1、The Practice of English Language Teaching Third Edition Completely Revised wicket is a cricketing team; England has not been doing too well in the sport lately. Therefore, understanding a piece of discourse involves much more than just knowing the language, and the “pre-existing knowledge of the wor
2、ld” is what we call schema. Shared schemata make spoken and written communication becomes efficient. This is why it is difficult for a foreign learner to understand what they see or hear.A2 Reasons for reading and listening Instrumental Example We read a road sign so that we know where to go, we rea
3、d the instructions on a ticket machine because we need to know how to operate it. Pleasurable Example Spending hours buried in the Sunday Paper.A3 Top-down sometimes it is our overview (bottom-up) that allows us to process the details.A4 Different skills Identifying the topic Good readers quickly ge
4、t an idea of what is being talked about with the help of their own schemata. Predicting and guessing Readers sometimes look forward, trying to predict what is coming; sometimes they make assumptions or guess the content from half-hearing. Reading and listening for general understanding Such kind of
5、reading( eg. skimming) description of scientific procedures; remember the address and telephone numbers; listening to airport announcement. Interpreting text To understand what the writer or speaker is implying or guessing. Example “You are in a non-smoking zone.” was understood as asking the studen
6、t to put her cigarette out.B Problems show a picture for prediction; ask them to guess what they are going to see or hear; have them look at the headlines or captions before they read the whole thing. Activate schemata We want to activate their knowledge before they read or listen so that they bring
7、 their schemata to the text. Eg. Talk about the kinds of questions an interviewer might use with a celebrity if they were going to listen to an interview with a sports star. Vary topics and genre To make sure that students will experience an appropriate range of texts: from written instructions and
8、tapes announcements to stories in books and live, spontaneous conversation, from Internet pages to business letters, from pre-recorded messages on phone lines to radio dramas.B3 Comprehension tasks Possible problems Sometimes such tasks appear to be testing students rather than helping them to under
9、stand. Sometimes texts or the tasks are far too easy or far too difficult. Testing asking questions about the text with what, when, how many, & how often. Appropriate challenge When asking students to read and listen we want to avoid texts and tasks that are either far too easy or far too difficult.
10、 As with many other language tasks we want to get the level of challenge right, to make the tasks “difficult but achievable”.B4 Negative expectations Students sometimes have low expectations of reading and listening. And such attitudes are often due to previous unhappy or unsuccessful experiences. T
11、eachers are expected to change these negative expectations into realistic optimism. Manufacturing success Getting the level of challenge right (in terms of language, texts and tasks) we can ensure that students are successful. Agreeing on a purpose It is important for teacher and students to agree on both general and specific purposes for their reading or listening. If students know what they are reading or listening they can choose how to approach the text. If they understand the purpose they will have a better chance of knowing how well they have achieved it. Thank you for your attention !
