LAS Input Session 11: Integrating Skills
Running Dictation
“The integrated-skill approach exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the language.
It stresses that English is not just an object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination.
It promotes the learning of real content, not just the dissection of language forms.
It can be highly motivating to students of all ages and backgrounds.”
– Evelio Elías Orellana Orellana
(The Importance of Integrating Skills in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language)
What variations can we make to this activity?
We can use either a full text or sentences cut up (which can then be reordered afterwards).
Different pairs have different texts/parts of a text.
Small groups with more roles (groups of 3+ can have somebody who listens and draws, another can be an editor, cheerleader etc.).
Listening to the teacher/other student (outside the classroom perhaps) instead of reading.
It could be taken from a reading task or the transcript from a listening exercise (and used as a lead-in to another activity/homework etc.).
Students can take it in turns to be the runner (and therefore practise all 4 skills).
What do we mean by integrating skills?
Simple ideas that integrate multiple skills
“The integrated-skill approach exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to interact naturally in the language.
It stresses that English is not just an object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination.
It promotes the learning of real content, not just the dissection of language forms.
It can be highly motivating to students of all ages and backgrounds.”
Simple ideas that integrate multiple skills
Running dictation
Chinese Whispers/Broken Telephone Game.
Consequences/Group story writing.
All about me introductions
Information gap pairwork.
Example: All about me introductions
Students write a short introduction (50 words) about themselves on a piece of paper. Include things like where they are from, their likes and dislikes etc.
They don’t include their names.
Collect the papers and redistribute at random. Students read out the information while the others listen.
The students should then guess who they think it is about.
Once they’ve figured out who it is, the students can mingle and ask further questions about each other based on what they heard.
Integrating Skills: Task 1 (Opinion Dictation)
As the video starts, consider what the activity might involve.
As the video continues, consider which skills are being practised.
Combining Reading & Writing Skills
To combine reading and writing skills, summarize a text in a set amount of words.
This enables the learner to articulate wording and paraphrase accordingly. After finishing the summary, incorporate a peer correction stage by providing a short criteria sheet for learners to assess their partners.
Combining Listening, Writing & Speaking Skills
Use a quiz or a survey to include listening and writing skills in a speaking task.
The students can generate their own questions using the target language / structures taught, and then you can have them ask and answer while recording their partner’s answers.
Learners are focusing on question forms, rising and falling intonation, note-taking skills as well as listening to each other.
Integrating Skills: Task 2 (Drawing Dictation)
Watch this simple but very effective activity to practise listening and speaking skills.
This activity could be extended further to practise reading and writing skills. Students (either individually or in pairs) write a short description of a picture, which another student (or pair) reads and then draws the picture described. Their pictures are then compared to the originals.
Integrating Skills: Task 3 (Text Book Activities)
Take a text book!
- choose any unit/chapter
- make a list of the activities in the order they appear
- for each activity make a note of the main aim:
- develop a skill and/or sub-skill (SK)
- provide context for new language (CO)
- analyse new language (AN)
- practise new language (PR)
Consider the skills being practised in these activities.
Could other skills be integrated?
Pause & Ponder
Key questions to ask yourself when looking at any activity in a book:
Which skills can I exploit from this activity?
How can I integrate additional skills?
How can I encourage more engagement from it?
