Discuss the following questions with your partners. Post your answers below.
Why should we integrate the four skills?
What kind of instruction lends itself to integrating the skills?
What kinds of activities can we use to integrate the skills effectively and meaningfully?
Answer the following questions based on the text "What is the history of reading and writing?" 1) Find examples of fixed expressions, semi-fixed expressions and collocations. 2) Think of a possible teaching context and plan three activities to present the new vocabulary. You may use or adapt any of the sample exercises in chapters 6 and 7. 3) Based on your experience wirking with the text proposed, What would you say are the pros and cons of this approach? Do you agree with the following statement by Thornbury (p.11): "Lewis offers us a prospect of a journey, even an exciting one, but it is a journey without maps". Discuss your answers in pairs.
Teachers should integrate the four skills to help their students develop the use of the language for realistic communication. What's more, it seems to be more motivating because the students are using the language for a real purpose.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of instruction that leads to integrating the skills is related to designing lessons with a wide range of activities linked between each other, in order to develop the four English skills.
In my opinion, the best kind of activities to integrate the skills effectively and meaningfully are those in which the students use the language for real communication or to express their feelings/opinions about a topic. For example, students might be asked to discuss some themes in groups after reading a short story; they could also change the ending, or they could even listen to the author and draw conclusions related to different aspects of the story.
As I have already written in one of my posts, teachers should integrate the four skills within the same lesson. There is no doubt that students will feel really motivated and they will develop/improve their english skills.