The 4 Language Skills

The 4 Language Skills

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write. These are called the four "language skills":

• Skill #1: Listening
• Skill #2: Speaking
• Skill #3: Reading
• Skill #4: Writing

The four language skills are related to each other in two ways:

• the direction of communication (in or out)
• the method of communication (spoken or written)

Input is sometimes called "reception" and output is sometimes called "production". Spoken is also known as "oral".

Note that these four language skills are sometimes called the "macro-skills". This is in contrast to the "micro-skills", which are things like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling.

Tips For Supporting English Learners In General Education Classroom

Classrooms across the United States are becoming increasingly diverse with increasing numbers of students whose primary home languages are not English. State-reported data in 2008-09 estimated 10 percent of the US school-aged population (PreK-twelfth grade) as students identified as limited English proficient. Terms more widely accepted and used are English-Language Learners or simply English Learners (ELs).

To adequately assist ELs in learning both content concepts and English simultaneously, all educators need to view themselves as language teachers. Here are 10 tips for supporting ELs in general education classrooms.

1. Know your students

Increase your understanding of who your students are, their backgrounds and educational experiences. If your students have been in US schools for several years and/or were educated in their country of origin, are literate or not in their native language, may provide you with a better understanding of their educational needs and ways to support them.

2. Be aware of their social and emotional needs

Understanding more about the students' families and their needs is key. When ELs have siblings to care for afterschool, possibly live with extended family members or have jobs to help support their families, completing homework assignments will not take priority.

3. Increase your understanding of first and second language acquisition

Although courses about second language acquisition are not required as part of teacher education programs, understanding the theories about language acquisition and the variables that contribute to language learning may help you reach your ELs more effectively.

4. Student need to SWRL every day in every class

The domains of language acquisition, Speaking, Writing, Reading and Listening need to be equally exercised across content areas daily. Assuring that students are using all domains of language acquisition to support their English language development is essential.

5. Increase your understanding of English language proficiency

Social English language proficiency and academic English language proficiency are very different. A student may be more proficient in one vs. the other. A student's level of academic English may be masked by a higher level of Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) compared to their Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). For example, a student may be able to orally recall the main events from their favorite movie but struggle to recall the main events that led up to the Civil War.

6. Know the language of your content

English has a number of polysemous words. Once a student learns and understands one meaning of a word, other meaning may not be apparent. Review the vocabulary of your content area often and check in with ELs to assure they know the words and possibly the multiple meanings associated with the words. For example, a "plot" of land in geography class versus the "plot" in a literature class. A "table" we sit at versus a multiplication "table."

7. Understand language assessments

Language proficiency assessments in your district may vary. Find out when and how a student's English language proficiency is assessed and the results of those assessments. Using the results of formal and informal assessments can provide a wealth of information to aid in planning lessons that support language acquisition and content knowledge simultaneously.

8. Use authentic visuals and manipulatives

These can be over- or under-utilized. Implement the use of authentic resources for example; menus, bus schedules, post-cards, photographs and video clips can enhance student comprehension of complex content concepts.

9. Strategies that match language proficiency

Knowing the level of English language proficiency at which your students are functioning academically is vital in order to be able to scaffold appropriately. Not all strategies are appropriate for all levels of language learners. Knowing which scaffolds are most appropriate takes time but will support language learning more effectively.

10. Collaborate to celebrate

Seek support from other teachers who may teach ELs. Other educators, novice and veteran, may have suggestions and resources that support English language development and content concepts. Creating and sustaining professional learning communities that support ELs are vital for student success.

Sentence Combining

Sentence Combining

            In writing, we are introduced about combining sentences. Combining sentence encourages a writer to take two or more short, copy sentences, and combine them into one effective sentence. By learning this skill, students can improve their writing style. Furthermore, it can develop over several short practice sessions and should be considered as a part of an overall writing program. Sentence combining gives students practice in manipulating a variety of basic sentence structure.

            As the method of teaching writing, sentence combining grew out of studies in transformational-generative grammar and was popularized in the 1970s by researchers and teachers such as Frank O’Hare (Sentence-Combining: Improving Student Writing Without Formal Instruction, 1971) and William Strong (Sentence Combining: A Composing Book, 1973). Around the same time, interest in sentence combining was heightened by other emerging sentence-level pedagogies, especially the “generative rhetoric of the sentence” advocated by Francis and Bonniejean Christensen (A New Rhetoric, 1976).

            Despite appearances, the goal of sentence combining is not to produce longer sentences but rather to develop more effective sentences and to help students become more versatile writers. 

Why use sentence combining?

·         It teaches students to make a variety of sentences in their writing.

·         It helps students to improve the overall quality of the writing by increasing the amount and quality of the revision.

·         The process encourages interesting word choices and transition words.

How to use sentence combining?

            Students should be guided by the teacher through the sentence combining process. When the teacher introduces the skill, begin by asking students to combine two sentences. Then, move to using three or more sentences once students have more experience. The sentences are provided by the teacher, so students only learn to combine sentences within their own writing.    Generally, sentence combining is used by cutting out the needless repetition and adding a few conjunctions, we can combine those sentences into a single, more coherent sentence.

Sadler (2005) provides a possible sequence of sentence combining exercises. A few of the steps are listed here:

Ø  Inserting adjectives and adverbs

Example:        

The girl drank lemonade.

The girl was thirsty.

(The thirsty girl drank lemonade)

Ø  Producing compound subject and objects

Example:

The book was good.

The movie was good.

(The book and the movie were good)

Ø  Producing compound sentences using conjunctions

The weather was perfect.

The boys were playing soccer.

(The weather was perfect and the boys were playing soccer)

            In fact, when we learn about writing process, we have to know how to make the sentence be more effective by combining the sentence. It is so important, because there are countless ways to construct sentences, the goal is not to find the one “correct” combination but to consider different arrangements before deciding which one is the most effective.