MODULE TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF MACROSKILLS

TOPIC 4: Activities in Integrating Listening with Other Macro Skills

(Speaking, Reading, Writing, Viewing)

Four Skills Activities: Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening

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?

 Reading (comprehension skill)
 Listening (comprehension skill)
 Speaking (production skill)
 Writing (production skill)

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).
This approach, however, does not combine the four skills so that they can be
used together to reach the same end (i.e. language development that is well-rounded).

Watch the video to see how this language teacher uses four skills activities in her
classroom: https://youtu.be/k6Z-GDKMYTE

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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.

The Focal Skill Approach

The goal of the focal skill approach is studying in the SL in order to acquire it. This
second language curriculum stresses the balanced development of listening, speaking,
reading and writing by measuring competency in each skill and then focusing on the
development of the weakest skill.

Content-based Instruction(CBI)

Oxford (2001) describes approaches to CBI, which include theme-based &

adjunct learning. Theme-based CBI focuses on a theme of high interest to students and
develops a wide range of language skills around that theme. The learning of the content
requires considerable exposure to a variety of forms of information, which, in turn,
requires the use of all four modalities.

In the adjunct form of CBI, language and content courses are taught separately
but are carefully coordinated so that literacy, oral
language development and thinking skills are positively
enhanced. In this approach, the content teacher
presents content to students while the language
teacher brings vocabulary, grammar and sub skill
development to students’ attention through typical
exercises, all of which focus on the lexicon of the
content.

Task-Based Instruction(TBI)

According to Nunan (1999), task-based instruction (TBI) uses tasks or stand-

aline activities which require comprehending, producing, manipulating or interacting in
the target language. The amount of listening, speaking, reading and writing involved to
complete the problem posed by the task is dictated by the task itself; however, most

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complex (multi step) real-life tasks that take learners

into the world outside the classroom will utilize all
four skills. TBI helps learners explore the multitude
of communication opportunities provided in their
surroundings. The tasks themselves are scaffolded
according to the cognitive demand required to
complete them and can be carried out individually, in
pairs or in small cooperative groups.

Project-Based Approach
This approach concretizes the integration of not only the
four skills but also language, culture, experience and learning
strategies (Turnbull, 1999). With the careful selection of a final
project that requires learners to demonstrate what they have
learned through both oral and written production, the teacher
plans backwards to identify what aspects of language, culture,
experience and learning strategies are required to complete the
end project.

Examples of Activities that Integrate the Four Skills

Two activities that make use of all four skills in tandem are Self-introduction and
Reading and Retell.

Self-introduction takes the answers to a series of personal

questions (name, age, grade level, where you live, members of your
family, favorite sports, animals, colors, subjects, etc.) and sequences
them into a self-introduction. Students are given large visuals to trigger
each component of the self-introduction. The teacher can point to each
picture while modeling a self-introduction (students
are listening) and then invite learners to introduce
themselves (speaking) to one or two if their peers. Some
of the visuals can then be changed and the students can
be invited to introduce themselves to others in the class to
whom they have never spoken. This activity can be
adapted to become a regular (daily, weekly) warm-up activity to get learners talking in
the target language. Having covered listening and speaking in the oral self-introduction,
a scenario can then be created wherein learners must write a self-introduction to a
potential homestay host. The same picture cues can be used, reconfigured to show a
salutation, closing and signature. The picture cues provide learners with support without
giving them a text to memorize.

In multilevel SL classes, graded readers can be excellent springboards for

another activity that integrates the four skills- a reading and retell. First, learners select
a book or story at their own level and read it. Learners are then given a template to

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follow to summarize their thoughts about the story (writing). The summary is designed
to help learners gauge the amount of detail required in a retell. After additional
practice reading the summary silently and aloud several times, learners are asked to
select two or three illustrations from the book to help them tell the story. They then
practice telling the story by using the pictures and remembering what they wrote in the
template. Students find a partner who has not read the same story and retell (speaking)
their story to one another using the selected illustrations. Partners not only listen to the
retell but also complete a feedback checklist (writing) about the retell. After reading the
feedback, partners switch roles.

Why are four skills activities useful?

Four skills activities in the language classroom serve many valuable purposes:
they give learners scaffolded 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.

LISTENING: THE TQLR PROCESS (Jocson, 1999)

TUNE IN: Right as the lecture begins, determine the speaker's topic and recall
what you may already know about the topic.

QUESTION: Early in the lecture, begin the listening process by asking

questions such as: "What point is the speaker making?", "What devices for
support is he/she using?", "What do I need to specifically remember?"
This process, if continued throughout the entire lecture, helps lead to an
understanding of main ideas, the speaker's organization of the material
being covered, and supporting details.

LISTEN: This includes hearing the basic message and answering the questions
being raised during the total process. In order to accomplish this, you must
anticipate what
Will be said, and take in what is said. Active alertness is ALWAYS REQUIRED.

REVIEW: This is the process of checking on the anticipated

message after the message is delivered. To review, you must
evaluate the message against your questions, fit ideas together,
summarize ideas, and evaluate the meaning and impact of
the message based on your circumstances. This review
process should lead to further questions and keep you constantly
tuned in to the lecture.

The TQLR process is one that works in a circular motion:

TUNE IN QUESTION
REVIEW LISTEN

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EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE LISTENING HABITS

EFFECTIVE

 Finding or creating something to arouse interest

in a speech or lecture you must listen to.
 Trying to get the message rather than worrying
about how it is presented.
 Listening to all that the speaker has to say before
criticizing.
 Looking for major ideas and relationships among
various points.
 Determining the speaker's organization first, then
taking notes that reflect his/her pattern.
 Really paying attention so that at any time you
can summarize the speaker's main ideas up to
that point in the lecture.
 Sitting where you will hear, then listening.
 Listening with a purpose.
 Subordinating specific words to the total meaning of the context.
 Anticipating what the speaker will say next, identifying ideas and support,
recapitulating
 Every few minutes what the speaker has told you.

INEFFECTIVE

 Calling the subject uninteresting.

 Criticizing the speaker's delivery.
 Getting overstimulated about specific
points in the speech.
 Listening only for the facts.
 Trying to make an outline of everything.
 Faking attention to the speaker.
 Tolerating or creating distractions.
 Evading difficult material.

To know more about the Activities in Integrating Listening with Other Macro Skills:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh4BGdErylY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvw12HtdfNw

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Advancing Learning: The Fifth Skill – “VIEWING”

We all know about the traditional four skills of reading, writing, speaking and
listening. But what about the fifth skill of ’viewing’? Kieran Donaghy, expert in the use of
visual arts in language teaching, explains what viewing is, why it’s important and how
you can implement it in the classroom.

We are living in a visual world. The advent of the internet and the digital
revolution, the ubiquity of mobile devices which allow us to capture still and moving
images easily, the appearance of video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo,
and the emergence of social media networks such as Instagram and Facebook whose
users upload largely visual content, have all contributed to an extraordinary rise in visual
communication and to the image, and increasingly the moving image, becoming the
primary mode of communication around the world.

The majority of texts young people are encountering and creating are multimodal.
(A multimodal text is one where the meaning is communicated by more than one
mode – e.g. written text, audio, still pictures, moving pictures, gesture, use of space,
etc. Digital multimodal texts can include, for example, videos, slideshows and web
pages, while live multimodal texts can include theatre, storytelling and dance.) The fact
that communication nowadays is largely multimodal changes the construct of
communicative competence. This has huge implications for our educational systems.

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VIEWING DEFINED
In the Canadian Common Curriculum Framework, viewing is
defined as follows:

‘An active process of attending and comprehending visual

media, such as television, advertising images, films,
diagrams, symbols, photographs, videos, drama, drawings,
sculpture and paintings.’
So ‘viewing’ is about ‘reading’ – analyzing, evaluating and
appreciating – visual texts. Viewing is an active rather than a
passive process.

Importance of Viewing

We are language teachers, so it’s obvious we should focus on the written and
spoken word in our classes. So why images or multimodal texts that use should images,
matter at all to language teachers? Many teachers argue that language and text-based
approaches should take priority and that the image just distracts from the word.
However, as the majority of texts our students are accessing outside the classroom are
visual texts and multimodal texts which use images, surely we should give our student’s
opportunities to ‘read’ – analyses and evaluate – these types of texts in the classroom.
Furthermore, the majority of these multimodal texts – YouTube videos, info graphics,
websites, blogs, social media sites – are a combination of print text and image, where
the image, far from distracting from the text, actually enhances it.

Therefore, viewing is important because as students are dealing with mainly

multimodal texts they need to understand
them and to become more effective, active
and critical viewers to be able to participate
fully in society. Viewing helps students
develop the knowledge and skills to analyses
and evaluate visual texts and multimodal
texts that use visuals. Viewing also helps
students acquire information and appreciate
ideas and experiences visually communicated
by others.

What do active viewers do?

According to the Canadian Common Curriculum Framework, active and effective
viewers would ask themselves a series of questions such as:
 What is the text representing?
 How is the text constructed?
 What assumptions, interests, beliefs, biases and values are portrayed by the
text?

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 What is the purpose of the text?

 To whom is the text directed? Who does the text exclude?
 What is my reaction to the text? What causes this reaction?
 What personal connections and associations can I make with this text?

It’s important that students are aware that understanding the viewing process is as
important as understanding the listening and reading process. Students should
understand that effective, active viewers engage in the following procedure:

Pre-viewing: Students prepare to view by activating their schema (the prior knowledge
they bring to the study of a topic or theme), anticipating a message, predicting,
speculating, asking questions, and setting a purpose for viewing.

During viewing: Students view the visual text to understand the message by seeking
and checking understanding, by making connections, making and confirming predictions
and inferences, interpreting and summarizing, pausing and reviewing, and analyzing
and evaluating. Students should monitor their understanding by connecting to their
schema, questioning and reflecting.

After viewing / responding: Students should be given opportunities to respond

personally, critically and creatively to visual texts. Students respond by reflecting,
analyzing, evaluating and creating.

Film and video: The 3Cs and 3Ss

This framework was developed by Into Film and is used widely
in schools in the UK. The 3Cs (Color, Camera, Character) and the
3Ss (Story, Setting, Sound) framework can be used to help students
discuss and analyses all the elements of a film text.
Story, Setting, Sound, Color, Character and Camera are
simple headings with discussion questions teachers can use as an
easy way for exploring any film. Here are some of the discussion
questions:

Color
 What colors do you see?
 What do the colors make you feel?
 Why do you think certain colors are used?
 What mood do you think the colors create?

Camera
 What shots have been used? Can you name them?
 Through whose eyes do we see the story?
 When do we see different characters’ point of view?
 When does the camera move and when does it stay
still?

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Character
 What do the main characters look like?
 How do they speak and what do they say?
 How do they behave?
 Which character interests you the most? Why?

Story
 What happens in the beginning, middle and at the end
of the story?
 What are the most important things (events) that happen in the story?
 How do we know where the story takes place?
 How long does the story take place in ‘real’ time?

Setting
 Where does the action take place?
 When and how does the setting change?
 How could you tell where the story was taking
place?
 How could you tell when the story was taking
place?

Sound
 How many different sounds do you hear? What are
they?
 How does the music make you feel?
 Are there any moments of silence?
 Can you hear any sound effects?

Paintings and Photographs: See, Think, Wonder

The See, Think, Wonder routine is one of the Visible Thinking Routines developed by
researcher-educators for Project Zero at Harvard University. This routine helps students
make careful observations and develop their own ideas and interpretations based on
what they see when viewing a painting or photograph by asking these three questions.
 What do you see?
 What do you think about what you see?
 What does it make you wonder?
By separating the two questions – ‘What do you see?’ and ‘What do you think about
what you see?’ – the routine helps students distinguish between observations and
interpretations. By encouraging students to wonder and ask questions, the routine
stimulates students’ curiosity and helps students reach for new connections.

Watch the video to see to see the See, Think, Wonder routine being put into practice with secondary school
students:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qng_jR05xEI&list=FLYvTGljpRx7DFga8C19WhTg&index=24&t=149s

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The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS)

The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) approach was co-developed by Abigail
Housen and Philip Yenawine 30 years ago. It finds meaning in imagery and develops
visual literacy skills through learning in the arts, fostering thinking and communication
skills through listening carefully and expressing oneself. The approach works in the
following way:

 Students silently examine carefully selected art images

 The teacher asks these three open-ended questions
 What’s going on in this picture?
 What do you see that makes you say that?
 What more can we find?

 Students then …
 Look carefully at the image
 Talk about what they observe
 Back up their ideas with evidence
 Listen and consider the views of
others
 Discuss many possible interpretations
 Construct meaning together

 The teacher …
 Listens carefully to each comment
 Paraphrases student responses demonstrating language use
 Points to features described in the artwork throughout the discussion
 Facilitates student discussions
 Encourages scaffolding of observations and
interpretations
 Validates individual views
 Links related ideas and points of
agreement/disagreement
 Reinforces a range of ideas

Watch these videos to see the Visual Thinking Strategies approach being put into practice:
https://vimeo.com/201175331

https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of%20Bilash/fourskills.html
http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/teacher-talk/advancing-learning/advancing-
learning-the-fifth-skill-viewing/557577.article

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