Teaching 4 skills in Practice:

Strategies for Developing Reading Skills Using Reading Strategies Language instructors are often frustrated by the fact that students do not automatically transfer the strategies they use when reading in their native language to reading in a language they are learning. Instead, they seem to think reading means starting at the beginning and going word by word, stopping to look up every unknown vocabulary item, until they reach the end. When they do this, students are relying exclusively on their linguistic knowledge, a bottom-up strategy. One of the most important functions of the language instructor, then, is to help students move past this idea and use top-down strategies as they do in their native language. Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their reading behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and reading purposes. They help students develop a set of reading strategies and match appropriate strategies to each reading situation. Strategies that can help students read more quickly and effectively include

Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text

Instructors can help students learn when and how to use reading strategies in several ways.

By modeling the strategies aloud, talking through the processes of previewing, predicting, skimming and scanning, and paraphrasing. This shows students how the strategies work and how much they can know about a text before they begin to read word by word. By allowing time in class for group and individual previewing and predicting activities as preparation for in-class or out-of-class reading. Allocating class time to these activities indicates their importance and value. By using cloze (fill in the blank) exercises to review vocabulary items. This helps students learn to guess meaning from context. By encouraging students to talk about what strategies they think will help them approach a reading assignment, and then talking after reading about what strategies they actually used. This helps students develop flexibility in their choice of strategies.

When language learners use reading strategies, they find that they can control the reading experience, and they gain confidence in their ability to read the language. Reading to Learn Reading is an essential part of language instruction at every level because it supports learning in multiple ways.

Reading to learn the language: Reading material is language input. By giving students a variety of materials to read, instructors provide multiple opportunities for students to absorb vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and discourse structure as they occur in authentic contexts. Students thus gain a more complete picture of the ways in which the elements of the language work together to convey meaning. Reading for content information: Students' purpose for reading in their native language is often to obtain information about a subject they are studying, and this purpose can be useful in the language learning classroom as well. Reading for content information in the language classroom gives students both authentic reading material and an authentic purpose for reading. Reading for cultural knowledge and awareness: Reading everyday materials that are designed for native speakers can give students insight into the lifestyles and worldviews of the people whose language they are studying. When students have access to newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, they are exposed to culture in all its variety, and monolithic cultural stereotypes begin to break down.

When reading to learn, students need to follow four basic steps: 1. Figure out the purpose for reading. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate reading strategies. 2. Attend to the parts of the text that are relevant to the identified purpose and ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input and reduces the amount of information they have to hold in short-term memory. 3. Select strategies that are appropriate to the reading task and use them flexibly and interactively. Students' comprehension improves and their confidence increases when they use top-down and bottom-up skills simultaneously to construct meaning. 4. Check comprehension while reading and when the reading task is completed. Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures, helping them learn to use alternate strategies. Listening Skills The average college student spends about 14 hours per week in class listening (or perhaps I should say "hearing"--there is a difference!) to lectures. See if you can improve your listening skills by following some of the strategies below:

Maintain eye contact with the instructor. Of course you will need to look at your notebook to write your notes, but eye contact keeps you focused on the job at hand and keeps you involved in the lecture. Focus on content, not delivery. Have you ever counted the number of times a teacher clears his/her throat in a fifteen minute period? If so, you weren't focusing on content. Avoid emotional involvement. When you are too emotionally involved in listening, you tend to hear what you want to hear--not what is actually being said. Try to remain objective and openminded. Avoid distractions. Don't let your mind wander or be distracted by the person shuffling papers near you. If the classroom is too hot or too cold try to remedy that situation if you can. The solution may require that you dress more appropriately to the room temperature. Treat listening as a challenging mental task. Listening to an academic lecture is not a passive act--at least it shouldn't be. You need to concentrate on what is said so that you can process the information into your notes. Stay active by asking mental questions. Active listening keeps you on your toes. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you listen. What key point is the professor making? How does this fit with what I know from previous lectures? How is this lecture organized? Use the gap between the rate of speech and your rate of thought. You can think faster than the lecturer can talk. That's one reason your mind may tend to wander. All the above suggestions will help you keep your mind occupied and focused on what being said. You can actually begin to anticipate what the professor is going to say as a way to keep your mind from straying. Your mind does have the capacity to listen, think, write and ponder at the same time, but it does take practice. Listening SKILLS: Listening is not the same as hearing and in order to listen effectively you need to use more than just your ears. 1. Stop Talking If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two tongues and one ear. Mark Twain. Don't talk, listen. When somebody else is talking listen to what they are saying, do not interrupt, talk over them or finish their sentences for them. Stop, just listen. When the other person has finished talking you may need to clarify to ensure you have received their message accurately. 2. Prepare Yourself to Listen

Relax. Focus on the speaker. Put other things out of mind. The human mind is easily distracted by other thoughts whats for lunch, what time do I need to leave to catch my train, is it going to rain try to put other thoughts out of mind and concentrate on the messages that are being communicated. 3. Put the Speaker at Ease Help the speaker to feel free to speak. Remember their needs and concerns. Nod or use other gestures or words to encourage them to continue. Maintain eye contact but dont stare show you are listening and understanding what is being said. 4. Remove Distractions Focus on what is being said: dont doodle, shuffle papers, look out the window, pick your fingernails or similar. Avoid unnecessary interruptions. These behaviours disrupt the listening process and send messages to the speaker that you are bored or distracted. 5. Empathise Try to understand the other persons point of view. Look at issues from their perspective. Let go of preconceived ideas. By having an open mind we can more fully empathise with the speaker. If the speaker says something that you disagree with then wait and construct an argument to counter what is said but keep an open mind to the views and opinions of others. (See our page: What is Empathy?) 6. Be Patient A pause, even a long pause, does not necessarily mean that the speaker has finished. Be patient and let the speaker continue in their own time, sometimes it takes time to formulate what to say and how to say it. Never interrupt or finish a sentence for someone. 7. Avoid Personal Prejudice Try to be impartial. Don't become irritated and don't let the persons habits or mannerisms distract you from what they are really saying. Everybody has a different way of speaking - some people are for example more nervous or shy than others, some have regional accents or make

excessive arm movements, some people like to pace whilst talking - others like to sit still. Focus on what is being said and try to ignore styles of delivery. 8. Listen to the Tone Volume and tone both add to what someone is saying. A good speaker will use both volume and tone to their advantage to keep an audience attentive; everybody will use pitch, tone and volume of voice in certain situations let these help you to understand the emphasis of what is being said. (See our page on Effective Speaking for more) 9. Listen for Ideas Not Just Words You need to get the whole picture, not just isolated bits and pieces. Maybe one of the most difficult aspects of listening is the ability to link together pieces of information to reveal the ideas of others. With proper concentration, letting go of distractions, and focus this becomes easier. 10. Wait and Watch for Non-Verbal Communication Gestures, facial expressions, and eye-movements can all be important. We dont just listen with our ears but also with our eyes watch and pick up the additional information being transmitted via non-verbal communication. (See our page on non-verbal communication) Do not jump to conclusions about what you see and hear. You should always seek clarification to ensure that your understanding is correct. A good listener will listen not only to what is being said, but also to what is left unsaid or only partially said. Listening involves observing body language and noticing inconsistencies between verbal and non-verbal messages. For example, if someone tells you that they are happy with their life but through gritted teeth or with tears filling their eyes, you should consider that the verbal and nonverbal messages are in conflict, they maybe don't mean what they say. Listening requires you to concentrate and use your other senses in addition to simply hearing the words spoken.

Listening is the ability to accurately receive messages in the communication process. Listening is key to all effective communication, without the ability to listen effectively messages are easily misunderstood communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated. Listening is so important that many top employers give regular listening skills training for their employees. This is not surprising when you consider that good listening skills can lead to: better customer satisfaction, greater productivity with fewer mistakes, increased sharing of information that in turn can lead to more creative and innovative work. Good listening skills also have benefits in our personal lives, including: a greater number of friends and social networks, improved self-esteem and confidence, higher grades in academic work and increased health and wellbeing. Studies have shown that, whereas speaking raises blood pressure, listening brings it down. Listening is not the same as hearing. Hearing refers to the sounds that you hear, whereas listening requires more than that: it requires focus. Listening means paying attention not only to the story, but how it is told, the use of language and voice, and how the other person uses his or her body. In other words, it means being aware of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Your ability to listen effectively depends on the degree to which you perceive and understand these messages. The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. Rachel Naomi Remen We spend a lot of our time listening Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some sort of communication, of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16% reading and 9% writing. (Adler, R. et al. 2001).

8 ways to show speaking skills in a meeting

By Jeff Wuorio Careers are often enhanced, or blunted, in business meetings. Do you sound like someone on his way up -- or on his way out? How you come across as a meeting participant can be pivotal. The skills involved in getting your point across are not vastly different than those of a keynote speaker giving a speech to a meeting group. "Just because the spotlight isn't shining directly on you doesn't mean that you can't be seen," says Susanne Gaddis, a Chapel Hill, N.C., speech coach and communications authority. Like public speaking, the art of effective business-meeting communication is very much a learnable skill. Here are eight important, yet often overlooked, tips on speaking well as a meeting participant. 1. Keep it upbeat. Speech tips and body language aside, nothing is more critical to constructive give-and-take in a meeting than emphasizing the upside. Rather than criticizing, stay focused on the implicit value of what someone else says. It's not just Pollyannish. A study at the University

of Michigan suggests that a preponderance of positive remarks at business meetings genuinely contributes to successful companies. Try keeping score between positive comments and those designed more to sting than support. "Stay solution focused, offering up twice as many positive comments as you do negative," Gaddis says. "When it's possible, affirm others' ideas by using active and constructive feedback. For example: 'I really like Bill's idea on how we can use a different approach when responding to customer complaints.'" 2. Talk to the entire group. We've all been treated like a fifth wheelbeing part of a group, but somehow off the planet when someone is supposedly addressing everyone in the room. Don't make the same snafu. When speaking in a group, move your eyes around and talk to anyone who's listening to what you have to say. "When responding to a question, address the entire group, not just the person who asked the question," Gaddis says. "In this way, everyone feels included." 3. Reach out and encourage feedback. Another meeting pitfall is that hollow sound of silencecomments by speakers that disappear over the horizon leaving no follow-up discussion in their wake. This silence is not golden. So actively encourage comment and feedback based on what you have to contribute. Not only does that make for a better meeting, but it can broaden, amplify and substantiate your remarks. "Get your point across but also open it up for discussion," says John Baldoni, an Ann Arbor, Mich., consultant and the author of "Great Communications Secrets of Great Leaders." "Call on people and ask them what they think. The point is not just to be a participant, but also a facilitator." 4. Mirror the tenor of the meeting. Another business meeting basic is establishing a comfortable atmosphere where everyone feels at ease. One effective way to achieve that is to establish a consistency in communication. If, for instance, most participants are keeping their remarks short, do the same. If their tone is low and reserved, follow their lead. The point is not to mindlessly mimic but, rather, to affirm and contribute to the overall tenor of the meeting. And that makes for productive and efficient give and take. "You can also mirror other behaviors such as leaning forward, crossing your legs and other movements," Gaddis says. 5. Don't be a time hog. Anyone speaking in a business gathering wants to take enough time to identify and, if need be, dissect the point he's trying to convey. But it's all too easy to slip into a filibuster. Gaddis identifies this element as "conversational balance": Be thorough, but don't take so much time to get your message across that you lose others' attention or, even worse, alienate someone who may be waiting his turn to talk. Again, if others are being succinct, try to do the same. If need be, keep an eye on your watch when you've got the floor so a comment meant to be short doesn't stretch into a diatribe. 6. Check the cliches and rhetoric. A central tenet of powerful business-meeting communication is being as clear as possible. Don't muddy your message by wallowing in tired catch phrases -just watch for facial tics when you suggest "pushing the envelope"or too many rhetorical questions that don't advance the discussion. "Be particularly careful with negative rhetorical remarks like 'What were you thinking?'" says Gaddis.

7. When and if necessary, take it offline. Not every in-meeting topic warrants brain surgery. Don't derail meetings or drag them on endlessly by going into detail that can be addressed at another time. "If you make a point that warrants a lot more discussion, tell someone that you'll talk about it in greater detail at some other time," Baldoni says. Or address the issue one-on-one with the questioner after the meeting. 8. Be aware of your body. Not everything you convey to others comes by way of your mouth. How you say what you say is equally telling in your ability to share your thoughts with others. Here are a few body language precepts you may wish to embrace (pun definitely intended): Don't limit supportive interaction to just what you say. Show it by nodding your head, making eye contact, raising your eyebrows and making other gestures that demonstrate that your interest and involvement in the discussion aren't mere lip service. Writing Skills Getting Your Written Message Across Clearly

Improve your writing skills with James Manktelow & Amy Carlson. A colleague has just sent you an email relating to a meeting you're having in one hour's time. The email is supposed to contain key information that you need to present, as part of the business case for an important project. But there's a problem: The email is so badly written that you can't find the data you need. There are misspellings and incomplete sentences, and the paragraphs are so long and confusing that it takes you three times more than it should to find the information you want. As a result, you're under-prepared for the meeting, and it doesn't go as well as you want it to. Have you ever faced a situation similar to this? In today's information overload world, it's vital to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively. People don't have time to read book-length emails, and they don't have the patience to scour badly-constructed emails for "buried" points. The better your writing skills are, the better the impression you'll make on the people around you including your boss, your colleagues, and your clients. You never know how far these good impressions will take you! In this article, we'll look at how you can improve your writing skills and avoid common mistakes. Audience and Format The first step to writing clearly is choosing the appropriate format. Do you need to send an informal email? Write a detailed report? Create advertising copy? Or write a formal letter? The format, as well as your audience, will define your "writing voice" that is, how formal or relaxed the tone should be. For instance, if you write an email to a prospective client, should it have the same tone as an email to a friend? Definitely not. Start by identifying who will read your message. Is it targeted at senior managers, the entire human resources team, or a small group of engineers? With everything you write, your readers, or recipients, should define your tone as well as aspects of the content.

Composition and Style Once you know what you're writing, and for whom you're writing, you actually have to start writing. A blank, white computer screen is often intimidating. And it's easy to get stuck because you don't know how to start. Try these tips for composing and styling your document: Start with your audience Remember, your readers may know nothing about what you're telling them. What do they need to know first? Create an outline This is especially helpful if you're writing a longer document such as a report, presentation, or speech. Outlines help you identify which steps to take in which order, and they help you break the task up into manageable pieces of information. Use AIDA If you're writing something that must inspire action in the reader, follow the Attention-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) formula. These four steps can help guide you through the writing process. Try some empathy For instance, if you're writing a sales letter for prospective clients, why should they care about your product or sales pitch? What's the benefit for them? Remember your audience's needs at all times. Use the Rhetorical Triangle If you're trying to persuade someone to do something, make sure that you communicate why people should listen to you, pitch your message in a way that engages your audience, and present information rationally and coherently. Our article on the Rhetorical Triangle can help you make your case in the most effective way. Identify your main theme If you're having trouble defining the main theme of your message, pretend that you have 15 seconds to explain your position. What do you say? This is likely to be your main theme. Use simple language Unless you're writing a scholarly article, it's usually best to use simple, direct language. Don't use long words just to impress people. Structure Your document should be as "reader friendly" as possible. Use headings, subheadings, bullet points, and numbering whenever possible to break up the text. After all, what's easier to read a page full of long paragraphs, or a page that's broken up into short paragraphs, with section headings and bullet points? A document that's easy to scan will get read more often than a document with long, dense paragraphs of text. Headers should grab the reader's attention. Using questions is often a good idea, especially in advertising copy or reports, because questions help keep the reader engaged and curious. In emails and proposals, use short, factual headings and subheadings, like the ones in this article. Adding graphs and charts is also a smart way to break up your text. These visual aids not only keep the reader's eye engaged, but they can communicate important information much more quickly than text. Grammatical Errors You probably don't need us to tell you that errors in your document will make you look unprofessional. It's essential to learn grammar properly, and to avoid common mistakes that your spell checker won't find. Here are some examples of commonly misused words: Affect/effect

"Affect" is a verb meaning to influence. (Example: The economic forecast will affect our projected income.) "Effect" is a noun meaning the result or outcome. (Example: What is the effect of the proposal?) Then/than "Then" is typically an adverb indicating a sequence in time. (Example: We went to dinner, then we saw a movie.) "Than" is a conjunction used for comparison. (Example: The dinner was more expensive than the movie.) Your/you're "Your" is a possessive. (Example: Is that your file?) "You're" is a contraction of "you are." (Example: You're the new manager.) Note: Also watch out for other common homophones (words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings) such as their/they're/there, to/too/two, and so on. Its/it's "Its" is a possessive. (Example: Is that its motor?) "It's" is a contraction of "It is." (Example: It's often that heavy.) (Yes, it is this way around!) Company's/companies (and other possessives versus plurals)

"Company's" indicates possession. (Example: The company's trucks hadn't been maintained properly.) "Companies" is plural. (Example: The companies in this industry are suffering.) To learn more about commonly misused words, misused apostrophes, and other grammatical errors, take our Bite-Sized Training session on Written Communication. Tip: Some of your readers arguably an increasing number won't be perfect at spelling and grammar. They may not notice if you make these errors. But don't use this as an excuse: there will usually be people, senior managers in particular, who WILL notice! Because of this, everything you write should be of a quality that every reader will find acceptable. Proofing The enemy of good proofreading is speed. Many people rush through their documents, but this is how you miss mistakes. Follow these guidelines to check what you've written: Proof your headers and subheaders People often skip these and focus on the text alone. Just because headers are big and bold doesn't mean they're error free!

Read the document out loud This forces you to go more slowly, so that you're more likely to catch mistakes. Use your finger to follow text as you read This is another trick that helps you slow down. Start at the end of your document Proofread one sentence at a time, working your way from the end to the beginning. This helps you focus on errors, not on content.

Key Points More than ever, it's important to know how to communicate your point quickly and professionally. Many people spend a lot of time writing and reading, so the better you are at this form of communication, the more successful you're likely to be. Identify your audience before you start creating your document. And if you feel that there's too much information to include, create an outline to help organize your thoughts. Learning grammatical and stylistic techniques will also help you write more clearly; and be sure to proof the final document. Like most things, the more you write, the better you're going to be! You can learn 700 similar skills e