Description of Four Skills (S.L.R.W)

 Description of Four Skills (S.L.R.W)     

To Evaluate My Assignment Click Here

Name      : Bhaliya   Ravi

Roll no.     :24

M.A. Semester   : 3

Enrolment No.  :14101004

Email id      :ravibhaliya5@gmail.com

Year            : 2015-16

Paper no.     : 12 (English Language Teaching)

Submitted to: Smt. S.B Gardi Department of English

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji

Bhavnagar University

Abstract

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read and finally to write. These are called the four “language skills”. Listening “Listening” is receiving language through the ears. Listening involves identifying the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences.

Languages are generally taught and assessed in terms of the ‘four skills’: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are known as ‘receptive’ skills while speaking and writing are known as ‘productive’ skills. All language learners will need to develop their skills in each of these areas, and your language classes should incorporate activities related to all these skills.

When a teacher makes use of activities that have been specially designed to incorporate several language skills simultaneously (such as reading, writing, listening, and writing), they provide their students with situations that allow for well-rounded development and progress in all  areas of language learning. In her reflection, Anna refers to activities that make use of ‘the four skills’ but she is not quite sure how to plan activities that incorporate all four. In this section we will discuss the 'four skills' as well some activities that can be used in the classroom to promote all four.

What are the four skills?

How are the four skills used in the language classroom ? 

Through daily activities, teachers provide learners with opportunities to develop each skill: students listen (to the teacher use the target language, to a song, to one another in a pair activity), speak (pronunciation practice, greetings, dialogue creation or recitation, songs, substitution drills, oral speed reading, role play), read (instructions, written grammar drills, cards for playing games, flashcards) and write (fill in the blank sheets, sentences that describe a feeling, sight or experience, a dialogue script, a journal entry).

How can the four skills be used together effectively?

The four skills work in tandem when the activities that require their use are designed to support learners in the process of learning, creating and producing a specific product. Four approaches in particular are structured so that the four skills can be used simultaneously. These approaches are: the focal skill approach, content based instruction, task based  instruction and the project based approach.

Why are four skills activities useful?

Four skills activities in the language classroom serve many valuable purposes: they give learners scaffold support, opportunities to create, contexts in which to use the language for exchanges of real information, evidence of their own ability (proof of learning) and, most important, confidence.

 Speaking

“Speaking” is the delivery language through the mouth. Speaking is also known as the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated and it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. To speak, we create sounds using many parts of our body including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords, tongue, teeth and lips. This vocalized form of language usually requires at least one listener. When two or more people speak or talk to each other, the conversation is called a “dialogue”.

“Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words.”

Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner. Some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech. The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is being understood. Some few speaking situations may be totally no interactive, such as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast .

Speaking is often connected with listening. For example, the two way communication makes up for the defect in communicative ability in the traditional learning. Two way means the relationship of the communication between the teacher and the students at school. This relationship is connected with the communicative activities between two people. It can create a fresh environment for speaking language. The two way communication can lengthen the dialogue limitlessly. This is its advantage. At the same time, if the speakers want to give the correct response he has to think hard, the sentence is not easily forgotten which is created by themselves through thinking, sometimes with the teacher’s hint. They can talk freely and express themselves as well as they can.

In addition, speech can flow naturally from one person to another in the form of dialogue. It can also be planned and rehearsal as in the delivery of a speech or presentation. Of course, some people talk to themselves! In fact, some English learners practice speaking standing alone in front of a mirror. There are three kinds of speaking situation that we should understand which are interactive, partially interactive and non-interactive. Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner.

Reading

Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other people can hear). Reading is a receptive skill - through it we receive information. But the complex process of reading also requires the skill of speaking, so that we can pronounce the words that we read. In this sense, reading is also a productive skill in that we are both receiving information and transmitting it (even if only to ourselves).

"Reading" is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us.

“Reading” is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them especially in societies with a highly-developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary that helps listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly. In other words, reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning to them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us. Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other can hear). Reading is an important way to of gaining information in language learning and it is a basic for a language learner.

Therefore reading skills refer to the specific abilities that enable a person to read with independence and interact with the message. Reading is therefore a highly

valuable skill and activity, and it is recommended that English learners try to read as much as possible in English. Moreover, reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude and language community which is culturally and socially situated. To sum up, reading process requires continues practice, development, refinement, creativity and critical analysis.

 Writing 

Writing is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures. It provides a learner with physical evidence of his achievements and he can measure his improvement. It helps to consolidate their grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills. Sentence is the base of an article. So he should begin his writing with sentences. For example, translation, sentence pattern exchanging, and text shortening and rewriting.

Writing is the productive skill in the written mode. It, too, is more complicated than it seems at first, and often seems to be the hardest of the skills, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way.

It helps to understand the text and write compositions. It can foster the learner’s ability to summarize and to use the language freely

“Writing” is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. Writing is the productive skill in the written mode. It too is more complicated and often seems to be the hardest of the skills, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a structured way. To write clearly, it is essential to understand the basic system of a language. In English, this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure.

Listening

When we listen, we use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us. Listening is any language requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people need to work at harder than others. In addition, teaching the learners a lot of listening activities is a good way of enlarging their vocabulary. People who have difficulty concentrating are typically poor listeners. Like babies, we learn this skill by listening to people who already know how to speak the language.

Listening comprehension is the receptive skill in the oral mode. When we speak of listening what we really mean is listening and understanding what we hear.

In our first language, we have all the skills and background knowledge we need to understand what we hear, so we probably aren’t even aware of how complex a process it is. Here we will briefly describe some of what is involved in learning to understand what we hear in a second language. Listening, one of the means of language communication, is used most widely in people’s daily lives. In addition, teaching the learners a lot of listening activities is a good way of enlargement their vocabulary.

 On the other hand, it also helps the learners improve their listening comprehension. For instance, people know that the largest difference between mother language learning and foreign language learning is the environment. For a foreign language, we can meet it only in formal places and classes. Training and practicing the oral reading is not a day’s work. Practice is important. Only through the practice can the learners improve their listening comprehension.

Good listening skills also have benefits in our personal lives, including:

A greater number of friends and social networks, improved self-esteem and confidence, higher grades at school and in academic work and even better health and general well-being. (www.skillsyouneed.com)

Works Cited

www.skillsyouneed.com. skills you need. n.d. 31 10 2015 <http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/listening-skills.html>.

To Evaluate My Assignment Click Here