INTEGRATING THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS (Part.2)

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Experiential Learning
Yet another lens through which we could view the concept of integrated skills is the notion of experiential language learning. Experiential learning includes activities that engage both left- and right-brain processing, that contextualize language, that integrate skills, and that point toward authentic, real-world purposes. Experiential learning offers a dimension that may not necessarily be implied in the three concepts (content-based, task-based, themebased) already discussed. What experiential learning highlights for us is giving students
concrete experiences through which they "discover" language principles (even if subconsciously) by trial and error, by processing feedback, by building hypotheses about language, and by revising these assumptions in order to become fluent (Eyring, 1991, p.347). That is, teachers do not simply tell students about how language works; instead, they give students opportunities to use language as they grapple with the problem-solving complexities of a variety of concrete experiences.
Experiential learning implies a direct encounter with the subject matter or topic being studied rather than simply reading or talking about it. Usually there is some physical involvement in the phenomenon as well. Experiential learning is not so much a novel concept as it is an emphasis on the marriage of two substantive principles of effective learning, principles espoused by the famous American educator John Dewey:
a. one learns best by "doing," by active experimentation, and
b. inductive learning by discovery activates strategies that enable students to "take charge" of their own learning progress.

INTEGRATING THE FOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS (Part.1)

For more than six decades now, research and practice in English language teaching has identified the "four skills" — listening, speaking, reading, and writing – as of paramount importance. ESL curricula and textbooks around the world tend to focus, all too often, on just one of the four skills , sometimes to the exclusion of the others. Books, articles, anthologies, research surveys, and conferences typically index or organize their contents according to each of the four skills.

It is perfectly appropriate to thus identify language performance. The human race has fashioned two forms of productive performance, oral and written, and two forms of receptive performance, aural (or auditory) and reading. There are, of course, offshoots of each mode. Lumped together under nonverbal communication are various visually perceived messages delivered through gestures, facial expressions, proximity, and so forth. Graphic art (drawings, paintings, and diagrams) is also a powerful form of communication. But attention to the four different skills does indeed pay off as learners of a second language discover the differences and interrelationships among these four primary modes of performance.