Cacilda Afonso Mucuna

Clarência Agostinho Mulhanga

Dúlio Carlos Mendonça Calavete
João Albino Mussa
Onésimo Valdemiro Domingos

The teaching of language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)

Honor’s Degree in English Language Teaching

Universidade Licungo
Cead-Mocuba
2022

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 Cacilda Afonso Mucuna
Clarência Agostinho Mulhanga
Dúlio Carlos Mendonça Calavete
João Albino Mussa
Onésimo Valdemiro Domingos

The teaching of language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)

Assignment to be submitted to
the Department of Letters and
Humanities atUniversidade
Licungo-Quelimane, for
assessment purpose in ELTPP
II- 4th Year

Lecturer: Gregório Jorge Gonçalves

Universidade Licungo
Cead-Mocuba
2022

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Índex

1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................4

2. Listening skills....................................................................................................................5

2.1 Authentic versus non-authentic listening materials..........................................................5

2.2 Approaches to listening: bottom-up and top-down...........................................................5

2.3 Stages in teaching listening skills......................................................................................5

3. Speaking skills.....................................................................................................................6

3.1 The skills and knowledge - speaking elements.................................................................6

3.2 Classroom activities and tasks for practicing speaking skills...........................................6

4. Reading skills......................................................................................................................6

4.1 Stages of Reading..............................................................................................................7

4.2 Reading techniques (Skimming and Scanning)................................................................8

4.3 Types of reading (Intensive and extensive reading)..........................................................8

5. Writing skills.......................................................................................................................8

5.1 The writing process...........................................................................................................8

6. Conclusion.........................................................................................................................10

7. Bibliographic references...................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction

This is 9th group assignment of the fourth (4th) year from ELTPP II subject and talks about:

 The teaching of language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

First of all, it is necessary to give the concept of what is going to be dealt for a better
understanding. Jeremy Harmer (2007), stated that receptive skills are those in which the brain
receives passively unlike from productive ones they are listening and reading. On the other
hand, the productive skills of writing and speaking are different in many ways. However,
there are a number of language production processes which have to be gone through
whichever medium we are working in.

It has the specific objectives the following:

 To conceptualize the language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)

 To distinguish the four (4) English skills and apply correctly in our daily;
 To consider the importance of all English skills.

As the elements of this assignment made part a cover, inner cover, contents and pages, the
main body, conclusion and the bibliographic references.

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2. Listening skills

Nunan, D. & Miller, L. (2002) inferred that, listening is an active and interactional process in
which a listener receives speech sounds and tries to attach meaning to the spoken words. The
listener tries to understand the intended message of the oral text to respond effectively to oral
communication.

2.1 Authentic versus non-authentic listening materials

Richards (2006) explained that authentic materials can often include more unfamiliar use of
language, and mostly, it can be difficult for learners to cope with. If the teacher wants to use
authentic material, he or she should write a lesson plan based on the material and find
appropriate supporting materials.

There are some advantages of integrating authentic materials in a classroom environment: (i)
the culture of the target language is introduced and (ii) the use of real language is shown.

2.2 Approaches to listening: bottom-up and top-down

Field (1999) assumed that the bottom-up and top-down concepts originated from computer
science before being adopted by the field of linguistics. In computer science, bottom-up
means “data-driven” and top-down means “knowledge-driven”

2.3 Stages in teaching listening skills

Underwood (1989) states that listening sequences improve students’ metacognitive abilities,
especially in the first two years of language learning. These listening sequences may be
divided into three stages as pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening and each of the
three stages has its own specific purpose.

Pre-listening activities help to hear and give some clues about the activity expectations mostly
by activating schemata; While-listening activities are the main activities of the listening tasks.
Learners listen to the input and make decisions about the strategy to use according to the
requirements of the task. Finally, in post-listening activities, learners discuss and evaluate
their strategy choices and their effectiveness.

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3. Speaking skills

Chastain (1998), concluded that speaking is a productive skill that involves many
components, such as grammar, strategy, sociolinguistics and discourse; for him speaking is
more than simply making the right sounds, choosing the right words or getting the
constructions correct.

3.1 The skills and knowledge - speaking elements

Hammer (2007), stated that there are other skills and knowledge as speaking elements (micro
skills of oral communication) that address in teaching speaking such as:

1. Ability to pronounce phonemes correctly;

2. Using appropriate stress and intonation patterns;

3.2 Classroom activities and tasks for practicing speaking skills

Kumari (2014), reinforced that repetition of rhymes, look and say, oral composition,
pronunciation drills, read aloud, open ended stories, narration, description (festivals,
celebrations, occasions) are important practices to improve speaking skills. Moreover, a
variety of function based activities and tasks can be used to develop speaking skills which are
given as under:

Dialogue

Dialogue is a classroom technique used for practicing functions of language like greeting,
agreeing, disagreeing, apologizing, suggesting, asking information etc.

Problems (group work)

Problems are good sources for making the learners speak. While engaged in gripping the
problem, they have to use the language to solve it.

4. Reading skills

Castellani, J.D. & Jeffs, T (2001) stated that reading is a process whereby a reader brings
meaning to and gets meaning from print. This implies that readers bring their experiences as
well as their emotions into play in order to derive meaning from text.

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4.1 Stages of Reading

In the process of reading, the learner passes systematically through the following stages:

 Perception and word recognition;

 Comprehension;
 Evaluation and reaction;
 Application.

Perception and Word Recognition

This stage of reading is also known as mechanical aspect of reading or ‘reading on the lines’.
While going through this stage, the reader first perceives the right word (structure) and its
pronunciation.

Comprehension

In the second stage of reading we go deeper into literal meaning of the material read. Thus
comprehension requires the abilities of critical thinking and reading. Besides literal
comprehension, interpretations are essential for higher order of reading. Interpretation takes
the reader beyond the printed page by requiring him/her to put together ideas which the author
has not explicitly related to one another in the text.

Evaluation and Reaction

While comprehending the text, the reader goes on determining the utility, appropriateness and
reliability of the information and ideas received. A good reader should always go on
evaluating the events, ideas, characters or intentions of the author. should also go along with

certain responsibilities, and both should have their place for the development of the individual
and the society.

Application

The final stage of any reading activity should evolve in the application of acquired
knowledge, ideas, experience, skill, attitude and values in one’s own life. Whatever positive
reactions a person has formed while reading the material must become the part and parcel of
his/her personality

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4.2 Reading techniques (Skimming and Scanning)

Dully, G. et al. (1987) stated that skimming means glancing rapidly through a text to find out
its general content, central idea or gist. We do this, for example, when we want to find out
whether a certain article is relevant to our own area of study or research, or when we glance
over a page of newspaper to see if there is anything worth reading in detail, or when we go
through a book to find out its subject matter. By scanning on the other hand, means darting
over much of a text to search for a specific item or piece of information that we wish to
discover.

4.3 Types of reading (Intensive and extensive reading)

The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a detailed and thorough understanding of the text.
It involves the learners working through the short passage and examining it closely and in
detail. The material for intensive reading is chosen with a view to developing the student’s
power of judgment and discriminative reading of interpretation and appreciation. Students
learn to read with careful attention and concentration. Extensive reading, on the other hand,
involves reading in quantity for one’s own enjoyment. It provides the students an excellent
opportunity to increase reading speed, developing reading interests and reading habits.

5. Writing skills

Harmer (2007) stated that, writing skills are specifics abilities which help writers put their
thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message (p. 33).

5.1 The writing process

Hedge, T. (1988) inferred that a recent research on writing has provided us with an important
insight. Good writer goes through certain processes which lead to a successful piece of written
work. He/she starts off with a plan and thinks about what is to be conveyed and when.In this
process the writer goes through the following stages:

 Planning;
 Translating;
 Reviewing/Editing.

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 Planning

Before putting pen to paper, a good writer always tries to answer the following questions:

1. What subject matter, format and style should I select for my writing?

2. Who is supposed to read this?

The planning stage is also known as the prewriting stage. While writing, the plan need not be
strictly adhered to.

Translating

Here, translating means putting one’s thoughts into appropriate language and style, that is.
finding the right words and sentences as well as choosing the right style of presentation.

Reviewing/Editing

This may be regarded as post-writing stage. Many good writers keep reviewing their work as
they write. From writing the first draft to the stage of editing one needs much rethinking and
reorganization of ideas and language.

Developing different types of writing skills

The major types of written composition are:

 Paragraph, essay, letters, and reports.

Paragraph Writing

Paragraphs form a part of any continuous piece of writing, e.g. essays, reports, letters etc. The
characteristics of well written paragraph are:

a) It has unity: Each paragraph deals with specific idea. Generally, most paragraphs have a
topic sentence which contains the key idea of the paragraph.

b) It has conference: Each sentence is a paragraph, which logically follows from the previous
sentence, and anticipates the next sentence.

c) It is well organized: Each paragraph has a definite plan. Various types of paragraph
organization may be: narration, that is, time sequence or organization of events, comparison
and contrast.
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6. Conclusion

After a deep investigation the 9th group elements concluded that as a part of communicative
instruction, listening, speaking, reading, and writing are taught in a series of lessons or units
so that learners can practice each skill in relation to the topic. In communicative classrooms,
listening activities are used mainly to provide background knowledge or important vocabulary
for the two productive skills.

Wilson (2008) stated that, there are things to avoid during the pre-listening stage:

 A pre-listening task should not be too long. It should be precise and clear.
 The activity should not give too much information about the listening text. It should
just introduce the topic.
 The teacher should not talk too much: he or she should let the students talk and share
their ideas.
 A pre-listening activity topic should not be too general and unrelated to the listening
text.

Anuradha et al (2014), reinforced that, following are the principles of teaching speaking
skills:

 Encourage students to speak right from the first day. If not, as early as possible and
not to wait till she teaches them a stock of words, phrases or sentences.
 Tolerate the students if some of them simply repeat what they say.
 If a student gives one-word answer to any question, bear it for the time being.

Reading is an integrative and interactive process, and it is difficult to give a single definition
of reading.

Writing skills are specifics abilities which help writers put their thoughts into words in a
meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message.

To conclude the present group bolds that no skills no language teaching takes place, on other
hand the both skills, that is, productive skills (writing and speaking) together the receptive
ones (reading and listening) are the heart to the language learning.

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7. Bibliography

Anuradha, R.V., et al (2014). Methods of Teaching English. Hyderabad: Neelkamal

Publications.

Castellani, J.D. and Jeffs, T. (2001). Emerging Reading and Writing Strategies Using
Technology. Teaching Exceptional Children Plus,

Dully, G.et al (1987). Teaching Reading Skills as Strategies. The Reading Teaching, Field, J.
(1999). Key concepts in ELT: “Bottom-up” and “top-down.” ELT Journal, 53(4), 338-339.

Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Pearson Education
Limited.

Hedge, T. (1988). Writing. Oxford University Press, ELBS.

Kumari, AV. (2014). Methods of Teaching English. Guntur: New Era Publications.

Nunan, D. & Miller, L. (2002). New Ways in Teaching Listening. New York: Capitol
Communication Systems, Inc.

Richards, J. C. (2005). Second thoughts on teaching listening. RELC Journal, 36, 85-92.
doi:10.1177/0033688205053484.

Underwood, M. (1989). Teaching Listening. New York: Longman.

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