Post # 10: Integrating the Four Skills

Brown chapter 17 and Kumar chapter 10 discuss the integration of the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking, and listening). The Kumar chapter goes into the history of this topic, saying that the language skills were always isolated from one another and were taught in a specific order: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These skills were only taught in this order and could not be switched around. Students were not allowed to attempt to speak before they were able to listen, or write before they were able to read. We know now that this isn’t true and that all skills can be taught or focused on in any order that makes sense. Today, we are supposed to integrate all four skills into a lesson and not just focus on one at a time. Even though the integration of all four language skills is now seen as common sense, there are still courses, especially in colleges and universities, which separate the skills into different classes. Here at ISU for Spanish they do this. There’s a composition class devoted to just writing in the TL and there’s a conversation class devoted to just speaking in the TL. Brown chapter 17 talks about how some people have the idea that “integration of the four skills diminishes the importance of the rules of listening, speaking, reading, and writing that are unique to each separate skill” (Brown 285). I don’t agree with this idea. I think that integrating all four skills highlights the importance of each skill even more than if they were taught separate from each other.

Brown looks at the different models of skill integration. I like theme-based instruction, probably because that’s how I learned Spanish and how most Spanish textbooks and classes are still laid out. In Spanish textbooks each chapter is centered on a theme starting with the vocabulary. The grammar concepts covered in that chapter incorporate that themed vocabulary. For example, the chapter that introduced students to food vocabulary usually included the grammar concept of teaching them how to say “I like,” “you like,” etc. Creating themed vocabulary lists is a good way to teach the words and make them more meaningful. I think theme-based instruction would be a good model of skill integration to use when teaching EFL as well.

Kumar chapter 9 talks about contextualizing linguistic input. He explains each of the different contexts. The first is linguistic context which is the linguistic environment that contains formal aspects of the language like pronouns, articles, verbs, etc. Extralinguistic context includes things like stress and intonation, which can even be difficult for advanced L2 learners. The third is situational context which is where “words and utterances can have different meanings of functions in different contexts” (Kumar 210). Lastly is extrasituational context which I think is one of the most important. This context includes the idea of what is or isn’t appropriate, which is where the culture of the TL comes into play. This is one of the reasons why the TL culture is so important to teach language students so that they know how to act if they ever travel to the country that speaks that language. It’s important to present the language to the students within a context. Teaching the aspects of a language within a context makes the information more meaningful to the students, therefore making it easier for them to retain. Learning what type of language to use and in what situation is a huge part of mastering an L2.