Developing Receptive Skills among Young Learners

In authentic discourse the language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing are commonly used in connection with one another and they sparsely occur in isolation. Learning a foreign language should reflect what happens in natural interaction and the students should be exposed to real-life use of this language. Since authentic discourse requires the use of skills in tandem, prominence should be given to an integrated-skill instruction in the classroom. It provides the learners with an exposure to the true richness and complexity of the target language, whereas a segregated-skill instruction (focusing on one skill only) is contrary to the way the skills are used in natural communication.
When employing more than one skill in a lesson, students approximate what happens in real life and it stimulates their motivation for learning a foreign language. Furthermore, this approach may help teachers reduce possible inequalities within the class because all the students will be given a chance to demonstrate the use of their dominant skill during a lesson. There are two models focusing on skills integration strongly endorsed by the teachers: Task-Based Instruction and Content-Based Instruction. Both of them promote learning of a non-linguistic content by the use of the target language. The appropriate adaptation of the coursebook by combining and rearranging various activities may also help the teacher to integrate and address all the skills in a lesson.
The four traditional language skills that should be interwoven by the teacher can be divided into two groups. Listening and reading comprehension are labelled as receptive while speaking and writing skills are productive skills. There is a substantial difference between listening and reading comprehension. The first is concerned with the spoken version of a language. During a lesson the tape goes at the same speed for everybody. A slower pace of processing, language varieties and different ways in which words are frequently pronounced may hinder learners’ comprehension. In this aspect reading seems to be an easier and a less problematic skill. The students can control the speed at which they read since written texts offer them a possibility to stop and go back to some point of the passage when they are lost. Developing reading comprehension allows a learner to increase his or her autonomy and maintain the competence in a language by studying it individually outside the classroom. However, listening comprehension is also very important. Understanding what someone says is, after all, prerequisite to interaction and communication. A careful consideration should then be given to the development of both receptive skills in a foreign language classroom.
The success in receptive skills development is to certain extent determined by materials used in a lesson so teachers should direct a greater attention to their choice when planning a lesson. Authentic materials are thought to be a good choice since they expose students to natural language use and encourage students’ involvement. The supporters of this view claim that graded materials often include an over-simplified language which will fail to prepare the learner for authentic interaction in the target language. The opponents, however, believe that authentic materials are often too difficult for beginners and too rambling to suit the time limits of a class period. A compromise of exposing the learners to slightly simplified authentic-based language seems to be a good solution, then.
Students’ age is also crucial factor when planning a lesson and applying various teaching procedures which are supposed to facilitate the development of particular skills among learners. Working with young learners seems to be a rewarding experience. They are holistic learners picking up the new language indirectly and effortlessly. They learn from everything around them and they possess the ability to grasp meaning without understanding individual words. Children are enthusiastic about school and their teachers. They love playing so incorporating some elements of fun into a lesson is essential for their motivation. Moreover, orally based activities should dominate the classes since they like talking and they cannot write well. Their attention span is limited so activities have to be short. The pupils cannot make a clear distinction between reality and fiction and imagination should be frequently used during a lesson. However, working with young learners is also thought to be an extremely demanding task. They are self-centred and reluctant to share. Every child believes that he or she is the most important person in the classroom. Hence, we should approach them with a personal touch.
The characteristic features listed above apply to an average young learner. However, we need to bear in mind that every student is an individual. When running a lesson in the primary classroom, we have to take into consideration students’ developmental level since children may differ in terms of their maturity. Although this may be difficult and time-consuming, trying to discern certain characteristics in our learners proves to be worthwhile when we can see their appreciation for our efforts and the excitement when they come to the classroom.