ELT365 · Day 154 — Bottom-Up Processing
Idea — Bottom-up processing builds meaning word by word, sound by sound — decoding the signal before constructing sense. It dominates when language is unfamiliar. Example…
ReadEverything, by pillar.
ELT365 · Day 188 — Making discussions work
Idea — Open discussions often die because the question is dull, the answer is one word, or stronger voices dominate. Concrete, divisive prompts and small groups…
ReadELT365 · Day 182 — What ‘productive’ means: speaking and writing
Idea — Productive skills are speaking and writing — skills where learners generate language rather than receive it. They require learners to retrieve, organise, and produce…
ReadELT365 · Day 175 — Stress and weak forms in real listening
Idea — In natural speech, content words carry stress and are clear; function words — articles, auxiliaries, prepositions — are reduced to weak forms. Learners who…
ReadELT365 · Day 172 — Reading for pleasure: why it belongs in class
Idea — Extensive reading — reading for pleasure, without tasks or comprehension checks — builds vocabulary incidentally, increases reading speed, and raises motivation. Nation’s research supports…
ReadELT365 · Day 170 — Schema theory: what learners bring to a text
Idea — Schema is the network of prior knowledge a learner activates when reading or listening. Strong schema compensates for weak language; weak schema makes even…
ReadELT365 · Day 175 — Extensive reading and graded readers
Idea — Research often associates large amounts of easy, enjoyable reading with vocabulary and fluency gains. Graded readers — level-matched books — let learners read fast…
ReadELT365 · Day 174 — Intensive vs extensive reading
Idea — Intensive reading is short, close and teacher-led; extensive reading is long, easy and pleasure-driven. Both matter — intensive builds skills, extensive builds fluency and…
ReadELT365 · Day 173 — Unknown words while reading
Idea — When learners hit an unknown word, options are: guess from context, skip it if non-essential, or look it up. Teaching this triage stops one…
ReadELT365 · Day 171 — Pre-reading: switching on knowledge
Idea — As with listening, a lead-in that activates prior knowledge makes reading easier and faster. Predicting from title, images or topic primes the vocabulary and…
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