Lecture10_integrating the four skills.pdf

8/14/2019 Lecture10_integrating the four skills.pdf

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INTEGRATING THE FOUR SKILLS

PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE: ORAL & WRITTEN

RECEPTIVE PERFORMANCE: AURAL AND READING


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HISTORY2

Listening, Speaking Reading and Writing

Integration of the four skills

Whole language approachinterrelationship of

the four skills

Teaching a language enables learners to

understand a system of social practices that both

constraint and liberate.


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WHOLE LANGUAGE3 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 .


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PURPOSE4

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 moremeaningful tasks.


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Integration = key in communicative

interactive framework :5

1. Production & reception : two sides of the same

coin; one cannot split the coin in two.

2. Interaction means sending and receiving messages.

3. Written & spoken language bear a relationship to

each other.

4. For literate learners, the interrelationship of

written and spoken language is an intrinsicallymotivating reflection of language and culture &

society.


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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 bymodeling 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 onlyintegration of one or more skills , but connections btw

language and the way we think , feel and act.


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CONTENT- BASED

INSTRUCTIONTHEME-BASED

INSTRUCTION

EXPERIENTIAL

LEARNING

THE HYPOTHESIS

TASKBASED

TEACHING

5 Models of Instructions


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CONTENTBASED INSTRUCTION8

Content centered language = language teachingintegrates the learning of some specific subjectmatter content with the learning of a secondlanguage.

Structure of contentbased curriculum dictated moreby nature of the subject matter than by the language

forms and sequences. The language simply the mediumto convey

informational content of interest and relevance to thelearner.


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Examples of content-based curricula:9

Immersion programs for elementary-school children

Sheltered English programs

Writing across the curriculum( taught within subject-

matter 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 orprinciple .

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)


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THEME-BASED INSTRUCTION (TBI)12

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 courseper se.

Eg: intensive English course for intermediate per-u

students, might deal with topics of current interestlike public health, environmental awareness


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Major Principles for both CBI & TBI:13

AUTOMATICITY

MEANINGFUL LEARNING

INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Challenging topics in textbooks engage curiosity &

increase motivation of ss as they grapple with anarray of real-life issues ranging fr simple tocomplex and improving their linguistic skills as well.


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Possible Theme-based activities:14

1. Use environmental statistics and facts for classroom

reading, writing discussion and debate.

2. Carry out research and writing projects

3. Have students create their own environmental

awareness material.

4. Arrange field trips / educational trips

5. Conduct simulation games.


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EXPERENTIAL LEARNING

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Closely related & overlapping CB & TBI.

Includes activities that engage both left and aright-

brain processing that contextualize language , thatintegrate 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 theygrapple with the problem-solving complexities of a

variety of concrete experiences.


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Examples of Experiential Learning:17

Hands-on projects

Computer activities

Research projects

Cross-cultural experience( camps, dinner groups)

Field trips , on-site visits

Role-plays and simulations


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Language Experience Approach (LEA)18

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 creatingtheir own stories rather than being given other

peoples stories.

Students directly involved in the process offashioning their own products.


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THE HYPOTHESIS20

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 ofchopping wood in very basic level of language. UsingPsychological 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 structuredepisodically.

i.e => presentation of language is enhanced if students

receive interconnected sentences in an interest-provoking episode rather than in disconnected series ofsentences.


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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, nosuspense.


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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.


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Ways episode hypothesis contributes to integrated-

skills teaching:25

Challenge the teacher & textbook writer to presentinteresting , natural language whether language is

viewed as written discourse / oral discourse.

Episodes can be presented in either written orspoken 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, byspeaking / 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 theclassroom by students.

Episodic teaching & testing may offer a rewarding

alternative to sprinkle into your daily diet ofteaching techniques.


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TASK-BASED TEACHING27

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 tasksstudents 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 givingpersonal 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 thetarget task. Eg: role-play simulation

Pedagogical tasks distinguished by their specific

goals which point beyond language classroom to

the target task.


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Pedagogical task

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Designed to teach students to give personal information ina job interview might , involve:

1. Exercise in comprehension of wh-questions with do-

insertion (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.


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TASK-BASED

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TBC specifies what a learner needs to do with the

English Language in terms of target tasks andorganizes 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.


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Lecture10_integrating the four skills.pdf