Task 3 - Language Skills

María Fernanda Meza Bonilla

Code 1090409822

Didactics of English

551026_4

Tutor

Edwin Andrés Londoño

Universidad Nacional Abierta Y A Distancia

Licenciatura en Inglés como Lengua Extranjera

Octubre del 2020

Cúcuta
 Language skills

Language skills are the communication skills or abilities we use through language in the

various social situations that are presented to us; through language skills, we can receive or

produce language, therefore learning is essential when acquiring a foreign language.

In teaching English, it is very important to make the receptive and productive skills

known.

Receptive skills consist of the ability to read and listen successfully and, consequently,

to understand a foreign language; as no one is born with these skills, these skills must be

learned and mastered, receptive skills are reading and listening.

Listening

Active listening means listening and understanding communication from the point of

view of the speaker; there is a big difference between hearing and listening, hearing is

simply perceiving sound vibrations, on the other hand, listening is understanding or

making sense of what is heard.

Active listening refers to the ability to listen not only to what the person is expressing

directly but also the feelings, ideas or thoughts that underlie what is being said.

Listening should be convened by some activity through which students can demonstrate

their understanding and experience the pleasure of success.

Some strategies applied by teachers for students to develop listening can be:
  The practice of trial-error, through experimentation and imitation of activities

through audio, video or conversation.

 The task-based approach in which the student is given specific tasks to solve,

through a recording, conversation, etc., that the student relates what he hears to the

task to be practiced.

 Contextualization is a very useful strategy since it is appropriate to learn a phrase

or word sequentially, which can be done through audios focused on specific

sounds.

 Taking notes helps students focus on the main idea, be it an audio, tape, etc., which

allows the student to tune the ear in listening activities.

 We can also use the guidance strategy aimed at deciding in advance to attend a

learning task in general and ignoring details, for example, you can focus on specific

phrases in a recording or audio-video.

Reading

Reading with the naked eye may seem like a passive activity, but the truth is that it is

very interactive, since it brings knowledge to the reader and involves thoughts, facts, and

points of view.

Students can practice reading skills by performing extensive reading, which is to choose

a long reading of their liking, for example, a book; on the other hand, there is the intensive

reading that is that reading chosen for a learning purpose, be it reading comprehension or

interpretation; both forms of reading are very beneficial and enriching for the minds of the

students.
 Some strategies that the teacher can carry out with his students are the following:

 Promote group work by making reading clubs with specialized literature in foreign

languages.

 Tasks directed by the teacher through specific questions of reading a text

previously chosen by the teacher.

 Strategies for clarifying language comprehension, knowing and looking for

meanings of new words in reading.

 To practice exercises, making the students repeat the reading several times,

prioritizing the difficult words to pronounce in the new language.

 Evaluate what has been read through questions to emphasize reading

comprehension.

In addition to the receptive skills to acquire a language, there are productive skills,

which consist of the student's ability to write and speak efficiently in a foreign language;

productive skills are speaking and writing.

Writing

Writing is intended to write and express ideas, however, relevant points should be taken

into account when writing such as the style and form of writing, especially to correct

vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

For the teacher to carry out writing activities is of great demand, since he must classify

the writing activities, supervise the writing composition process and provide feedback on

that process.
 That is why it is important that the teacher carry out effective strategies to develop this

skill in the students, some suggestions are:

 The taking of notes is very appropriate when expressing the main idea of the topic,

whether through writing a message, a letter, etc.

 The answer to specific questions of students' personal interest topics, for example

about music, video games, sports activities, etc.

 Memorization activities are essential for writing, through the dictation and teaching

of spelling.

 Contextualize by placing words or phrases according to activities directed by the

teacher, for example, filling in blanks, completing sentences, etc.

 Group feedback, where all students participate and evaluate the texts written by

other students.

Speaking

With this ability, we can express our ideas, opinions, and desires and establish social and

friendship relationships.

The ability to speak in a foreign language is divided into two broad categories: spoken

interaction, which is the ability to interact with other interlocutors; and spoken production,

where there are no interlocutors, the person expresses himself in front of an audience.

To teach the ability to speak in the classroom, teachers must dedicate spaces to practice

this skill, since it is common for the teacher to talk more in class and students to listen.

Some of the recommended strategies to develop this skill are:

spoken skills.

 Group work development through a conversation in which the teacher gives them a

specific topic.

 Directed teaching through oral evaluations, the teacher asks specific topics to know

the level of student learning.

 Exhibitions, the student investigates a topic and explains it, this allows the

transmission of ideas through speech and the correct pronunciation of the language.

 Class discussions promote group interaction, where students express their ideas and

the teacher corrects pronunciation errors.

In conclusion, for the student to acquire a new language, it is important that they

approve the four language skills, speaking, listening, writing and reading; all these skills

must be practiced for the consolidation of each of them.

The teacher must apply the necessary strategies for the exercise of each of them, using

different teaching materials for their practice.

Didactical activity to develop language skills

This activity is designed for second grade. It has 4 stations, in each one the students are

going to encourage the four skills.

 First station
 Students are going to listen “The Cat in the Hat” in groups while they read the book

mentally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LL62u6-OjY

 Second station

After reading and listening the book, they switch to the writing station where they

have to solve a worksheet about the reading they did before using wh-questions.
 Third station
The student move to the word work station, where they have to choose an activity
to work on the vocabulary with a friend or to self.
They can choose between:
- Play doh: They model the vocabulary according to the reading.
 - Mini boards: They use erasable markers to write on the boards sentences with
the vocabulary according to the reading.
- Flash cards: In pairs they show each other flash cards and tell and spell the
word we are working on, according to the vocabulary.
- Work on the computer: The student can listen the reading again if they want or
work on paint to draw their favorite scene of the story.

 Fourth station
Students work with the teacher, they talk about the plot of the story, main
characters and retell the story in their own words.

References

 Ganesh, M. (2015). Teaching receptive and productive language skills with the help of
techniques. Pune Research an international journal in English, 1(2). Retrieved
from: http://puneresearch.com/media/data/issues/55fbb8b0dd37d.pdf
  Ivančić, M. & Mandić, A. (2014). Receptive and productive language skills in language
teaching. In Academia.Edu. Retrieved
from: https://www.academia.edu/15220943/Receptive_and_productive_language_skills_in
_language_teaching