ELT365 · Day 182 — What productive skills are

Idea — Productive skills are speaking and writing — skills where meaning flows out. Learners encode messages in real time (speaking) or across drafts (writing). Both require control of accuracy and fluency.

Example — Answering a question in class is productive. Writing a complaint email is productive. Both require choosing words, constructing sentences, and attending to the listener or reader.

Try — Ask learners to tell a partner one thing they did yesterday (speaking) then write it down (writing). Compare: what changed? What was harder?

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