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Reading and listening are not only functions for the eyes and ears; we use our minds to literally understand words. We process words in our "preexistent knowledge" to truly understand them. Readers and listeners use several specialist skills which are important to their understanding the context. Their level of expertise in understanding will depend on: 1. Predictive skills - the ability to predict the content of the dialogue or article based on the headline or title. 2. Specific Information, "scanning" - the ability to look for or hear specific information without reviewing the presented information in its entirety. Good examples include looking for game scores in the Sports section of a newspaper and listening to a specific news story during the the Evening News broadcast. 3. General idea, "skimming" - listening and reading for the "gist" of the text/dialogue, not focusing on single words. Skimming allows the reader or listener to get a general idea of the content. 4. Detailed information - reading or listening to understand all details. This requires concentration to gain full benefit of the presented information. An example of detailed information is reading or listening to directions for arriving to a certain place. 5. Deduction from context - the ability to read specific words or phrases and deduce the meaning of those words. i.e. see beyond the literal meaning of the words. A good example is seeing a "No Smoking Zone" sign and understanding from those words that smoking is not permitted in that area. It is an order to not light up or to extinguish a lit cigarette. This information was the introductory paragraphs of Unit 11, Teaching Receptive Skills. It is very helpful to learn these specialist skills in the formal setting of this course because they are skills and definitions we seem to know through life experience. Important to note is that the life experiences of our students probably do not parallel our life experience with the English language. As teachers we must focus to these skills to provide our students with the proper instruction to engage in reading and listening appropriately to the situation encountered. These specialist skills are valuable in the types of reading and listening we do, specifically, for a purpose and for entertainment. There are times our reasons for reading and listening will include both motives. In addition, there are times our reading and listening will include more than one of the skills detailed above. As students learn the language they will gradually learn when to employ the various skills based on need. Teachers leading by example will be so very helpful to students as they learn these skills. The various techniques employed by the professional teacher during reading and listening exercises will be noted and copied. With practice and through their own life experiences, the students should become comfortable with using these skills when needed. The topic and question I chose for this essay were eye-opening for me. I noted above that learning about these skills in a formal course were excellent not only for the receptive skills lesson but also for the ability required by the teacher for teaching English as a second language. we must always keep in mind that life experiences are different so things we take for granted or "as the given" may not transfer to our students. We must incorporate this into our lesson plans and dialogues.
