Free Language Arts Resource by The ETI Academy

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Sign up below to download this free language arts resource that helps teachers work with students to understand and build effective language skills in the classroom.

Language skills building starts with understanding how we gain knowledge through two very important skill sets: passive and active skills.

Passive vs. Active Skills

Let’s take a closer look at the differences between these skills.

Passive Skills

In learning a new language, students should come to undertstand that there are two main skills: passive and active skills. Passive skills are ones that allow students to absorb information they can use to understand what they are learning. The first skill is listening. Students should master their listening skills to understand how sound begins language learning. The second passive skill is reading. Reading takes the sounds students have learned that form words into words that form sentences.

Active Skills

Active skills build on passive skills. Students start with the foundation of their listening skills; which is a passive skills. When students master listening for sounds as it connects to the rhythm and intonation to form words, they can begin to build active skills to create the same sounds aloud.

Active skills are a way to show others that students have understood how to interpret and use their passive skills. The active skills are speaking and writing.

Finally, it is to be understood that passive skills are for the benefit of the user, while the active skills are for the benefit of who the user interacts with in oral or written communication.