May 1, 2023

AMFDLS Group Work Session 3.

 

Which are the productive and receptive skill? What are their different?


The four types of communication skills taught in an English classroom are speaking, writing, reading, and listening. These four separate language skills are also commonly known as productive and receptive skills.


The different between them is that the receptive skill (Reading and listening) involve receiving or acquiring information and for other hand the productive skill (Speaking and writing) involve producing or giving information.

Both require some form of language production, Alternatively, you can also find the productive skills called active skills and the receptive skills called passive skills.

 


Why is it important to teach reading, listening, speaking and writing at school?

Speaking and listening are an important set of literacy skills that will create the foundation of the learning in a student Listening requires the fundamental skill of focusing attention on the speaker to be able to hear and understand what the speaker is saying.

The more you read and write, the more you broaden your vocabulary and are able to articulate concepts accurately and more effectively to others. Increasing your ability to communicate also helps make you a better worker or student.

What are the types of reading and listening?



Reading


The types of reading are: Extensive reading (reading for pleasure) and Intensive reading.

Extensive reading is concerned with reading different books and other study material based on a similar concept or idea. In contrast, intensive reading involves reading the given material, again and again, to understand it in full.

In extensive reading, readers are not supposed to use a dictionary, as understanding each and every word contained in the material is not vital. As opposed, in intensive reading readers have to use the dictionary, to understand the meaning of every single word which is unfamiliar to them.

While extensive reading is important for improving the reading speed and fluency of the reader, intensive reading develops critical thinking, analytical skills in the reader, along with improving reading skills, vocabulary and grammatical knowledge.

Listening

The types of listening are: Extensive listening and Intensive listening.

Extensive listening is listening without being constrained by pre-set questions or tasks, or listening at or below one's comfortably fluent listening ability. Extensive listening does not require listening for specific information, listening for the exact words of a phrase or expression, or listening for details.

Intensive listening focuses primarily on brief listening exercises. While they usually only take a few minutes, they offer focused, intense practice. This is because intensive listening focuses mostly on form.

While intensive listening focuses on short audio clips, extensive listening focuses on longer audio clips - the longer the better! Intensive listening means that you will be working hard and analysing what you hear.

 What are the reading and listening skills?

The reading skills are:

·       Skimming

·       Scanning

·       Reading for detailed comprehension

Skimming and scanning are reading techniques that use rapid eye movement and keywords to move quickly through text for slightly different purposes. Skimming is reading rapidly in order to get a general overview of the material. Scanning is reading rapidly in order to find specific facts.



These are the different strategies to apply the reading skills:

Ø  Discussion

Ø  Jigswa reading

Ø  Reading puzzles

Ø  Story telling from pictures

Ø  Debates

The listening skills are:

·       Paralinguistic clues.

·       Listening for specific information.

·       Listening for general understanding.

Listening for gist: you listen in order to understand the main idea of the text. Listening for specific information: you want to find out specific details, for example key words. Listening for detailed understanding: you want to understand all the information the text provides.

These are the different strategies to apply the listening skills:

Ø  Completing stories

Ø  Jigsaw listening

Ø  Message note taking

Ø  Filling the gaps

Ø  Listening and summarizing

What is genre and how it is used in communicative skill teaching?

Genre is a term used to classify types of spoken or written discourse. These are normally classified by content, language, purpose and form. Learners analyze an example of a formal letter of complaint, looking at structure, set phrases, formality and purpose.

An important benefit of genre-based approach in L2 communication either spoken or written is that it provides a systematic framework to follow for L2 students who have only limited exposure to authentic English writing. In genre-based approach, communication either spoken or written is considered the students’ reproduction of text based on the genre offered by the teacher. As a result, genre is expected to offer a process of production of a text, according to genre, so the guided process may be favored over the product. It is also believed that it is through imitation and exploration of different kinds of models that the learners can improve their writing skills.

Accordingly, learners should be exposed to as many examples of the same genre as possible to develop their ability to write a particular genre.

What is the difference between fluency and accuracy?



Fluency is the flow and efficiency with which you express your ideas, particularly when speaking. A few grammar mistakes may appear here and there in the explanation, but it should be delivered in a way that is easy to understand and shows how comfortable you are with the language.

In an academic or even professional setting, this is one of the skills to focus on for an oral presentation or debate.

The way you explain your topic or prove your point – smooth, clear and concise without too many pauses or hesitations – is as important as the content of your presentation.

Outside of the classroom, fluency can help you socialize with native English speakers and avoid misunderstandings. 

Accuracy, on the other hand, demonstrates your ability to use the necessary vocabulary, grammar and punctuation correctly, such as verb forms (past tense, present tense, and so on), articles (a, an, the) and prepositions (in, on, from, at). 

This skill is particularly important for written assignments at university, such as essays and lab reports. It is also an absolute necessity in the work place, where an email or report that is riddled with grammar or punctuation mistakes may be viewed as unprofessional. 

So, which situation applies to you and what are you looking to accomplish?

 Which is the most important to teach?

Of course, to be a well-rounded speaker of English, it is important to have a good grasp on both fluency and accuracy, but this is a learning journey that takes time and dedication.

Fluency is the most important as long as students are accurate enough to be understood, then building fluent, confident and competent communicators are more important.

Why?

Fluent speakers can effectively produce units of speech and link them together in communication in a faster rate.


Jun 10, 2016

ANOTHER REX MASON

Rex Mason, when you hear or read that name you know it is Metamorpho himself, former soldier of fortune and now unwilling metahuman who only wishes to be "cured" from being a super powerful hero. This name is so common for Metamorpho fans as Clark Kent is for Superman fans, but have you considered there are real people who are called same than comic-book superheroes? 

There is a New Zealand politician called Rex Mason, who lived in the last century but since we are more interested in comic-books, today I want introduce to you to another Rex Mason (also called Maxon by a few sources), an obscure penciler/inker who was active in the golden and silver ages. It is little what we know about his personal life, he was born on March 24th 1892, his earliest work in sequential art was the Tarzan newspaper strip in which he started working in 1929, additionally he worked on Tarzan's illustrated novels (prose books heavily illustrated). Sequential art was not something he did a lot but instead most of his career was devoted to the so called pulp magazines, specially the spicy pulp (magazines with explicit art).

In the 40's he breaks into the comic industry working for several publishers but probably most of his work was never credited since there are only a few records about what he did on these varied publishers. His most important work in the comics medium was perhaps his stint on Dell Comics where he co-created several features such as Turok, Track Hunter, Young Earth among others (in recent years Turok stories drawn by Rex Mason have been reprinted by Dark Horse).

Mr. Mason left the comics industry in 1969 as he moved to England to pursue a career as landscape painter. He died on November 25, 1973, aged 81. Considering that Bob Haney was very versed about what other publishers were producing (more about this on a future post), there is still the probability he read the name on a comic and took it by chance for his creation, who knows.

As a bonus, I want to show you the work of a potter or potters (this site is still trying to figure out the identity of the potter or potters) called Rex Mason.