At the end of this chapter students will have learned how to DEVELOP SKILLS AND STRATEGIES: Integrated skills

Receptive skills: listening Receptive skills: reading Productive skills: speaking Productive skills: writing Learner development and study skills Students working outside the classroom

DEVELOPING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES

Language learning is not only concerned with acquiring knowledge (about grammar and pronunciation systems, for example)- it is not just Something we learn about. Rather it is a skill, or a set of skills- something we can learn to do, like riding a bike. So, students need meaningful, interactive practice in the skills in order to use the language.
Traditionally: two receptive skills Two productive skills

Listening and Reading

Speaking and Writing

Microskills
Strategies which language learner use to communicate with others. Similar in many languages. Some skills already in use in students first language. Others have to be taught: ways of getting the meaning across when you dont know the precise word for something in a foreign language

Helping students to become better, more independent learners, both inside and outside the classroom
Ways of teaching Receptive skills Productive skills

Integrated Skills
When taking part in a conversation, we both listen and speak; when we fill in a form we read and write, and taking notes form a lecture involves listening and writing. Often the use of one skill leads on

LISTENING

SPEAKING

Naturally from anotherwe often read a novel or see a film and talk about it later. Or we may take part in a meeting and write a follow-up report

READING

How can you integrate skills in the lesson?

In lessons, as in real life, skills are often integratedwith one activity leading on to another. For example: a lesson for intermediate level students based around a newspaper article might have the following stages: Speaking -> reading -> writing In the speaking stage, the teacher introduces the topic (perhaps by showing a picture) and elicits what the students know and/or think about the subject.
The students could discuss what they would expect to find in an article on the topic in question. In the reading stage the students read the newspaper article. Tasks could focus on assisting comprehension and perhaps a more detailed study of some of the vocabulary, or on the style of the article. In the writing stage the students could write a letter to the editor in response to the article, or write an article on the same subject from a different perspective, or in a different style

INTEGRATED SKILLS
A lesson for lower level students about finding accommodation could start with the reading of a newspaper advertisement (with a focus on some of the special vocabulary), go on to a roleplay/information gap activity in which the prospective tenant telephones the landlord/lady tto ask questions and to make an appointment to see the flat. A listening text of someone being shown round the flat could follow. Finally the students would have the following stages:
Reading->speaking->listening-> writing

An integrated skills lesson allows for the practice of language in a way which is closer to the real world and assists in the development of a full language user. A lesson which integrates skills has more variety. Integrated lessons where one thing leads to the other are more satisfying, less bitty, for the learners. It gives the opportunity for a topic to be fully explored and for vocabulary connected to the topic to be practiced and recycled. Because one cont4ext or one text can be used for another activity the teacher does not have to spend time setting up something new

Why is it useful to integrate skills?

Can skills practice be integrated with the introduction and practice of language items?

See Chapter 5 Teaching the language system

TEACHING SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE (PAGES 81-83) Put D for deductive/explain and practice) or I (for inductive/discovery activity) in the boxes
A.

a. The teacher models sentences using the present simple. Students repeat. ________ b. The students read a text and in their groups discuss the different ways the writer refers to past time. _________ c. Students watch a film of a job interview in preparation for an interview role-play. They pay particular attention to the way questions are asked. ______ d. The students listen to a recorded dialogue. The teacher draws their attention to the invitation language being used, isolating parts of invitation models for the students attention. Students practice using the same language. _______ e. The teacher holds up flashcards with pictures of animals. For each one, he or she models the correct pronunciation and the students repeat. The teacher then holds up different flash cards for a cue-response drill and the students have to say the right words. ______ f. The teacher shows students the position of lips and teeth for the sounds /w/ and /v/ before getting them to say words with the two sounds. ______

Explaining meaning (pages 83, 84)

How could you make sure that students understood the meaning of the following words? a. To count c. Flower d. Stagger f. To promise h. vehicle b. Confused d. Full e. Teacher g. Under i. very

How could you ensure that students understood the meaning of the following language items? a. Ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd b. do you like X? , Yes, I do/ No, I dont. c. Going to future (Im going to see my grandmother next weeki.) d. The first conditional (If it rains, wel stay home; If I finish work early, Ill call you e. The past continuous (She was waiting at the station, the government was preparing for war, etc.

Receptive skills: Listening

How can you help students to improve their listening? 1. Think about what you say in the classroom. Many things that happen in the classroom involve the students in listeningboth to the teacher and to other students. 2. Encourage students to talk and listen to each other. 3. Provide texts and activiti4es which will develop listening skills and strategies at the same time as providing input for language acquisition.

Teaching listening

A. Reasons for listening

List at least five different types of

listening you have done in the last twenty-four hours and complete the chart.
(See Chapter 10)