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What's the best way to learn receptive skills?

Miranda Hamilton

July 26, 2021

We often think of speaking and writing as the most challenging of the four language skills but what about the receptive skills? With reading, learners have time to think, but listening in another language presents a very different set of challenges for the learner. How often have we heard learners complain ‘it’s too fast, teacher!’? So how can you help?

Some guides are designed to help teachers understand the subskills of listening, with activities, tips and strategies to help you develop your learners’ listening skills as they prepare for their exams.

Here are just a few of the ideas from the guides for you to try with your learners. They will work at all levels.

How many words?

This micro listening is a great activity to try towards the end of your listening lesson, when learners have already heard the recording, so they know the speakers’ voices and the topic.

• Select a short phrase, of around 10 words, from the listening you have just completed. Set up the audio so you are ready to press ‘Play’.

• Tell the learners to listen and count the number of words they hear. You will need to play the audio several times. Pairs discuss. Take a range of answers from the class, but don’t tell them the answer just yet.

• Write the phrase on the board and count the number of words with the class. Who was the closest?

• Now ask them to listen and read the phrase at the same time. This time they have to decide which words they hear most clearly, in other words, you want them to notice the stressed words. Ask why they think they heard these words most clearly. Explain that stressed words carry the key information.

This micro listening activity helps raise learners’ awareness of sounds, helping them notice the stressed words and preparing them to listen for key information.

Support every learner

In mixed-ability classes, put a few simple strategies in place so the whole class can listen to the same recording, and take part in the same activity. This means that no learner feels lost or left behind.

• Make the gap-fill or sentence-completion task more achievable and supply the first letter of the missing word. Alternatively supply the first and the final letter and indicate how many letters the missing word has.

• Provide an additional layer of support for weaker learners by giving them the audio script. They can read the script as they listen and use it to help them find the correct answers.

Prepare to listen, prepare to understand

Don’t be in too much of a hurry to hand out the listening task and press ‘Play’. Time spent in class before listening means learners are better prepared to understand.

• Before you listen, have a class discussion around the topic of the listening. This gives learners the opportunity not only to practice their speaking, but also to practice listening to one another. A good discussion will make them think about the main ideas they might hear when they listen. • Useful vocabulary always comes out of a class discussion, creating a very natural way to pre-teach vocabulary before they listen. Useful language linked to a discussion is easier to learn because learners have a context, which makes it easier to remember than pre-teaching vocabulary from a wordlist.

• Take your time to discuss the task and check understanding. Encourage the class to reflect on their discussion and predict the answers. Remember to write their predictions on the board. Did they guess correctly? It doesn’t matter if they did or not, what matters is that they are prepared and ready to listen to see if they were right.

Feeling prepared to listen means learners feel confident and ready to understand, both in the classroom and in their exam.

Adapted from: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/blog/whats-the-best-way-tolearn-receptive-skills

Text 1

Educational attainment (Part I)

Having a good education greatly BLANK I (improve) the likelihood of finding a job and earning enough money to have a good quality of life. Highly-educated individuals are less affected by unemployment trends, typically because educational attainment BLANK II (make) an individual more attractive in the workforce. Lifetime earnings also increase with each level of education attained.

Furthermore, the skills needed in the labour market are becoming more knowledge-based. This shift in demand has made an upper secondary degree, or high-school degree, the minimum credential for finding a job in almost all The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. High-school graduation rates therefore provide a good indication of whether a country is preparing its students to meet the minimum requirements of the job market.

On average, about 79% of adults aged 25-64 within the OECD have completed upper secondary education. In 33OECD countries and the Russian Federation, 60% or more of the population aged 25 to 64 has completed at least upper secondary education. In some countries, the opposite is true: in Colombia, Mexico and Turkey, 57% or more of the population aged 25 to 64 have not completed upper secondary education. Women are, however, more likely to complete a tertiary or university degree than men in most OECD countries, a reversal of the historical pattern. On average across OECD countries, 42% of women aged 25-64 attain a tertiary education compared with 35% of men.

https://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/education/

Read the text by Brown to answer question.

        The question of whether or not to distinguish between native and nonnative speakers in the teaching profession has grown into a common and productive topic of research in the last decade. For many decades the English language teaching profession assumed that native English-speaking teachers, by virtue of their superior model of oral production, comprised the ideal English language teacher. Then, Medgyes (1994), among others, showed in his research that nonnative English speaking teachers offered as many if not more inherent advantages. Other authors concur by noting not only that multiple varieties of English are now considered legitimate and acceptable, but also that teachers who have actually gone through the process of learning English possess distinct advantages over native speakers.

        As we move into a new paradigm in which the concepts of native and nonnative “speaker” become less relevant, it is perhaps more appropriate to think in terms of the proficiency level of a user of a language. Speaking is one of four skills and may not deserve in all contexts to be elevated to the sole criterion for proficiency. So, the profession is better served by considering a person’s communicative proficiency across the four skills. Teachers of any language, regardless of their own variety of English, can then be judged accordingly, and in turn, their pedagogical training and experience can occupy focal attention.

(Brown, 2006. Adaptado)

Read Text I and answer question.

Text I

More More More: What Is Money Dysmorphia?  

     Do you ever worry that you don't have enough money, even though your bank account suggests you're doing fine? You might be experiencing "money dysmorphia.” This is a term for when a person has a distorted view of their financial situation — particularly when a wealthy person believes they don't have enough money to be secure. The idea is similar to body dysmorphia, where a person agonizes about flaws they perceive in their body, even if they are not noticeable to others.

    American lawyer and financial expert Ali Katz may have been the first to use the term, having written about money dysmorphia extensively in 2016. But it wasn't until late 2023 that it started trending. Because, as it turns out, the feeling can be pretty common — especially among young people.

     In August 2023, Bloomberg published the results of a survey of over 1,000 Americans making over $175,000 a year. And while earning this much would put these people among the 10% richest in the country, a quarter of them said they felt "very poor," "poor,” or that they were just managing to get by.

   In addition, a December 2023 survey for Intuit Credit Karma found that, out of 1,006 Americans, 29% experienced money dysmorphia — which the survey defined as "having a distorted view of one's finances that could lead them to make poor decisions.” That figure rose to 41% among millennials, who are usually defined as those born between 1981 and 1996. And it was 43% among Generation Z, typically considered to have been born between 1997 and 2012.

  Some believe social media is to blame. With Instagram and TikTok full of influencers flaunting lavish lifestyles, it's understandable that young people might feel insecure about their own financial situations. And as well as causing stress, money dysmorphia might make people stay in jobs they don't like, or choose work over spending time with their families.

  Speaking to Business Insider, Katz said it's important to actually calculate how much is enough for you — and "know the difference between what you need and what you want."

Adapted from: https://engoo.com.br/app/dailynews/article/more-more-more-what-is-moneydysmorphia/eMBHgsr7Ee6RxDeDj30Epw