All teacher recruitment tests will have questions on study and reference skills in English subject. English section of TGT / PGT / DSC / TET / TRT exams focus on this topic. Here we are giving important study material and practice questions in English Methodology.
Study Skills and Reference Skills
Study skills are the skills that integrate all the four language skills i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. The purpose of study skills is to help the learner become independent of the teacher .These study skills are also called supplementary skills or additional skills.
This is a process whereby the teaching will focus on learning skills such as using a dictionary, encyclopedia, and catalog in
the library, index in a book or understanding nonverbal materials such as graphs, charts, maps etc.
The Important Study Skills:
The skill of Note making
Summarizing
Graphic Organizers
The Skill of Note taking:
Note taking is a product of the listening skill. It is an active thinking process where the learner takes notes while listening to a
lecture in a class. This is a process of good comprehension as learner will have to identify the essential information from the nonessential. The listener has to pay full attention while taking the notes.
Process of Note taking:
The learner should take the primary information like the date, time, topic and the name of the speaker. The learner has to consolidate the information in a nutshell. To accomplish this, he or she can create his/her own short forms or abbreviations. The learner should take down the minutes of a meeting or seminar.
Record and organise the correct sequence of the points, ideas or themes. Note taking is not only a study skill, but also a skill that is necessary in any meeting.
The Skill of Note making:
Note making is the ability to jot down important points and make notes from books, articles,magazines, newspapers, journals…
etc. Note making is the product of reading skills. Note making is easier than note taking. We can read a text any number of times but
we cannot ask the speaker to repeat his / her words.Note making is an offshoot of good reading skills. It demands both skimming and
scanning skills.Comprehending, absorbing and putting them in order is important in note making.
Process of Note making:
Understand the main idea of the writer.
Read the text between the lines and beyond the lines.
Be clear and precise while making notes.
Create your own short form, symbols, abbreviation.
Write only essential points.
Avoid repetition.
Summarizing:
Summarizing is associated with reading comprehension. It is considered as a higher order skills. A summary should be comprehensive and make the need to read the original text redundant. Select the relevant points and make notes on it.
Useful Points:
Make sure you understand the passage that you have to summarise.
Select the relevant points and make notes on it.
Write in your own language.
Avoid unnecessary details and repetition.
Robinson advocates the concept of survey, question, read, recall and review, which is known as SQ3R.
Survey:
The reader has to read the passage to understand the main idea of the text. It is for global understanding. The reader is not supposed to go into detail here.
Question:
A reader should begin to reflect on the passage at the end of the reading and ask as many question as possible for better comprehension.
Read:
The reader has to read the passage between the lines and identify the main points. This has to be an intensive reading process rather than the extensive one.
Recall:
We recall what we read.This is done at personal time and not in the classroom space. This is called rumination.
Review:
Review relates to sharing of our ideas with others to check our own comprehension.
Graphic Organizers:
A graphic organizer is also known as a knowledge map, concept map, and story map or concept diagram. The reader has to put his/
her understanding in his/her own style. The readers can put it in their own style. May be in the form of tables, grids, figures, maps..etc.
Model Questions for Practice:
1) Note making is a product of —–skill?
a) Listening b) Speaking
c) Reading d) Writing
2) Note taking is associated with which skill?
a) Writing b) Listening
c) Speaking d) Reading
3) Study skills are also called as…
a) Complimentary skills
b) Reading skills
c) Complementary skills
d) Both a & b
4) SQ3R stands for?
a) Survey, Quest, Read, Recall, Review
b) Survey, Quick, Read, Review, Recall
c) Survey, Question, Read, Remind, Recall
d) Survey, Question, Read, Recall, Review
ANSWERS: 1-c, 2-b, 3-c, 4-d.