1. Topic 3: Development of the FOUR BASIC LINGUISTIC SKILLS: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Communicative Competence in English. Isabel Catalán Sancho ©

2. Index: 1.Introduction. 2.Development of the linguistic skills 3.The four linguistic skills 3.1. Oral Skills: 3.1.1. Listening. 3.1.2. Speaking. 3.2. Written Skills: 3.2.1. Reading. 3.2.2. Writing. 4.Communicative Competence: Theoretical and Practical View. 5.Pedagogical conclusion. 6. Bibliography.

3. 1. Introduction: In order to master a language, we need to understand their native speakers and also to make ourselves understood. It involves being able to encode oral and written messages (speaking and writing) and to decode oral and written messages (listening and reading). But even so, we will not be able to communicate efficiently, if we do not acquire a basic communicative competence. Significance. Law. Communicative competence adn Approach. Attention to diversity. Based on this view….

4. 2. Development of the linguistic skills. Learning a language in Primary Education has a practical objective: to be able to communicate. Therefore, the four linguistic skills must be taught from a communicative point of view: students must have a reason for listening, speaking, reading or writing. Linguistic Skills ReceptiveProductive Oral1 st Listening2 nd Speaking Written3 rd Reading4 th Writing

5. 2. Development of the linguistic skills. -Activities: LCA & methodological principles. -Materials: varied, comprehensible, graded, in context. -Integrating the skills: everyday life. -Varied groupings (Byrne) & Cooperative structures (Kagan).

6. 3. The four linguistic skills. 3.1 ORAL SKILLS: Characteristics of Oral language: Speech is dynamic, transitory and interactive. When speaking, a wide range of devices to help convey meaning can be used: stress, intonation, rhythm, pitch, facial expressions, body movements, gestures... These elements are related to non-verbal language and they have a key role in the reception and production of oral skills. The grammatical structures used are usually not as complex as those used in the written language. Spoken language contains many incomplete sentences, because mistakes, pauses and hesitations are seen as a normal part of spoken language.

7. 3.1.1 Listening: -First SKILL to acquire. -Segmental features – SOUNDS and the suprafegmental features – STRESS, RHYTHM and INTONATION. Discriminate. T.9. -Steps: -Background/previous knowledge to predict. -Identify the important/relevant parts. -Strategies: Identifying the topic or main idea. Working out the message. Listening for global understanding (gist), which is also called extensive listening. Listening for specific sounds, words, facts, information or details within a context, which is also called intensive listening. -COMPREHENSION = GUESSING GAME.

8. 3.1.1 Listening: According to Rixon, when planning a lesson to work fundamentally on the listening skill we should follow this scheme: First the pre- listening activity, which prepares the student for the activity. Then the while- listening activity, where the students have to carry out a task while listening. E.g. Listen and do, listen and colour, listen and make, listen and repeat, listen and answer, listen and find, listen and sing, listen and complete, listen and play, listen and say, listen and follow the instructions... And to end the post- listening activity, where the student will have to do something related to the task performed before, during this activity another skill is worked on.

9. 3.1.2 Speaking: Pronunciation is the first and most important aspect that native speakers notice during a conversation. Knowing grammar and vocabulary is important but useless if the speaker is unable to pronounce those structures or words correctly. ( T. 9) STAGES: – Imitation: Drills. – Practice: Controlled: No mistakes allowed. Guided: with variations. – Production: Fluency & coherence.

10. 3. The four linguistic skills. 3.2 WRITTEN SKILLS. Characteristics of Written language: Writing is static and permanent. This allows more time for its preparation and promotes careful organization. Writing has unique graphic features (spelling, punctuation) that make it more difficult to learn than oral language. Written language demands more correction than spoken language. Sentences are expected to be carefully constructed, linked and organized. It tends to be more formal than spoken language. There is no interaction, in general, between the writer and the reader. Therefore, there is no immediate feedback. For this reason, clarity is essential.

11. 3.2.1 Reading Reading has similar features to listening, but it involves the recognition of graphemes instead of phonetics, this implies that sound-grapheme relationships must be worked on in our lessons. It is more complex than listening. STAGES: – First we read mechanically, only identifying words. – Then we start to understand meaning that is when reading comprehension takes place. – And finally we interpret the text as we adopt a critical attitude or opinion towards it.

12. 3.2.1 Reading STRATEGIES our students have to acquire are similar to the ones used when listening, the main difference is, that when we are reading for general understanding, extensive reading, it is called skimming and when we are reading for specific information, intensive reading, it is called scanning. A lesson to work fundamentally on reading should also be divided in: pre-reading, while-reading and post- reading. There are two main approaches to teach reading in English: Look and say (picture + word) and Phonics. (T.8) In our English lessons we can use many different types of texts, authentic and adapted. (T.23)

13. 3.2.2 Writing: Writing in English must not be seen merely as transcribed speech, since the sounds of the language do not correspond exactly to the letters of the alphabet. Therefore, as said before sound-grapheme relationships need to be worked on in the English-classroom. When we write we use graphic symbols, which are related to the sounds we make when we speak. These symbols are arranged following certain rules to make words that will be organised to make sentences, which will be linked and put in order in different ways. Writing is difficult, even in our mother tongue, and it's even more difficult when trying not to make grammatical mistakes, spelling errors…

14. 3.2.2 Writing: STAGES: Same as when speaking, first they need to copy or imitate, then practise in a controlled or guided way and finally produce freely. To a real person. Five skill areas are important for written expression: 1.Mechanics: the writer’s handwriting. 2.Production: able to generate. 3.Conventions: Rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. 4.Linguistics: It consists in the ability to use varied vocabulary and correct grammar and syntax. 5.Cognition: It refers to the organizational aspect. It has to do with cohesion, coherence and logic.

15. 3.2.2 Writing: Activities where our students have to use writing skills can be classified in the following way: Personal writing: diaries, recipes, shopping lists, notes. Social writing: emails, postcards, letters, invitations. Study writing: summaries, outlines, schemes, exams. Creative writing: poetry, riddles, songs, stories. Writing activities should have a communicative purpose and a target audience.

16. 4. The COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: Theoretical and Practical View. According to the Communicative Approach, the four skills must be worked on at the same time, but not to the same extent. Chomsky used the term linguistic competence to explain the ability to create grammatically correct sentences. However this is not enough to be able to communicate, a communicative competence is required; which is the ability to use and interpret language appropriately in a variety of situations. The term communicative competence was formulated by Hymes in the 1960s, as he took into account the social component of language and important information about the rules of use. He included four aspects: possibility, appropriancy, feasibility and performance.

17. 4. The COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: Theoretical and Practical View. According to Canale and Swain, communicative competence includes four areas or sub-competences: Grammatical competence: the ability to use the rules and the structures of the language in a practical way. Discursive competence: the ability to relate and combine grammatical forms, in order to achieve coherent texts. Strategic competence: the ability to make appropriate adjustments in the course of communication. Sociolinguistics competence: the capacity to adapt or discourse to specific communication. Another sub competence was added later by the Council of Europe, the sociocultural competence. It is understood as a certain degree of familiarity with the social and cultural context in which the target language is used.

18. 4. The COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: Theoretical and Practical View. HOW, as teachers, we can facilitate our students' acquisition of the communicative competence in the classroom, bearing in mind the communicative Approach: – Teacher’s role. – Language. – Task and activities. – Evaluation. Principles: – From the beginning, through non- verbal and verbal language. – The development of the four skills is necessary to be communicatively competent. – Interaction. – Others' response to them depend on their own responses.

19. 4. The COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: Theoretical and Practical View. IMPORTANT: ADD ESSENTIAL PARAGRAPH RELATED TO KEY COMPETENCES IN THIS POINT.

20. 5. PEDAGOGICAL CONCLUSION: Once we have studied the most important aspects related to this topic, we can draw several conclusions. The most important conclusion is that the more a teacher knows about the different aspects that take part when learning a language, the better he or she will teach. Knowing how the four skills work and that they should be used in an interactive way, enables the teacher to plan more efficiently as she or he will know with what he or she has to deal with. The communicative competence is an aspect that we cannot forget about, since it is our main objective for our students to communicate and to achieve a performance. In real life, our students will have to use English when they travel to different countries and in other situations, so it is our responsibility to expose them to a variety of input and output, so they get used to using them in all types of situations. I would like to point out that " Language is interaction; it is an interpersonal activity and most of all it has a clear relationship with society" ( Firth, 1984). To sum up, the four language skills should be developed along with oral interaction in an integrating way under a communicative approach. Since the main aim of the communicative approach is to help our students acquire communicative competence.