODEL TO PRESENT A READING OR LISTENING ACTIVITY
Due to the active participation of the reader or listener, when planning a reading or listening activity,
the teacher needs to prepare questions or material in advance and organize a plan to make the most
of the activity. For a well-structured class, we suggest considering the following five steps.
1. LEADIN
This step is essential to activate your students thinking and to motivate them to perform the daily task.
The students make use of their previous knowledge or schemata to predict or guess what they will
read or listen to, giving them a reason to complete the task. The lead-in can utilize pictures, titles,
subtitles, keywords, pre-reading or pre-listening questions, true or false statements, songs, or
fragments of movies. Also important to this stage, you will prepare your students by presenting key
vocabulary that is essential to understanding the text.

Pre-reading or pre-listening question

Having pre-activity questions makes the activity more purposeful. Students will want to see if their
presumptions were correct. The goal is for your students to get a general idea of what they are about
to read or hear. The questions dont have to be very specific. On the contrary, ask for an overall view
of the text or recording.

2. INSTRUCTIONS
It is very important to have very clear instructions and to make sure that the students know exactly
what they are expected to do. In this stage the teacher announces the purpose of the reading and/or
listening activity. Are students going to fill in a chart? Are they going to answer questions? Are they
going to discuss the topic?
3. TASK
Students are asked to read or listen to a text to perform an expected task. For this step, you should
plan what you, as the instructor, are going to do while the students are completing the task. If it is a
reading activity, are you going to walk around the class to help the students who have difficulties? Are
you going to monitor to make sure the students are actually doing the reading and not waiting for their
partner to give them the answers? If it is a listening activity, how many times are you going to play the
tape or video? If it is a long listening activity, are you going to pause the tape? Where? How many
times?

4. FEEDBACK
After performing the task, it is important to point out whether the students completed the activity
successfully. At this point, students check their answers. This can be done in different ways, for
example, students compare answers with each other, the teacher asks one student for the answer, the
teacher asks for volunteers to give answers, the teacher asks the entire class, or the answers are
displayed for self correction. Always try to vary how you give feedback. This stage is also important to
compare what the students had predicted before listening to or reading the text to what they actually

heard or read. The students will expect you to discuss this comparison and listen to their opinions,
allowing them to personalize the activity.

5. FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY
The idea is to design an activity that relates to the topic just studied, but which requires an integration
of skills. As we said at the beginning of this unit, the four skills hardly ever appear in isolation, so this
activity should represent a more realistic context and incorporate a number of skills. The follow-up
activity usually applies what was learned to real life situations. For example, our students may read
about life in Japan, so the follow-up activity could be a role-play between a travel agent and a
customer interested in traveling to Japan. This example began with a reading activity, but the role-play
involves the skills of speaking, listening, and, perhaps, writing.
IDEAS FOR READING OR LISTENING TASKS
Here are some suggested activities, which you can use in class. Remember that first you have to
present the purpose of your lesson.
1) TRUE/FALSE STATEMENTS
True/false statements can be used as a pre-reading activity (lead-in) or as a reading/listening
comprehension activity.
2) COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
You can ask a comprehension question as a lead-in to raise students interest in the lessons topic.
You can also ask questions after an activity to check comprehension. The questions can be openended (with free answers) or close-ended (with fixed answers), but remember that the more the
students infer information the more they will demonstrate understanding.
3) CLOZE TEST
This is an incomplete text, which students need to fill in with the appropriate words. For example:
A good command of the ______skills will make the _________ more competent in ________
areas of the language.
You have done this type of activity in the grammar section. If it is a listening activity, the students fill in
the blanks as they listen. If it is a reading activity, depending on the students level and the level of
difficulty of the text, the students may or may not have a word bank that provides the available
answers.

4) FILL IN A CHART
The students read or listen to specific information to complete a chart.
5) MATCHING
Matching pictures with pictures, pictures with texts, words with texts, or words with pictures. Matching
can be performed individually, in pairs or groups, or as a class. There are ways to make matching
activities fun and very interactive among students.
6) JIGSAW READING OR LISTENING
The students have different pieces of information and they must share that information in order to
complete a task.
For example, a reading can be divided into different parts. Each student or group of students reads
that part and then has to tell the others what they read. With a listening activity, the students can listen
to different sections of a tape and then share the information to complete a task.

7) ORDERING SENTENCES
The students get scrambled sentences or paragraphs and they have to arrange them in the right order
according to what they heard or read.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING A READING OR LISTENING ACTIVITY
1. When selecting a reading or a listening text, think first about your students. Find a text that matches
their taste and interest. Use variation of topics and genres as much as possible.
2. Pre-teach key vocabulary. The biggest barrier the students may face is lack of understanding due to
poor vocabulary. Teach your students to care just about the words that interfere with understanding
and not every single word they do not know.
3. Make sure you use material that is in good condition: tapes, videos, and reading materials.
4. Make sure to vary the lead-in activity: pair discussion, group discussion, entire class discussion, or
individuals writing down ideas. In other words, avoid lead-in activities that always focus on the same
relationship: teacher-student or student-student.
5. Encourage your students to read or listen to music for pleasure.
6. Use as much of your students' schemata as possible to make a task easier.
7. Regardless of the difficulty of the text, make sure that the task is appropriate for your students' level.
The material should not be too easy or too challenging.