Consolidation

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Unit 1 - Reading and
Listening strategies





Unit1: Introduction

The Reading Process
Though reading is often considered a passive skill, research in the field of psycholinguistics has
demonstrated that it is actually a highly complex process of interaction between the reader and text.
For example, it has been shown that the reader does not decode
the text in his first language in an orderly, linear fashion, word after word, but rather his eyes move
rapidly over the page, going forward and backward as he perceives meaningful groups of words and
relates these to the non-verbal information at his disposal (that is, to his knowledge of the world and
topic of the written text), thereby deriving meaning from the text.
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Reading thus can be seen as the processing of information. The reader brings to the text his own store
of information deriving from his native culture, education, personal experience, and, normally some
specific knowledge of the written text. At the same time, the reader possesses a linguistic competence,
including knowledge of words, of how these words are deployed according to the linguistic system in
order to form sentences, and the rhetorical pattern and linguistic conventions which characterize
different types of text.

Furthermore, in an ideal situation, the reader approaches a text with a genuine motivation to read and
a reading purpose. Whatever the text, he will also have some expectations or predictions regarding
its content and how the text is likely to be organized depending on its genre. As he reads, these
predictions are confirmed or not confirmed by the text. Depending of his reason for reading, he will
use one or more specific strategies.

Reading strategies

When we read in our own language we use often unconsciously a variety of reading strategies and
techniques depending on the text and our reason for reading. There are four principal styles of
reading:
Skimming involves moving your eyes rapidly over the page or pages in order to get a general idea of
what the text is about, focusing on certain key words or phrases.
Scanning, instead, is a strategy we use when we seek specific pieces of information in a text, such as
names, dates, statistics, or whether a particular topic is treated. Here our expectations are heightened
by our awareness of certain lexical fields or other textural features which are likely to signal the
presence of the information we are looking for.
Intensive reading is the style we use when we wish to have a very clear and complete understanding
of the written text. This implies a careful de-codification of the writers discourse, usually with the aim
of comprehending not only the literal meaning of the text, but also the writers deeper purpose, his
position or other eventual text subtleties.
Extensive reading is the term we use to describe the strategies called into play when we read longer
texts either for pleasure or for information, and may involve all the strategies previously mentioned,
which the reader applies according to the individual text and his interest in its various parts.
Thus, the reading style we apply to any given text should be a function of the type and content of the
text on the one hand, and our reading purpose on the other. It is important to use these strategies
appropriately and flexibly: obviously not all texts need to be read intensively, though language learners
often apply only this strategy to texts in foreign languages. In reading English for academic purposes,
for example, it will often suffice to have a general idea of whether certain information is contained in
an article and, if so, where, so that it might be consulted at a later date. On the other hand, information
which is of interest may be located quickly and selected passages focused upon for the purpose of
extracting and annotating specific information.

(Source: Adapted from Jordan, R.R, Academic Writing Course, Collins, London 1993)
The word cloud below contains the keywords of the text. Use them
to write down the main ideas.



The Listening Process

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for
language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

With the help of language instructors, students learn how they can adjust their listening behaviour to
deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes, develop a set of listening
strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation. Listening Strategies
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall
of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input.
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.
Top-down strategies include:
listening for the main idea
predicting
drawing inferences
summarizing
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.
Bottom-up strategies include:
listening for specific details
recognizing cognates
recognizing word-order patterns
Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.
They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a particular situation. They
monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.
They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening comprehension goals
and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was an effective one.

(Source: Adapted from http://www.nclrc.org/)