Receptive activities and strategies: Listening , Reading

and Audiovisual Reception

Plácido Bazo, Isabel La Roche and Sergio Francisco
Déniz
LISTENING
 Listening: 1st and 2nd year of Primary

Can follow speech which is very slow and carefully

articulated:
 Can understand a tale told by the teacher with the needed
interactional modifications
 Can understand a very simple dialogue (CD) with visual aid
 Can understand words and phrases (CD)
 Can understand a song or chant (CD)

Can understand instructions addressed carefully and

slowly to them and follow short, simple instructions:
 Can follow instructions (one at the time) given by the teacher
in English for general classroom management or for doing
specific tasks
 Listening: 3rd and 4th year of Primary
Can follow speech which is slow and carefully
articulated:
 Can understand a tale told by the teacher with the needed
interactional modifications
 Can understand a simple dialogue (CD)
 Can understand simple phrases (CD / Teacher)
 Can understand a song or chant (CD) and read it at the same
time
 Can listen and sequence / match / compare / etc.

Can understand instructions addressed carefully and

slowly to them and follow short, simple instructions:
 Can follow instructions (1 or 2 at the time) given by the teacher
in English for general classroom management or for doing
specific tasks
 Listening: 5th and 6th year of Primary
Can follow speech which is slow and carefully
articulated:
 Can understand a story told by the teacher with the needed
interactional modifications
 Can understand a song or tonguetwister (CD) and read it at
the same time
 Can listen (CD) and sequence / match / compare / etc.
 Can grasp the overall meaning and extract specific information
from an oral text and transfer it to a different medium (A2) ->
2 clues and no distractors

Can understand instructions addressed carefully and

slowly to them and follow short, simple instructions:
 Can follow instructions given by the teacher in English for
general classroom management or for doing specific tasks
 Can follow directions (A2)
... reading is an interactive process between
what a reader already knows about a given topic
or subject and what the writer writes. It is not
simply a matter of applying decoding
conventions and grammatical knowledge to the
text. Good readers are able to relate the text and
their own background knowledge efficiently.
(Nunan, D. 1988, The Learner-Centred Curriculum, p.33)
 Reading: 1st and 2nd year of Primary

Can read and understand words with and without

visual aid
Can read and understand phrases with visual aid
Can reread as required
Can read and understand very simple comic strips
 Reading: 3rd and 4th year of Primary

Can read and understand phrases with visual aid

Can read and understand simple comic strips
Can understand very short, simple texts, a single
phrase at a time, picking up familiar names, words and
basic phrases, using the provided visual aid
Can read and match / answer questions / sequence /
etc.
Can read and do (TPR)
Can read and understand postcards
Can read and understand notices with basic words
Can follow short, simple written directions
 Reading: 5th and 6th year of Primary

Can read and understand phrases without visual aid

Can understand short, simple texts, a single phrase at a
time, picking up familiar names, words and basic
phrases, using the provided visual aid
Can read and match / answer questions / sequence /
etc.
Can grasp the overall meaning of written texts (A2)
Can extract specific information of written texts (A2)
Can read easy books in English
Can read and understand simple personal letters
Can read and understand notices with basic words
Can follow short, simple written directions
RECEPTION STRATEGIES
 Reception strategies
• Identifying cues and inferring (spoken and written)
• Exploiting illustrations, formatting, headings, subtitles, position in the
text, etc.
• Ability to deduce meaning from the context;
• Exploiting linguistic clues: from numbers and proper nouns, through
Word roots prefixes and suffixes, temporal connectors, logical connectors
– to skilled used of a variety of strategies.
 Grasp the overall meaning (gist)
 Extract specific information
 Predict
 Guess the meaning of unkown words

THE END
 Tales are usually predictable stories
Two main features:

1. Some phrases (routines) are repeated over and over

E.g. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Who has been eating my porridge? Who has been sitting on my chair? Who
has been lying on my bed?
E.g. Three Little Pigs
Wolf: “Little pig, little pig, let me come in! “
“No, no,” the little pig says, “I won’t let you in”

2. Sequences
E.g. Chicken Licken, The Enormous Turnip

back
Back (CK1, CD2 track 4)
Back (CK2, CD1 track 18)
Back (CK4, CD2 track 9)
 Teacher talk

Affective talking
Giving instructions (classroom management)
Telling a story
Reading aloud
Listen and write (not the traditional dictation)
Listen and mime
Humming dictation
Spot my mistakes
TPR (Total Physical Response)

back
 Back (Think in English B) A new dictation

Script: Walter is a detective. Elena is cold. Paul is a little boy. Chuck lives in Alaska. Karl is
a painter. Carol is fat. Shareeta is from India. Ted plays the guitar. Penny is tired. Susy
goes to school. Linda is a singer. Tong is from China. Rod is very old. Betty is a doctor.
Ivan is happy.
 Ways to say “very good” back

  You’re doing ... fine / a good job

That’s ... right / the way / it /
 Now you have it!
good / better / really nice!
  Good for you!
GREAT!
 Good job, (name of student)
 FANTASTIC!
 Much better!
 MARVELLOUS!  Not bad!
 PERFECT!  Keep working, you’re getting
 FINE! better
 GOOD WORK!  You’re really working hard today
 EXCELLENT!  That’s the way to do it!
 WONDERFUL!  You are very good at that
  You are learning fast
WOW!
  I’m happy to see you working like
TREMENDOUS!
that
 SUPER!  You did that very well
 CONGRATULATIONS!
Back Listen and chant (CK3, CD2 track 38)
 Giving instructions
Example 1
Now, I’d like you to get into pairs, A
and B. A, I want you to ask
questions to find out what is in
B’s picture. B, be careful not to let
A see your picture. OK, here are
the pictures. That’s right, María,
turn away from Carlos so he can’t
see it. Everyone, look at María
and Carlos and see how they are
sitting. That’s right. Good.
back
Example 2
The teacher gets the attention of the
whole class. Then she gives a
picture to María and gestures to
her not to reveal it to others. The
teacher asks María 3 or 4
questions to find out what is in
the picture. She then gestures to
Carlos (who is on the opposite
side of the classroom) to
continue the questions. She then
uses gesture to divide the
students into pairs and gives one
student in each pair a picture.
She says, “OK? Now you”.
 Telling a story
Simplified input
 Grammar: restricted use of
some linguistic structures
(subordinate clauses,
passive voice)
 Vocabulary: not many
different words; difficult
words are not needed to
undestand the story or
their meaning is made
specific by means of visual
aid
 Phonological aspects: not
very fast (pauses);
exaggerated intonation;
contractions
back
Interact’n modifications
 Repetitions (This is the
story. This is the story of a
boy. A boy. And his name is
Tom. This is the story of
Tom)
 Questions: prompting
(What’s this?); Checking
(Right?), Rethorical
questions (I was walking
along the street and ... Who
did I see? ... I saw ...)
 Gestures: face, hands, body
 Here and now principle
 Visual aid: pictures,
blackboard, realia
Facial Expressions of Emotion: sadness, fear, surprise, disgusting, happiness, hate
back
back Listen and unjumble the song (CK6, CD1 track 50)
Listen and sequence (CK5,CD2 track 29) back
 Information Transfer
What is information transfer? Receptive and
productive
Advantage of information transfer: real task and also a
communicative task
Basic information-transfer strategies:
 Maps and plans (classroom, weather forecast, etc)
 Forms and tables (passport details, bus timetables, football
results, etc)
 Diagrams and charts (family trees)
 Diaries and calendars (personal engagements, holidays)

back
 Extracting specific info by giving 2 clues back

Script:
1. Which tower is taller? Big Ben is 106 metres tall and the Telecom Tower is
180 metres tall. So the Telecom Tower is taller than Big Ben.
2. Which street is shorter? Oxford Street and Regent Street have got lots of
shops, but Oxford Street is longer than Regent Street. So Regent Street is
shorter than Oxford Street.
back Identifying topic of discussion (1 ESO) Script (EA1, p28)
 Script : T= teacher, J= Jess back

 T: This is a very interesting project. So, tell me a little bit about the sumo
school in Japan. Do students start when they’re very young?
 J: No, they don’t. Thay start when they’re thirteen. The sumo teachers are
very strict, and they eat a lot!
 T: And does Kazuto eat a lot too?
 J: Yes, he does. And he sometimes prepares food for his sumo teachers!
 T: Really? And does Kazuto live at the school?
 J: No, he doesn’t. He lives with his parents and his sister.
 T: I see. Do girls go to sumo school too?
 J: No, they don’t. But in China girls to acrobat school.
 T: And do they study other subjects at acrobat school?
 J: Yes, they do. They study history, literature, maths, Chinese and music.
Mai studies a lot. She doesn’t see her family very often.
 T: Why not?
 J: Because she has classes every day!
back Extracting specific info (1 ESO) SCRIPT (EA1, p80)
 Script: Q= Quiz host M= Michael back

 Q: Hello and welcome to Quizmania! Our next contestant is Michael.

Hello, Michael.
 M: Hi!
 Q: So, you’re an expert on Spider-man. When did you see the first Spider-
Man film?
 M: I saw Spider-Man the first day it came to the cinema!
 Q: Well, good luck with the quiz. First question. How many people in the
United States saw Spider-Man in its first two days in the cinema? was it,
a) 2 million, b)20 million, or c) 200 million?
 M: Oh, 20 million, I think.
 Q: Correct! Next question. When was the second Spider-Man film?
 M: Easy! It was 2004.
 Q: Yes, that’s right. Next question ...
 A quotation about reading back

... reading is an interactive process between what a

reader already knows about a given topic or
subject and what the writer writes. It is not simply
a matter of applying decoding conventions and
grammatical knowledge to the text. Good readers
are able to relate the text and their own
background knowledge efficiently. (Nunan, D. 1988, The
Learner-Centred Curriculum, p.33)
back Reading words (CK 2, CB p.43)
back Reading comic strips (CK 2, CB p.17)
back Reading comic strips (CK 4, CB p.34)
back Reading short texts with visual aid (CK 4, CB p.20)
back Reading postcards (CK 4 AB, p.20)
back Intensive reading (CK 6 CB, p.7)
Tom troshes the clag frontly in the brood back

1. Who troshes the clag?

2. What does Tom do?
3. Where does he trosh the clag?
4. How does he trosh the clag?
Extracting specific info (A2) Unbalanced (CK 5 CB, p.56)
back Unbalanced activity: easy input / difficult task
back Reading Letters (CK 6 CB, p.38)
 backReading: extracting info (Go 1, p.74)
Read the story and answer the questions: 1. Where does Dr Jekyll live? 2. How does he make his new
liquid? 3. How much of the liquid does he drink? 4. Can you describe Mr Hyde?
back Reading a letter 1st cycle ESO (Go 1, p. 92)
back Reading: grasp overall meaning (ESO) (Go 1, p.85)