Lakhasly

New perspectives on teaching the four skills

The teaching of the four language skills (see Chapter 13.Bottom-up processing depends on language resources - lexico- grammar and phonology (pronunciation) or orthography as aids to the accurate decoding or interpretation, or encoding or realization, of meaningful text.Listeners and readers work to decode and construct meanings and messages, whereas speakers and writers use language resources to encode and express meanings and messages.Top-down processing utilizes shared knowledge, pragmatic knowledge and con- textual information to achieve an appropriate interpretation or realization of textual meanings and messages.Listening.Chapter 14.

New perspectives on teaching the four skills

The teaching of the four language skills (see Chapter 13. Listening. Chapter 14. Speaking and pronunciation, Chapter 15, Reading and Chapter 16, Writing) has long been an important concern in second language pedagogy. Language use inevitably involves one or more of the four skills, thus this text devotes a chapter to each language skill. Although it is useful to give attention to the unique sub-skills and strategies associated with cach skill, it is also important to consider the overlaps in mode (oral versus written) and process (receptive versus productive):

Oral

Written

Receptive

LISTENING

READING

Productive

WRITING

SPEAKING

Furthermore, each skill may usefully be described in terms of the top-down and bottom-up processing required. Listeners and readers work to decode and construct meanings and messages, whereas speakers and writers use language resources to encode and express meanings and messages. These meanings and messages occur at the level of text or discourse; thus, discourse analysis is highly relevant to understanding the four skills. Top-down processing utilizes shared knowledge, pragmatic knowledge and con- textual information to achieve an appropriate interpretation or realization of textual meanings and messages. Bottom-up processing depends on language resources - lexico- grammar and phonology (pronunciation) or orthography as aids to the accurate decoding or interpretation, or encoding or realization, of meaningful text.