Misunderstanding Comprehension(III)

Teachers of receptive skills have a threefold concern:to identify which of their learners have real problems with understanding written or spoken texts;to establish exactly what is causing these problems;to provide whatever help is needed for the learners in question to overcome them.Where learners have real difficulties with reading or understanding speech,and where these do not simply arise from inadequate language or subject knowledge,the default assumption should be that they are caused primarily by problems with accuracy and/or fluency in decoding and parsing.Assessment,whether formal or as a part of the kinds of reading and listening activities normally carried on in the classroom,should therefore focus on establishing the exact nature of these problems,and teaching(where necessary)should focus on remedying them.An approach of this kind,in receptive language skills as elsewhere,provides the best chance of fostering accurate and fluent performance in a way that uses classroom time efficiently.