APPLIED LINGUISTICS for BA Students in English
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Classification of language skills
Receptive Skills
Sub-skills of Receptive Skills
According to Harmer (2003) the processes we go through when reading a short story or listening to a poem are likely to be different from those we use when we are looking for some data in a manual or we want to know how to operate a machine. The use of these different skills will depend on what we are reading or listening for. While reading a text we use the following sub-skills:
- identifying the topic – readers and listeners are able to identify the topic of a text very fast with the help of their techniques of how to get into the idea of what is being talked/written about. This identifying ability makes it possible for them to process the text more effectively.
- predictive skills – having identified the topic both readers and listeners guess what is being written or talked about. They try to predict what is coming. Their subsequent reading or listening helps them to confirm their expectations of what they have predicted.
- skimming – this term means to get a quick idea of the gist of a text while running your eyes over it. It is very useful for the teachers to ask their students to have a quick look at the text before plunging into it for detail to get some specific pieces of information.
- scanning – this term means reading or listening for specific information. In contrast to reading and listening for gist we often read or listen to a text because we need specific details. For example, we want to read about the weather or we want to extract some facts from the news.
- extensive reading – means reading/listening for pleasure. We use this type of reading/listening while reading an interesting model or a short story or an article taken from a popular paper etc.
- intensive reading – means reading/listening for detailed information. Sometimes we read/listen to a text in order to understand everything we are reading in detail. We use this technique when we want to understand instructions or directions or when we are preparing for an exam.
- interpreting texts – this sub-skill is used by readers/listeners if they want to understand the meaning of words beyond the literal meanings. Successful interpretation of this kind depends on shared schemata between the speaker and the listener and the writer or the reader. The question ‘Can you tell me the time?’ is not to be answered in the following way: ‘Yes, I can.’ but the reply must refer to a time expression such as ‘It’s nine o’clock.’
- inferring opinion and attitude – a good reader/listener will know from various clues he receives, whether the writer or speaker approves of the topic he is discussing, or whether his opinion of the person he is describing is favorable or not. It is based on the recognition of linguistic style.
