Language Skill Integration

Context is a main point in Chapter 9 because language needs to be contextualized to make sense. Kuma talks about linguistic, extralinguistc, situational, and extrasituational realities. Which one should educators put the most emphasis on? The linguistic context teaches that words have different meanings in different contexts (such as “table”). The extralinguistic context says that emphasis allows attention to be drawn to certain parts of sentences and intonation lets the listener know the difference between a statement and a question. Intonation should be stressed for ELLs. I have a hard time understanding some of my ELI students because when they say something, but it sounds like a statement when it is meant to be a question. The situational contexts allows for meaning in certain places. Statements don’t make sense if they are out of place. Lastly, the extrasituational context talks about being culturally sensitive and knowing the culture of the people around you. One of my international students told me about a time in which she was describing her husband as fat to someone and they looked offended. She then learned that it is not socially acceptable to say that in America. However, in Saudi Arabia, she says that to describe him, not insult him. Therefore, teachers need to make sure that their ELL students are mindful of the setting.

Chapter 10 is about integrating language skills and not teaching reading, writing, speaking, and listening separately. Audiolingualists recommended a sequence of listening, speaking, reading, then writing because that is how children acquire language. They obviously did not consider that all language learners are not children and that people learn different skills at different times. It is important that the skills are integrated because learning and using any single skill can trigger cognitive and communicative associations with others. It’s like killing 4 birds with 1 stone. I do this as much as possible in my ELI classes. For example, this week we talked about Halloween. I first accessed the prior knowledge of my students and asked them what they knew about the holiday (speaking and listening), then I introduced vocabulary for a paragraph that were going to read (listening). They then read the paragraph and summarized two facts that they learned (reading and writing) to share their new knowledge with the class (speaking and listening).

Brown’s Chapter 17 not only talked about the importance of integrating skills, but also models of integration: content-, task-, and theme-based instruction. Of these three, I mostly utilize theme-based in my teaching at the ELI. Because my course is about the everyday skills of English, I have more flexibility in my teaching. For example, my students have formally debated the pros and cons of social media and written personal opinion essays. They also engage in experiential learning by ordering and interacting with restaurant staff, and using teamwork and communication to carve a pumpkin as a class. It is necessary to have a variety of skills and methods in instruction to keep learners engaged and to cater to their different learning needs.