Early Christian theologians regarded the sense of sight, along with the other bodily senses, as an essential aid for comprehending invisible and transcendent realities. Although Christ’s incarnation was regarded as divine condescension to the human need for eyewitnesses, a profound and complex theory, partly influenced by ancient and contemporary philosophical sources, judged visual perception of the external, material world as playing a key role in judging, retaining, and transmitting knowledge about the immaterial realm. The essential connections between physical sight and spiritual cognition were seen as pathways that engendered appreciation both for the divine presence and for the human potential for enlightenment, in this life and in the age to come. Such cognition thus depended not only on words read or heard, insofar as the action of seeing became an equally dynamic and effective means for attaining knowledge of the nature and purposes of God.

This chapter covers three situations of vocabulary learning, all of which can occur outside the classroom. The first situation has been called extramural English or extramural learning, and could be called learning through entertainment. It involves largely incidental learning through watching TV or movies, surfing the Internet, online social interaction, playing online games, listening to songs, or reading or listening for pleasure. It can also include social interactions with native speakers. Extramural learning is not a part of a regular English course and is not under the control of a classroom teacher. The second situation is supplementary learning. This involves learning outside the classroom which is related to a course occurring inside the classroom. It is largely directed by the classroom teacher. It may involve extensive reading, extensive listening, interacting with others, and writing, and could also involve the deliberate learning of vocabulary and other language features. The third situation has been called self-directed learning and involves the learner organising their own language course without the help of a teacher.

Learning vocabulary through listening is one type of learning through meaning-focused input. Learners need at least 95 per cent coverage of the running words (around 3,000 word families) in the informal spoken input in order to gain reasonable comprehension and to have reasonable success at guessing unknown vocabulary from context clues. A well-balanced listening and speaking course includes opportunities to learn through listening to monologues and interactive communication, opportunities to learn from speaking and interacting with others, the deliberate study of pronunciation, vocabulary and multiword units, and grammar, and opportunities to become fluent in listening and speaking. This chapter includes a large range of activities to provide these opportunities, and describes how teachers can design speaking activities so that vocabulary is more likely to be learned. The research shows that those who observe speaking activities are just as likely to learn the vocabulary in the activities as those who actively participate

This chapter initially defines the terms ‘reading’ and ‘viewing’ as social practices with meaning-making at their core and makes the point that viewing is defined in curriculum documents as an integral and important part of reading rather than separately. It includes a brief snapshot of the history of reading and the so-called ‘reading wars’. Building on the importance of the development of oral language as a precursor to literacy, as discussed in previous chapters, this chapter then focuses on how children learn to read before moving on to explore how teachers can help children with this learning. The centrality of explicit teacher modelling and scaffolding of the reading process are discussed. Early childhood and primary teachers need to develop a rich repertoire of reading strategies and provide a rich selection of texts and resources, coupled with explicit guidance and support, to enable them to meet children’s individual needs at different stages of their reading journey. A range of assessment strategies are also briefly introduced. Finally, a number of common myths about the reading process are considered in light of the ongoing debate about reading. Throughout the chapter the discussion will focus on the need for a balanced approach to learning to read with meaning-making at the centre of the process.