‘Receptive’ refers to students’ understanding of language they receive (that is, through reading, listening, viewing). ‘Productive’ refers to students skills in producing language (that is, writing, speaking, presenting). Vocabulary instruction, for example, is often oriented more toward receptive than toward productive vocabulary. This might mean, for example, that students who can understand mathematical vocabulary such as ‘subtract’ when they read or hear it, may use non-mathematical vocabulary such as ‘take away’ when they write or speak.
Reading and writing are reciprocal processes and reading can be enhanced through writing instruction and vice versa. “To communicate in written language successfully, learners need to read like writers and to write like readers… teachers need to plan to make students aware of these links” (Ministry of Education, 2004, p. 73). For example, teaching students how to use topic sentences to signal a main idea in their writing may help students read more strategically because they know to pay relatively more attention to the topic sentence. Teaching students how to identify persuasive rhetorical devices in texts they read can help them to be more persuasive in their own writing. Effective instruction will help students recognise and make links between reading and writing.
Published on: 08 Jan 2018
