Lucía Osa-Melero
Universitat de Valencia
Fall 2004
Integrating the “Four Skills” in Foreign Language Teaching/Learning Approaches. The Latest Views
Introduction
Language teaching has been commonly defined as the set of activities intended to enhance language learning. Language learning has been widely defined as a process of learning the skills; acquiring knowledge; learning to learn, learning to think; adjustment of attitudes; acquisition of interests, social values, or social roles and in a more personal frame, and changes in personality (Stern, 1994). Formal instruction or methods of training are included in the concept of language teaching, but so are individualized instruction, self-study, computer-assisted instruction, and the use of media, such as radio, television and movies. Language teaching also includes supporting activities, such as preparation of teaching materials, teaching grammars, dictionaries, the training of teachers, and the necessary administrative provision inside and/or outside the educational system. Language teaching is generally interpreted in a way that includes all the processes intended to bring about the development of the four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, and the development of sociolinguistic and pragmatic awareness, or so called competence.
Language as a “four skills” entity
Since the forties, language learning and linguistic research has explained languages in four different components or skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Out of these four skills, two of them, speaking and writing, are productive and the other two, listening and reading are receptive. In spite of the individual treatment that the four skills have traditionally received, a recent trend towards the combination of the four skills invites language instructors to pay attention to a more integrative view. This integration works as the foundation for the whole language approach, widely used by curriculum writers and syllabi designers. According to Brown (2001) several studies support the idea that interaction and communication in the educational setting imply obligatorily the integration of the four skills. Brown (2001) points out the different statements to support the integration
1) Production and reception should not be considered different skills; they are actually two different sides of the same coin. One cannot split the coin in two.
2) Interaction means sending and receiving messages.
3) To ignore the relationship between written and spoken language is to ignore the richness of the language.
4) The relationship between written and spoken language is the reflection of culture and society.
5) One skill usually reinforces another, we learn to speak by modeling what we hear and we learn to write by examining what we read.
6) Proponents of the whole language approach have demonstrated that in the real work most of our natural performance involves not only the integration of one or more skills, but connections between language and the way we think , feel, and act.
Oxford (2001) offers an interesting comparison about the holistic approach in the curricula, placing emphasis on the inter & intra connections of the four skills “…foreign language classes are comparable to woven tapestry from many strands, such as the characteristics of the teacher, the learner, the setting, and the relevant languages. For the instructional loom to produce a large, strong, beautiful, colorful tapestry, all of these strands must be interwoven in positive and productive ways. For example, the instructor's teaching style must address the learning style of the learner, the learner must be motivated, and the setting must provide resources and values that strongly support the teaching of the language. However, if the strands are not woven together effectively, the instructional loom is likely to produce something small, weak, ragged, and pale—not recognizable as a tapestry at all…” Conversely to what Oxford asserts, Mohan (1986, cited in Oxford, 2001) affirms that in the segregated-skill approach, the mastery of discrete language skills such as reading and speaking is considered as the key to successful learning. Mohan’s idea definitely contradicts the integrated approach that speakers use in normal communication, and it also contradicts recent research findings about language teaching.
The four skills integration approach exposes learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally. It also stresses the idea that foreign languages are not objects of academic interest; instead, the language becomes a real means of interaction. It also promotes learning of real content, not only the dissection of language forms. This approach helps teachers to track students’ progress in multiple skills at the same time, which goes more in line with a holistic view of the language entity. It is important to point out that the four skills integration is a central component in the five foreign language national standards; also known as the 5 Cs (community, connections, comparison, communication and culture).
This paper will study the four language skills separately to study with more detail the particular elements involved in the development of each skill and the way they interrelate with the rest of the skills. Each skill will be analyzed independently to observe the notorious relationship that exists between them. The paper will also offer possible ways to enhance the development of each skill in a more integrative approach.
Listening is not merely a unidirectional receiving of audible symbols, this idea is only the beginning of what is clearly an interactive process in which the brain acts on impulses that activate different cognitive and affective mechanisms. In conversational settings, interaction takes place immediately after the listening stage, as the hearer becomes speaker in response. Listening and speaking are complementary.
In reference to classroom approaches to listening development, listening comprehension has not always drawn the attention of educators to the extent that nowadays has. We do not know exactly why, but human beings tend to look at speaking as the major key of language proficiency. Listening has been seen as a secondary skill that would be developed by itself without any particular instruction. It was not until 1977 that James Asher realized that the listening skill was fundamental in the process of achieving proficiency in a foreign language. Asher highlighted the importance of teaching listening in the second language discipline through his new pedagogical approach Total Physical Response (TPR). This approach, along with the Natural Approach, manifested by Krashen in 1982, stated that ideally foreign language learners should go through a period of silence and thinking before developing their speaking ability in the target language. This approach supported Krashen’s input + 1 theory (1985) asserts that the learner in order to improve and develop the listening ability, should receive particular segments of language that are just a little beyond the learner’s present listening ability. However, not all the listening segments would help the learner to improve his/her listening ability, only the “intake” would. By intake we understand the quantity of listening input that is ultimately collected from the exposure through conscious and subconscious attention, cognitive strategies of retentions, feedback and through interaction. Though, the conversion of input into intake is crucial in considering the role of listening in foreign language teaching. Natural approach advocated the use of TPR activities at the beginning level of language learning when “comprehensible input” is essential for triggering the acquisition of language.
Mendelsohn has dedicated an important amount of attention to the strategy-based instruction of listening comprehension, understanding by strategic instruction that instruction that focuses on the role of the learner. It is crucial to realize that learners use a variety of strategies for sending and receiving language and that strategies for success vary from one to another. Mendelsohn pointed out the need of individualization in the teaching process and the importance of building and sustaining effective learning strategies in the students.
What are the difficulties of teaching listening?
1) Clustering: In teaching listening it is vital to teach students how to pick out manageable clusters of words, often second language learners try to retain whole sentences or even several sentences, or sometimes they will try to attend to every word in an utterance. Due to me memory limitations, we have to help our student to get the gist of the message and not the secondary messages that are included in a big message.
2) Redundancy: Redundancies might confuse the learner due to the repetition and lack of meaning. Learners need to know that redundancies are there to help them understand, not to interfere with the message. They need to learn to ignore them and use them as time to think and reconsider the message
3) Reduced forms: Reduced forms, for example I’ll; Ya’ll; Phone! (instead of Get the phone) pose significant difficulties for learners who were exposed to full forms.
4) Performance Variable: In spoken language, pauses, hesitations, false starts, and corrections are very common. These factors can easily interfere with comprehension in second language learners.
5) Colloquial language: Usually second language learners are used to standard or “textbook” language. Idioms, slang, humorous language, shared cultural knowledge and reduced forms are all present in spoken fragments.
6) Rate of Delivery: Jack Richards (1983) states that the number and length of pauses used by a speaker is more important to comprehension than sheer speed.
7) Stress, rhythm and intonation: The prosodic features of every language can make very hard or very easy the comprehension of the message. English is an example of a stress-timed language, and this can be very challenging for some foreign language students.
8) Interaction: Rules of interaction like negotiation, clarification, attending signals, turn-taking, topic nomination, maintenance, and termination have to be learned by the student. Most of the times, listening is not about being a passive listener, it is also about responding and confirming the message comprehension.
What are the different types of learners’ listening performance?
Learners’ listening performances have been divided in six different categories.
1) Reactive: The learner does not have to involve any understanding. It is about listening the surface structure of an utterance. This performance it is used in pronunciation activities.
2) Intensive: The purpose of the listening is to concentrate on components (phonemes, words, intonation, discourse…) The learner has to single out certain elements of the spoken language. It is used when the students listen for cues in certain choral or individual drills, when the teacher wants to point out intonation, or a new grammatical structure.
3) Responsive: The teacher language elicits students’ immediate responses. Student listens to the teacher, understands and replies. E.g. How are you? What did you do yesterday?
4) Selective: In longer pieces of discourse the learner does not have to process everything, but rather to scan the material for specific information. E.g. speeches, media broadcast, stories, anecdotes, etc.
5) Extensive: The learner is focused on a global understanding of the spoken message. It usually involves listening to lengthy lectures, deriving comprehension from the message.
6) Interactive: This listening performance includes all five of the above types. Learners participate in discussions, debates, interactive conversations, role-plays, group and pair work.
Speaking
Listening and speaking skills are considered intertwined skills by the communicative and pragmatic teaching approach. The integration of these two skills is basic for a successful communicative class. There is no successful speaking without successful listening. Conversations, interviews, and presentations are nowadays a basic element in the foreign language curricula, and all forms of speaking practice are supported by listening and vice versa.
What are the different types of spoken language?
Spoken language might be manifested in different formats that are important to analyze. Conversation is the type of spoken language more popular in foreign language classes; however it is not the only type. Nunan (1991b) presented a chart with all the important groups that we could find in spoken discourse
Monologue: Planned - Unplanned Dialogue: Interpersonal - Transactional
Familiar - Unfamiliar
We define monologue as the amount of spoken language uttered by a speaker for any length of time, in which the hearer does not interrupt the speaker, as in speeches, lectures, readings, and/or news broadcasts. Planned, as opposed to unplanned monologues differ in their discourse structures. Planned monologues do not contain redundancy as the unplanned ones do, that is the reason why unplanned monologues are easier to understand, although the presence of particular performance variables can either help or delay comprehension.
Dialogues need two or more speakers and are also divided into two different types of dialogues. Interpersonal, which purpose is to promote social relationships, and transactional which purpose is to convey propositional or factual information. In both cases participants need to have shared knowledge, such as background information. When the participants do not share background information or schemata, misunderstandings come more often. It is important to point out at this point that in all cases these categories are not mutually exclusive, which means that in formal informative conversation we can also find elements of interactional dialogues.
What makes speaking so complicated?
The same difficulties that a listener finds in a conversation might be applied to the speaking skills with a slight twist.
1) Clustering: fluent speech is not word by word. Through clustering speaker can organize their words.
2) Redundancy: the speaker has the choice to make meaning clearer through the redundancy of language.
3) Reduced form: Students who do not learn contractions have usually a bookish quality of speaking that stigmatizes them.
4) Performance Variables: Thinking time can help the learners to think and organize their ideas before uttering them. In a conversation the thinking time is limited
5) Colloquial language: Learners should be familiar with idioms, phrases and colloquial language.
6) Rate of delivery: Learners should reach an acceptable speed along with other attributes of fluency
7) Stress, rhythm and intonation: Learners need to know these three aspect of the language that they are studying, in English for example intonation patterns convey important messages.
8) Interaction: Conversational negotiation is an aspect of the communication that learners need to be successful with.
What are the types of speaking performance in the classroom?
Six similar categories to the listening skill can be applied to the oral production
1) Imitative: Using the “human tape recorder” speech is useful for the practice of a particular element of language form, a particular phonological trait, and although nowadays it is not as common as it used to be in the sixties, repetition and drills are still useful to practice certain aspects of the language.
2) Intensive: This goes one step beyond imitative. Learners go over certain forms, usually in pairs or groups.
3) Responsive: Short replies to teacher or student- initiated questions or comments. Replies that do not extend into dialogues.
4) Transactional (dialogue): Dialogues with the purpose of conveying or exchanging specific information.
5) Interpersonal (dialogue): Dialogues carried out for the purpose of maintaining social relationships instead of the transmission of facts and specific information.
6) Extensive (monologue): Extended monologues usually carried by intermediate and/or advanced students.
Reading
Reading ability is best developed in association with writing, listening, and speaking activities. Even in “reading courses”, goals will be best achieved by using the interrelationship of skills, especially the reading-writing connection. Reading must be considered only in the perspective of the whole picture of interactive language teaching.
Three decades of research in the field of reading reveals some significant findings that facilitate foreign language teachers to approach reading instruction. The main points are reviewed in the following paragraphs
1) Botton-up and top-down reading: In bottom-up processing, readers must first recognize the linguistic symbols and use their linguistic knowledge to decipher the message. These data-driven processes obviously require a sophisticated knowledge of the language. Top-down or conceptually-driven reading involves a risk, the reader has to go through a puzzle-solving process, infer meanings, decide what to retain and not retain and move on. Top-down reading is also known as eagle’s eye view of a landscape, while bottom-up reading is known as a microscope exam. Recent research shows that a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing, also known as interactive reading, is the most suitable approach to successful teaching. Nutall (1996) stated that in practice a reader continually shifts from one focus to another, guessing the meaning at the same time that examines the linguistic symbols.
2) Schema theory and background knowledge: M.S Steffensen and C. Joag-Dev (1984, cited in Lazar 2000) conducted a reading study in the University of Wisconsin in which they concluded that reading comprehension is a function of cultural background knowledge. If readers posses schemata assumed by the writer, they easily understand what is said in the text and also make the necessary inferences about what is implicit. By schemata we mean the abstract cognitive structures that incorporate generalized knowledge about objects and events. A tangible example of schemata about a wedding includes the knowledge about roles of bride and groom and other family members, clothing worn, guests, location and rituals. Obviously these schemata vary cross-culturally.
3) Role of affect and culture: Affective factors play an important role in the process of reading. The “love” of reading drives to successful reading skills. If the learner likes reading in his/her native language, the chances that s/he will like reading in his/her L2 are much higher. However, instruction is important, “we cannot assume that reading will just happen. We have to teach them how to read” (Storme and Siskin, 1989), however Dole Brown , & Trathen (1996, cited in Brown 2001), affirmed that instruction is effective when students’ self-esteem is high. Culture is also important in motivating and rewarding people for literacy.
4) Power of extensive reading: The issue referring to reading instruction has brought an important debate. A current issue in pedagogical research on reading is the extent to which learners will learn to read better in a laissez-faire atmosphere or in an instructed sequence of direct attention to the strategies of successful and efficient reading. On the other hand, recent research points out that instructional programs in reading should give strong consideration to the teaching of extensive (free voluntary) reading. Krashen’s (1993) manual The Power of Reading might help teachers with the instruction of extensive and intensive reading.
5) Adult literacy training: It is important for the instructor to check the level of literacy of the learners before starting foreign language reading instruction. As an example, we can point out the fact that a considerable quantity of immigrants arriving to United States is non-literate in their native languages. Both approaches bottom-up and top-down are usually used in these cases.
What are the types of written language to be read by students in the classroom?
There are literally tons of different types of written texts, a larger variety than in spoken texts. We have listed below a non-exhaustive list of the most common genres
- non-fiction, reports, editorials, essays and articles, reference ( dictionaries, encyclopedias)
- fiction: novels, comics, short stories, jokes, drama, poetry, cartoons
- letters: personal, business, greeting cards, postcards, invitations
- diaries, journals
- memos, emails, sms
- announcements
- newspaper
- academic writing, long essays, short answers
- forms, applications, questionnaires
- directions, maps
- labels, signs
- recipes
- bills
- manuals
- menus
- schedule (train, buses, work)
- advertisement
- directories
When the learner encounters one of the above s/he usually knows what the purpose is in reading it, and therefore the reader knows what to select and what not to select in short and long-term memory. The reader brings unconsciously his/her schemata to bear on the chosen message. Part of our job as language teachers is to enlighten our students on features to these genres and to help them to develop strategies to extract the necessary information.
What are the characteristics of written language?
1) Permanence: written language is permanent and the reader has an opportunity to return again and again if necessary to the word, phrase, sentence or paragraph.
2) Processing time: There is not a fixed processing time. The reader might choose the rate that s/he wants to read the text. In our society reading fast is very well praised, that is why slow readers have always felt inferior. Research confirms that fast readers do not necessarily read better than slow readers, it is only an advantage in time, but not in comprehension.
3) Distance: Physical and temporal distance of the text forces the reader to interpret the text, which pedagogically has important significance, but might cause trouble to the reader. Speaking occurs in a real context chosen by the speaker.
4) Orthography: Punctuation, pictures, or charts help the reader the same rhythm, stress, and intonation help the listener. If we accompany written language with charts and pictures, comprehension is more effective.
5) Complexity: Written speech is usually formed by long clauses as opposed to oral speech. Foreign language readers have to adjust their cognitive preceptors to extract meaning from the written code. Linguistic differences between speech and writing are another major contributing cause to complexity.
6) Vocabulary: Written language usually uses a greater variety of lexical items.
7) Formality: Writing is frequently more formal than speech. Formality refers to prescribed forms that written messages have to adhere to.
What are the types of learner’s reading performance in the classroom?
1) Oral and silent reading: Oral reading is appropriate for beginning students, since it serves as an evaluative check on bottom-up processing skills; it is also a pronunciation check and it also adds extra participation to emphasize a specific reading passage. With advanced students, only the last benefit will be applied. However, with oral reading we have to pay attention to the lack of authenticity in this language activity and the lack of attention that some students in the classroom might experience.
2) Silent reading: intensive and extensive reading: Intensive reading is analogous to intensive listening. Students focus on the linguistic or semantic details of a particular passage. It does not have to be always grammatical, but it can also be content-related reading initiated due to the subject complexity. Extensive reading’s purpose is to achieve a general understanding of a longer text, e.g. a novel, an essay, an article, etc. Pleasure reading is often extensive
Writing
The communicative era promoted fluency versus accuracy. It also promoted ways to focus on linguistic communication, not only in speaking and listening, but also in writing. Some of the most noticeable to focus on communication are stated below.
1) Composing vs. writing: The process of writing requires different competencies than speaking. The nature of composing is what worries teachers. The process of thinking, drafting, revising, correcting usually end in a correct composing. Being a native speaker does not automatically gives you the knowledge of composing. Composing means time, practice a considerate amount of reading.
2) Process vs. Product: A half century ago, composition teachers were concerned with the final product. Nowadays, we are also worried about the process of writing. Process approaches focus on the process of writing that leads to the final product; help students to understand their own composing process; help them to create repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting; give students time to write and rewrite; place much importance to the process of revising; let student discover their own ideas; gives them feedback about their own ideas; encourage feedback from the instructor, but also from the classmates; advocate for individual interviews between the teacher and the student to talk about the process of composition during this process.
3) Contrastive rhetoric: Kaplan (1966) commented on the different patterns of discourse. This controversial article has shown little evidence of their findings. However, it is interesting to observe Kaplan’s chart about the different patterns of different discourses in different languages. Kaplan’s concluded that all the learners bring with them certain predispositions when they start learning a foreign language. If English writers go straight to the point and Chinese writers “spiral” around the point, then a Chinese speaker who is learning English will find some difficulty in learning English composition.
4) Differences between L1 and L2 writing: Around the seventies second language writing was strongly influenced by previous research on native language writing. Researchers thought that the process was the same in both instances. Two decades ago, composition teachers were advised to adopt practices from L1 writing, but it is imperative for instructor to understand that there are important differences to consider (Silva, 1993, cited in Brown 2001). The pedagogical implications that Silva concluded are the following: a) it is important to determine approaches to writing instruction for L2 writers in different contexts; b) writing instructions need to know how to deal with the sociocultural and linguistic differences of L2 students and c) assessment of L2 writing needs to be revised.
5) Authenticity: How authentic are the writing activities that students complete in the classroom? In the era of electronic communication we are less called upon to compose, why do we want our students to invest so much time in written communication? A way to look at authenticity issues in classroom writing is to distinguish between real and display writing. On one hand, real writing, according to Ann Raimes (1991, cited in Brown 2001) is when the teacher does not know the answer and truly wants information. On the other hand, display writing is a written way of showing the students’ knowledge. Instructors should incorporate more real writing in their courses. If foreign language courses are content-based, theme-based or task-based courses, it is more appropriate to have students giving us their own information, although using display writing to show what they have learned is also a preparation for some specific activities that learners might encounter.
6) Role of the teacher: In learner centered classes, the teacher should be a responder to students’ writing, a facilitator that offers help and guidance to have students engaging in the thinking process of composing, respecting the students’ opinion and thoughts. Feedback has to be given by the instructors. Studies show that when instructor requests specific information to the students and makes summary comments on grammar, students work on more substantive revisions than when the teachers pose a question and make positive comments. However, the impact of feedback is still a subject in need of research.
What are the characteristics of written language?
From the writer’s perspective
1) Permanence: Sending or turning in a final composition is sending the final product, it is abdicating the power to correct. Teachers should help our students to understand this idea and make them clear than revising and refining their work is the most important part of the writing work.
2) Production time: We all have time limits, and unfortunately our students are always restrained by deadlines. It is our duty to train our students to do the best they can in such limiting situation. They might need to sacrifice some process time, but with sufficient training in process writing they can still write an acceptable composition.
3) Distance: Writers need to be able to predict the audience’s general knowledge, cultural and literary schemata, specific subject-matter knowledge and the most important thing, how the writer’s language will be interpreted. Learners need to know who the audience is and explain every concept or situation that the audience might not have knowledge of.
4) Orthography: When our students have native languages with different alphabets or sometimes with little literacy level, orthography is a must. Teachers need to spend time teaching orthography and construction of words.
5) Complexity: Writers need to learn how to remove redundancy , how to use linking words, and how to make references to other texts.
6) Vocabulary: Good writers need to learn how to make use of the lexical system of the language they are studying.
7) Formality: Every type of text has its own convention, either if it is a questionnaire or a scientific essay. Usually the hardest conventions are related to academic writing. Instructors need to give them extra help with these conventions that might be very different from the ones in their native languages.
What are the types of writing performance?
1) Initiative or writing down: this type is very appropriate for beginners. It is basically writing down what they hear, as a dictation.
2) Intensive or controlled: Controlled writing does not allow for creativity. Learners write to show their knowledge about a specific grammar point. A common form of controlled writing is the presentation of a paragraph to the students and having the students changing a given structure throughout. E.g. they might change all the future tenses into past tenses. Another form is guided writing, in this type the teacher looses a little bit of his/her control, an example would be having the students watching a scene and then writing what they watched giving or not details, depending on the level. The last form of controlled writing is dicto-comp or dicto-gloss. Here the teacher reads out loud two or three times a paragraph and asks them to rewrite what they have heard the best they can.
3) Self-writing: Writing with only the self in mind as an audience. Diary or journals are the most common forms, and also dialogue journals in which the students records thoughts, feelings, and reactions that the teacher reads and responds to.
4) Display writing: Short answers, essay examinations and research reports are forms of display writing in which the students show a specific knowledge about a specific subject.
5) Real writing: Genuine communication of messages to people that might need them. The categories display and real are two ends of a continuum, and in between the two extremes there are other forms that combine both types. Real writing can be academic also, students convey useful messages to each other, or group solving tasks; vocational/technical, real letters, genuine directions, and actual forms; or personal, as diaries, journals, post cards, notes, personal messages and other informal writing can take place, especially in the context of an interactive classroom.
Conclusion
As Oxford (2001) supported, the idea that any foreign language teacher can integrate the language skills and strengthen the tapestry of language teaching and learning seems more viable. When the tapestry is woven well, learners use the foreign language effectively for communication. If the process of the integration does not become easy, teachers have to explicitly help the students to use different learning strategies and link the four skills. As Cohen (2003) stated, students of foreign language should be encouraged to learn and use a broad range of language learning strategies that can be tapped throughout the learning process. The integrative approach is based on the belief that learning will be facilitated by making students aware of the range of strategies from which they can choose during language learning and use. The most efficient way to heighten learner awareness is to provide strategy training--explicit instruction in how to apply language learning strategies--as part of the foreign language curriculum. It is idealistic to say that it is easy to implement this approach in the foreign language curricula, however, if we never start, we will never get there.
References
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