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INTEGRATING THE FOUR SKILLS

PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE: ORAL & WRITTEN

RECEPTIVE PERFORMANCE: AURAL AND READING

HISTORY
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Listening, Speaking Reading and Writing Integration of the four skills Whole language approach interrelationship of the four skills Teaching a language enables learners to understand a system of social practices that both constraint and liberate.

WHOLE LANGUAGE
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READING Pre-reading discussion of the topic to activate schemata Listening to a lecture or a series of informative statements about the topic of a passage to be read Focus on certain reading strategy ; scanning Writing a paraphrase of a section of the reading passage .

PURPOSE
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Integration allows greater motivation which converts to better retention of the principles of effective speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students can diversify their efforts in more meaningful tasks.

Integration = key in communicative interactive framework :


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1.

2. 3.

4.

Production & reception : two sides of the same coin; one cannot split the coin in two. Interaction means sending and receiving messages. Written & spoken language bear a relationship to each other. For literate learners, the interrelationship of written and spoken language is an intrinsically motivating reflection of language and culture & society.

5. By focusing to what learners can do with language, we invite any or all of the four skills that are relevant into the classroom arena. 6. One skill will reinforce another, we learn to speak by modeling what we hear, we learn to write by examining what we can read. 7. Whole language approach ; in real world of language use, natural performance involves not only integration of one or more skills , but connections btw language and the way we think , feel and act.

5 Models of Instructions
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CONTENT- BASED INSTRUCTION

THEME-BASED INSTRUCTION

TASK BASED TEACHING

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

THE HYPOTHESIS

CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION


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Content centered language = language teaching integrates the learning of some specific subject matter content with the learning of a second language. Structure of content- based curriculum dictated more by nature of the subject matter than by the language forms and sequences. The language simply the medium to convey informational content of interest and relevance to the learner.

Examples of content-based curricula:


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Immersion programs for elementary-school children Sheltered English programs Writing across the curriculum( taught within subjectmatter areas, eg: biology.) English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

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CONTENT-BASED TEACHING(CBT) allows learners to acquire knowledge & skills that transcend all bits and pieces of language that may take hours and days of analyzing in a traditional language classroom. Learners focused on useful & practical objectives as subject matter is perceived as relevant to long-term goals. Increases intrinsic motivation which is important to learning of any kind.

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CBT allows complete integration of language skills. Plan a lesson around a particular subtopic ,task becomes how best to present that topic / concept or principle . Thus, not difficult to include at least 3 of 4 skills as students read, solve problems, analyze data, and write opinions and reports. (R, S, W)

THEME-BASED INSTRUCTION (TBI)


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Structuring a course around themes / topics. Serve multiple interests of students in a classroom & offer a focus on content while still following institutional needs for offering a language course per se. Eg: intensive English course for intermediate per-u students, might deal with topics of current interest like public health, environmental awareness

Major Principles for both CBI & TBI:


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AUTOMATICITY MEANINGFUL LEARNING INTRINSIC MOTIVATION COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Challenging topics in textbooks engage curiosity & increase motivation of ss as they grapple with an array of real-life issues ranging fr simple to complex and improving their linguistic skills as well.

Possible Theme-based activities:


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1.

2. 3.

4. 5.

Use environmental statistics and facts for classroom reading, writing discussion and debate. Carry out research and writing projects Have students create their own environmental awareness material. Arrange field trips / educational trips Conduct simulation games.

EXPERENTIAL LEARNING
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Closely related & overlapping CB & TBI. Includes activities that engage both left and arightbrain processing that contextualize language , that integrate skills , and that point toward authentic, real-world purposes.

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Giving students concrete experiences through which they discover language principles by trial and error, by processing feedback, by building hypothesis about language, and by revising these assumptions in order to become fluent(Eyring 1991:347). Provide opportunities to use language as they grapple with the problem-solving complexities of a variety of concrete experiences.

Examples of Experiential Learning:


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Hands-on projects Computer activities Research projects Cross-cultural experience( camps, dinner groups) Field trips , on-site visits Role-plays and simulations

Language Experience Approach (LEA)


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An integrated-skills approach initially used in teaching native language reading skills. Adapted to second language contexts. With adaptations, students personal experiences (eg: trip to zoo) are used as the basis for discussion . Then teacher writes down the experience. SS can then recopy, edit, and or illustrate the story, which is preserved in the form of a book.

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Activities can then follow including word study, spelling focus,semantic discussions, inference, prediction,etc Benefit of LEA : intrinsic involvement of ss in creating their own stories rather than being given other peoples stories. Students directly involved in the process of fashioning their own products.

THE
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HYPOTHESIS

Francois Gouin designed method of teaching : Series Method; presentation of language in an easily followed storyline.

Eg: teaches verbs, verb forms & vocabulary in story about girl chopping wood:

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The girl goes and seeks a piece of wood. She takes a hatchet. She draws near to the block. She places the wood on the block. She raises the hatchet . She brings down the Hatchet. The blade strikes against the wood, etc
=>In easy visualized stepsguided through the process of chopping wood in very basic level of language. Using Psychological device.

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John Oller later called episode hypothesis.

Oller(1983) text will be easier to reproduce, understand, and recall, to the extent that it is structured episodically. i.e => presentation of language is enhanced if students receive interconnected sentences in an interestprovoking episode rather than in disconnected series of sentences.

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Episode hypothesis goes well beyond simple meaningful learning. Eg: Jack: Hi, Jim. What do you usually do on weekends? Jim: Oh, I usually study, but sometimes I go to the movie. Jack: Uh huh. Well, I often go to the movies, but I seldom study. Jim: Well, I dont study as much as Greg. He always studies on the weekends. He never goes out.

Lacks sense of drama, illustrate certain grammatical / discourse features, no suspense.

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Uses familiar setting, ordinary characters to whet the curiosity of the reader. Outcome not clear, readers /learners motivated to continue reading. Increasing its episodic flavor. Interaction of cognition and language enables learners to form expectancies as they encounter either logical or episodically linked sentences. Stories are universal.

Ways episode hypothesis contributes to integratedskills teaching:


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Challenge the teacher & textbook writer to present interesting , natural language whether language is viewed as written discourse / oral discourse. Episodes can be presented in either written or spoken form, thus requiring reading and/or writing skills on students parts. Episodes can provide stimulus for spoken or written questions that students respond to, in turn, by speaking / writing.

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Students can be encouraged to write their own episodes / complete an episode whose resolution /climax not presented. The written episodes can then be dramatized in the classroom by students. Episodic teaching & testing may offer a rewarding alternative to sprinkle into your daily diet of teaching techniques.

TASK-BASED TEACHING
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As an overall approach ,the importance of organizing a course around communicative tasks that learners need to engage in & outside the classroom. Peter Skehan (1998) task as =>Meaning is primary =>There is some communication problem to solve. =>There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities

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Task completion has some priority The assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.

Distinction between target tasks & pedagogical tasks. Target tasks students must accomplish beyond the classroom. Pedagogical tasks - form nucleus of classroom activity.

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Target tasks - more specific & related to classroom instruction. Eg : giving personal information is a communicative function for language , then a suitable stated target task might be giving personal information in a job interview. The task specifies a context.

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Pedagogical tasks - include a series of techniques designed ultimately to teach students to perform the target task; the climatic pedagogical task actually involves students in some form of simulation of the target task. Eg: role-play simulation Pedagogical tasks distinguished by their specific goals which point beyond language classroom to the target task.

Pedagogical task
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Designed to teach students to give personal information in a job interview might , involve: 1. Exercise in comprehension of wh-questions with doinsertion (When do you work at McD?) 2. Drills in the use of frequency adverbs (I usually work until five oclock.). 3. Listening to extracts of job interviews. 4. analyzing the grammar and discourse of the interviews. 5. modeling an interview - teacher and one student. 6. role-play in a simulated interview - students in pairs.

TASK-BASED

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TBC specifies what a learner needs to do with the English Language in terms of target tasks and organizes a series of pedagogical tasks intended to reach those goals. TBC insists on pedagogical soundness in the development and sequencing of tasks.

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The teacher and curriculum planner must consider the following dimensions of communicative tasks: Goal Input from teacher Techniques The role of the teacher The role of the learner evaluation

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Pedagogical tasks specifies exactly what learners will do with the input and what the respective roles of the teacher & learners are. Evaluation ,essential component that determines its success and offers feedback for performing the task again with another group of learners.

TBC - Goals more linguistic in nature.

TUTORIAL & PRACTICAL


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In pairs, write a lesson plan integrating the four skills.


Conduct macro-teaching of the four language skills. Discuss ways of improving the lesson plan. Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses.

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