Idea — Prediction tasks ask learners to guess content before they read. This activates schema, gives reading a purpose, and creates a small tension — was I right? — that drives engagement. Example — Show…
Idea — Scanning moves the eye rapidly over a text in search of one specific item — a name, a date, a price. The reader ignores everything else. It is purposeful, efficient, and a core…
Idea — Skimming means reading quickly to get the overall meaning — without reading every word. The eyes move fast across headlines, first lines, and concluding sentences to build a mental map. Example — A…
Idea — Listening for specific information means scanning the audio stream much as eyes scan a page. Learners know what they want before they hear it and filter everything else out. Example — Flight arrivals…
Idea — After gist, a detail task focuses on specific information: a number, a name, a reason. Learners listen again with a narrow purpose. Processing is easier when the general meaning is already clear. Example…
Idea — Top-down: learners use context, topic knowledge, and prediction to build meaning. Bottom-up: they decode individual sounds or words first. Skilled listeners and readers do both simultaneously. Example — Hearing ‘delayed flight’ triggers top-down…
Idea — Receptive skills are listening and reading — skills where meaning flows in. You decode; you don’t produce. Both are active, not passive: the brain selects, predicts, and infers throughout. Example — A student…
Idea — Thirty-one days of productive skills: accuracy and fluency, controlled and freer practice, discussion tasks, feedback slots, process and product writing, cohesion, register, and staging. Example — Quick-fire: What is an information-gap task? (D188)…
Idea — Learners who hear themselves speak notice errors they never catch in real time. Short recordings followed by self-transcription are a powerful accuracy tool. Example — Learner records a 60-second description of their home.…
Idea — After a speaking task, write errors on the board anonymously, elicit the correct form, drill it briefly. Learners hear their own output corrected without being stopped mid-task. Example — Board: ‘I have been…