Unit 11 Integrated Skills Welcome

Teaching Objectives 1. The reasons why we should integrate the four skills; 2. The ways we integrate the four skills; 3. The implications for teaching; 4.The limitations of integrating the four skills.

I. The reasons why we should integrate the four skills When we communicate, we often use more than a single language skill. On the telephone, for instance, we listen and speak—maybe we also write down a message and read over what we have written. Transferring language from one medium to another is itself a skill.

I. The reasons why we should integrate the four skills Integrating the skills means that you are working at the level of realistic communication, not just at the level of vocabulary and sentence patterns. Realistic communication is the aim of the communicative approach and many researchers believe that handling realistic communication is an integral part of essential conditions for language learning.

I. The reasons why we should integrate the four skills Conditions for language learning: 1. Essential: --Exposure; --Use; --Motivation. 2. Desirable --Instruction

II. The ways we can we integrate the four skills The simple integration: the easiest form of integration is within the same medium (either oral or written), from receptive to productive skills. In other words, we would use a listening text as a model for the students’ speaking, and a reading text as a model for the students’ writing. This is common practice among teachers.

II. The ways we can we integrate the four skills The second kind is complex integra-tion. This involves constructing a series of activi­ties that use a variety of skills. In each of the activities, there is realistic, communica­tive use of language. The sequence of activities: Reading activity Oral activity Writing activity.

III. The implications for teaching Integration of the four skills is concerned with realistic communi­cation. This means that we are teaching at the discourse level, not just at the level of sentences or individual words and phrases. Discourse is a whole unit of communica­tive text, either spoken or written.

III. The implications for teaching 1. Focus on discourse The main implication for teaching is that we need to be aware of the discourse features of a text. This helps the integration of skills because it makes clear the teaching points and, for simple integration, the discourse features are the main language aspects that we transfer from one skill to the other.

III. The implications for teaching Discourse features include aspects such as: • The way that the text is organised • Its layout (for written text) • The style of the language (formal or informal?) • The register (the vocabulary that is commonly found in such discourse).

III. The implications for teaching 2. Adjusting the textbook contents: This could involve altering the order of the contents. If the discourse of the writing activity is closely related to the reading passage, but is placed in a different part of the unit in the textbook, we could focus on the writing straight after we finish the reading passage. For simple integration, we can design a listening or reading comprehension activity that becomes a plan for speaking or writing. For complex integration, it could mean making changes to the activities in the text book.

III. The implications for teaching 3.Adjusting the timetable There also are practical implications for integrating the four skills. One is related to timetabling. In some schools, a whole lesson is given to teaching one skill. For example, there is a “listening” lesson one day, a “reading” lesson another day, and so on. Sometimes this is encouraged by the arrangement of materials in the textbook. We have to make the timetable arrangements more flexible so that we can integrate the skills better.

IV. The limitations of integrating the four skills Integrating the four language skills can be demanding of the teacher. We need to have a good under-standing of discourse, and to be able to use textbooks flexibly. This can also be time-consuming, requiring a lot of preparation. Sometimes teachers are so busy that they cannot spare much time for extra preparatory work.

IV. The limitations of integrating the four skills Another limitation is the problem of designing suitable materials that take account of students’ different skill levels. The four skills tend to develop at a different pace: re­ceptive skills are stronger than productive skills, for example. This means that teachers have to be skilful is selecting or designing integrated activities for their students.

V. Conclusion 1.Integrating enhances the focus on realistic communication, which is essential in developing stu­dents’ competence in English. 2. Two ways of integrating skills: simple integration, whereby a receptive language skill serves as a model for a productive language skill, and complex integration, which is a combination of activities involving different skills, linked thematically.

V. Conclusion 3.The limitations of integrating skills: The role of a focus on individual language elements, such as vocabulary and grammar, should not be over­looked, as they can play an important role in helping students to understand the English language system and in enlarging their range of language production. Integration is also demanding of teachers in terms of finding or designing suitable materials, particularly when it is necessary to take into account the differing rates of progress of students in mastering the individual skills.

VI. Assignments 1. Review the Unit & do all the exercises. 2. Read Appendix 1 of TLEBC

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