Awareness of Details in Receptive Language
Explanation: Finally,most English learners need to
increase their receptive language; they need to hear and
read more English and need to know what to do with it.
Exposure is not enough: attention to details is required.
Where listening is concerned, Hawkins (1999)
emphasizes the “education of the ear” as a crucial
component of language awareness. This awareness is
beneficial both when dealing with accurate language
sources and inaccurate sources. Language learners can
learn from the mistakes of others just as they can learn
from paying close attention to proficient speech.
Reading, as well, requires a greater level of awareness.
Our tendency is to focus on fluency and comprehension
in reading.Though these are certainly necessary
goals, perhaps we have glossed over the attention to
structure that can be fostered through careful and
accurate reading. It is not sufficient to scan one’s eyes
over a page and to call it “reading”, nor is it productive
(in terms of the development of accuracy) to spend
hours discovering the meanings of new vocabulary
words in a difficult article. What is needed is attention
to details in text that is at the right level.
Checklists and “noticing tasks” can be useful in both
listening and reading. Some examples are keeping a
checklist of the frequency of various verb tenses,
underlining all the plural words in a passage, or
listening specifically for words ending in /s/. The latter
exercise for students whose first language is Indonesian
is always an eye-opener. Students begin to notice these
s-ending words and the fact that the word may not be
understood if the final /s/ is not pronounced.
Learner Perspective: “I made a commitment to
read English books. I have been developing a daily
reading habit. When it comes to reading, if I don’t
understand what I read, I now force myself to reread it
aloud and not just skip over what I do not really understand.
Reading it out loud helps me to pay attention to
each word and sound.