Topic 3

Question 1

In which two ways can the major language skills be classified?

Answer 1

In relation to the medium and to the activity of the speaker

Question 2

In relation to the medium, how can the major language skills be classified?

Answer 2

Speaking and listening are related to language expressed through the aural medium whereas reading and writing are related to language expressed through the visual medium

Question 3

In relation to the activity of the speaker, how can the major language skills be classified?

Answer 3

Speaking and writing are said to be productive skills while listening and reading are said to be receptive skills

Question 4

How can we make our pupils engage actively in a listening activity?

Answer 4

Making the activity interesting for them, useful and purposeful

Question 5

What are the five requirements for a good listening comprehension lesson?

Answer 5

Listening comprehension lessons:
- must have definite goals, carefully stated
- should be constructed with careful step by step planning
- should have a structure which demands active pupil participation
- should stress conscious memory work
- should teach, not test

Question 6

What is extensive listening? What is one of its advantages?

Answer 6

In extensive listening the language level is within the students’ capacity and they listen for pleasure and interest. One of the advantages of extensive listening passages is that they need not be under the direct control of the teacher, but function as back-up material for the pupil to listen to in his own time at his own speed.

Question 7

What is intensive listening?

Answer 7

Intensive listening is the most widely-used form of listening practice in classrooms. Students are asked to listen to a passage with the aim of collecting and organizing the information it contains. The type of passages used contain more concrete information and often is not so easy for the students to understand on first hearing. Passages should be short and played several times.

Question 8

Name the two types of listening strategies according to how the listener processes the input

Answer 8

Top-down strategies and bottom-up strategies

Question 9

Explain top-down strategies (listening strategies)

Answer 9

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next.

Question 10

Explain bottom-up strategies (listening strategies)

Answer 10

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning.

Question 11

What should the instructor do when designing listening activities? (6 points)

Answer 11

• Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task
• Define the activity’s instructional goal and type of response
• Check the level of difficulty of the listening text
• Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view
• Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose and students’ proficiency level
• Use post-listening activities to check comprehension, evaluate listening skills and use of listening strategies, and extend the knowledge gained to other contexts.

Question 12

Name the three areas of knowledge that are involved in speaking

Answer 12

Mechanics, function and social and cultural rules and norms

Question 13

Explain MECHANICS (area of knowledge involved in speaking)

Answer 13

The use of the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation

Question 14

Explain FUNCTION (area of knowledge involved in speaking)

Answer 14

The knowledge about when clarity of message is essential and when precise understanding is not required

Question 15

Explain SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RULES AND NORMS (area of knowledge involved in speaking)

Answer 15

The understanding of how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what and for what reason

Question 16

In a balanced approach for teaching speaking, what can instructors use to help students develop communicative efficiency?

Answer 16

Language input, structured output and communicative output

Question 17

In a balanced approach for teaching communicative efficiency in speaking, explain LANGUAGE INPUT

Answer 17

Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages and the language heard and read outside of class

Question 18

In a balanced approach for teaching communicative efficiency in speaking, explain STRUCTURED OUTPUT

Answer 18

Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced. Structure output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items.

Question 19

In a balanced approach for teaching communicative efficiency in speaking, explain COMMUNICATIVE OUTPUT

Answer 19

In communicative output, the learners’ main purpose is to complete a task and they may use the language that the instructor has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar and communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.

Question 20

Name the strategies that effective instructors can use to develop speaking skills

Answer 20

Using minimal responses, recognizing scripts and using language to talk about language

Question 21

Explain MINIMAL RESPONSES as one of the strategies effective instructors can use to develop speaking skills

Answer 21

Minimal responses encourage learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction.

Question 22

Explain RECOGNIZING SCRIPTS as one of the strategies effective instructors can use to develop speaking skills

Answer 22

Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts whose recognition might be helpful for students.

Question 23

Explain USING LANGUAGE TO TALK ABOUT LANGUAGE as one of the strategies effective instructors can use to develop speaking skills

Answer 23

Instructors should assure students that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants’ language skills levels.

Question 24

Name the three ways in which reading supports learning

Answer 24

Reading to learn the language, reading for content information and reading for cultural knowledge and awareness

Question 25

Explain READING TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE as one way in which reading supports learning

Answer 25

By giving students a variety of materials to read, instructors provide multiple opportunities for students to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and discourse structure as they occur in authentic contexts.

Question 26

Explain READING FOR CONTENT INFORMATION as one way in which reading supports learning

Answer 26

Students can read to obtain information about a subject they are studying

Question 27

Explain READING FOR CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS as one way in which reading supports learning

Answer 27

Reading authentic materials can give students insight into the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying.

Question 28

Reading research shows that good readers: (4 points)

Answer 28

- Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge - Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading - Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall. - Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Question 29

What do students who can fend for themselves in communication situations do?

Answer 29

They use reading strategies to maximize their comprehension of text, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.

Question 30

By using reading strategies, students can:

Answer 30

adjust their reading behaviour to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading purposes.

Question 31

What do instructors should do when designing a reading activity? (4 points)

Answer 31

- Construct the reading activity around a significant purpose - Define the activity’s instructional goal and the appropriate type of response - Check the level of difficulty of the text - Judge the relative easiness or difficulty of a reading text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students.

Question 32

What should instructors do during a pre-reading activity? (6 points)

Answer 32

- Assess students’ background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text. - Give students the background knowledge or activate the necessary existing knowledge - Clarify any necessary cultural information - Make students aware of the type of text they will be reading and the purpose(s) for reading - Provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for class discussion activities - Decide whether to enter the text from the top down or from the bottom up

Question 33

What questions should students ask themselves in while-reading activities? (3 questions)

Answer 33

- When reading for specific information: have I obtained the information I was looking for? Were my predictions accurate? - When reading for pleasure: do I understand the storyline/sequence of ideas well enough to enjoy reading this? - When reading for thorough understanding: do I understand each main idea and how the author supports it? Does what I am reading agree with my predictions, and if not, how does it differ?

Question 34

What should be evaluated in post-reading activities?

Answer 34

- Comprehension in a particular task or area - Overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks - Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task - Modify strategies if necessary

Question 35

How should reading be assessed in the communicative competence model?

Answer 35

A student’s reading level is the level at which that student is able to use reading to accomplish communication goals. This means that assessment of reading ability needs to be correlated with purposes for reading.

Question 36

Name the five skills related to writing, according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 36

Graphic skills, grammatical skills, stylistic skills, rhetorical skills and organizational skills

Question 37

Explain GRAPHIC SKILLS as one of the five writing skills according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 37

Writing graphemes, spelling, punctuation and capitalization, and format

Question 38

Explain GRAMMATICAL SKILLS as one of the five writing skills according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 38

Ability to use a variety of sentence patterns and constructions successfully

Question 39

Explain STYLISTIC SKILLS as one of the five writing skills according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 39

Ability to express precise meanings in a variety of styles or registers

Question 40

Explain RHETORICAL SKILLS as one of the five writing skills according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 40

Ability to use cohesion devices in order to link parts of a text into logically related sequences

Question 41

Explain ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS as one of the five writing skills according to Matthews (1991)

Answer 41

Sequencing of ideas as well as the ability to reject irrelevant information and summarize relevant points

Question 42

Definition of integrated skills

Answer 42

The process by means of which a series of activities or tasks use any combination of the four linguistic skills.

Question 43

Name the seven advantages of skill integration

Answer 43

Continuity, input before output, realism, appropriateness, variety, recycling, confidence

Question 44

Explain CONTINUITY as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 44

It leads to continuity because activities are not performed in isolation but rather in a closely related way

Question 45

Explain INPUT BEFORE OUTPUT as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 45

One activity’s input will provide the language and, hopefully, motivation for the next activity output.

Question 46

Explain REALISM as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 46

A realistic, communicative framework cannot be based on isolated skill work.

Question 47

Explain APPROPRIATENESS as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 47

Language which is used in different opportunities and modes is normally more appropriate

Question 48

Explain VARIETY as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 48

Activities involving the four skills are more varied and thus foster motivation

Question 49

Explain RECYCLING as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 49

Integration clearly allows for recycling and revision of language

Question 50

Explain CONFIDENCE as one of the advantages of skill integration

Answer 50

It gives confidence to the pupils because they can compensate their weaknesses in one skill with their strengths in other

Question 51

Chomsky's definition of language (1957)

Answer 51

“a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements”

Question 52

Chomsky's definition of communicative competence

Answer 52

An able speaker has a subconscious knowledge of the grammar rules of their language which allows them to make sentences in that language (i. e. competence).

Question 53

Name the four aspects of communicative competence proposed by Hymes

Answer 53

Systematic potential, appropriacy, occurrence and feasibility

Question 54

Describe SYSTEMATIC POTENCIAL as one of the aspects of communicative competence proposed by Hymes

Answer 54

A native speaker possesses a system that has a potential for creating language.

Question 55

Describe APPROPRIACY as one of the aspects of communicative competence proposed by Hymes

Answer 55

A native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation.

Question 56

Describe OCCURRENCE as one of the aspects of communicative competence proposed by Hymes

Answer 56

A native speaker knows how often something is said in the language and acts accordingly.

Question 57

Describe FEASIBILITY as one of the aspects of communicative competence proposed by Hymes

Answer 57

A native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language.

Question 58

What is Canale and Swain's view in the debate about whether communicative competence includes grammatical competence and/or communicative performance?

Answer 58

They maintain that just as there are rules of grammar that would be useless without rules of language use (Hymes, 1972), so there are also rules of language use that would be useless without rules of grammar. Hence, they see communicative competence as consisting of grammatical competence plus sociolinguistic competence.

Question 59

What the two subcomponents of communicative competence proposed by Canale and Swain?

Answer 59

They use “the term ‘communicative competence’ to refer to the relationship and interaction between grammatical competence, or knowledge of the rules of grammar, and sociolinguistic competence, or knowledge of the rules of language use”.

Question 60

What are the four componentes of communicative competence as proposed by Canale (1983)?

Answer 60

Grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence

Question 61

Describe GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE as one of the components of communicative competence proposed by Canale (1983).

Answer 61

Producing a structured comprehensible utterance (including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling)

Question 62

Describe SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE as one of the components of communicative competence proposed by Canale (1983).

Answer 62

Involving knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and discourse

Question 63

Describe DISCOURSE COMPETENCE as one of the components of communicative competence proposed by Canale (1983).

Answer 63

Shaping language and communicating purposefully in different genres (text types), using cohesion (structural linking) and coherence (meaningful relationships in language).

Question 64

Describe STRATEGIC COMPETENCE as one of the components of communicative competence proposed by Canale (1983).

Answer 64

Enhancing the effectiveness of communication (e.g. deliberate speech), and compensating for breakdowns in communication (e.g. comprehension checks, paraphrase, conversation fillers).