ELT365 · Day 172 — Bottom-up reading — decoding the page
Idea — Bottom-up reading processes phoneme to word, word to clause. It is essential for new scripts, low-frequency vocabulary, or technical precision where context cannot compensate.…
ReadEverything, by pillar.
ELT365 · Day 171 — Top-down reading — what readers bring
Idea — Top-down reading means using title, headings, layout, and prior knowledge to predict and check meaning before decoding every word. Example — A reader seeing…
ReadELT365 · Day 170 — Reading vs listening — different processing demands
Idea — Reading allows re-reading; listening does not. But reading requires decoding written symbols; listening already knows the sound. Both skills need explicit teaching. Example —…
ReadELT365 · Day 169 — Post-listening tasks that develop the text
Idea — Post-listening is where language learning deepens. The text becomes a springboard: discuss opinions, analyse the grammar, role-play a follow-up. “Discuss in pairs” is not…
ReadELT365 · Day 168 — Staging a listening lesson
Idea — Three stages, always in this order: pre-listening (activate schema, remove blockers) → while-listening (task) → post-listening (exploit the text, produce something). Skipping pre is…
ReadELT365 · Day 167 — Extensive listening — low-stress input
Idea — Extensive listening is high-volume, self-chosen, largely understood content. Comprehensible input applied to listening. Fluency grows from quantity, not from intensive drilling alone. Example —…
ReadELT365 · Day 166 — Weak forms in the stream of speech
Idea — Function words — articles, prepositions, auxiliaries — reduce to a schwa or disappear in natural speech. Learners trained on strong forms are unprepared for…
ReadELT365 · Day 165 — Linking in fast speech
Idea — When a word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel, the sounds link. This is the single biggest cause of…
ReadELT365 · Day 164 — Elision and assimilation
Idea — Elision means sounds drop out (next door → /neks dɔː/). Assimilation means a sound changes to match its neighbour (ten minutes → /tem mɪnɪts/).…
ReadELT365 · Day 163 — Why learners miss words: connected speech
Idea — In fast speech, words link, reduce, and disappear. Learners taught vocabulary in isolation cannot recognise those words in the natural stream. Example — “Did…
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