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Tema 3. DESARROLLO DESARROLLO DE LAS DESTREZAS LINGÜÍSTICAS. COMPRENSIÓN Y EXPRESIÓN ORAL. COMPRENSIÓN Y EXPRESIÓN ESCRITA. LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA EN INGLÉS. In order to master a language, we need to understand its native speakers and also to make ourselves understood. This involves being able to encode (speaking and writing) and decode (listening and reading) both oral and written messages. messages. Thus, in order order to communicate communicate efectively, efectively, communicative communicative competence competence is essential. Since the 1!"#s, the belie$ that language is a means o$ communication has Commu!"a#!$e #!$e A%%&oa"'. inspired a new approach in %nglish teaching& the Commu!"a 'ue to its inuence, nowadays language is taught and learnt in a very practical way in the classroom and students practise the $our basic skills $rom a communicative point o$ view. ased on this view, the present essay aims to (#u)* ! )e#a!+ #'e ,ou&
-a(!" (!++( o, +a/ua/e0 1'!"' a&e +!(#e!/0 (%ea!/0 &ea)!/ a) 1&!#!/. *or this purpose, the topic will be divided into three main sections. sections. In the +rst part, we will deal with the spoken word as as well as the development o$ listening and speaking skills in students when learning a language. In the second part, we will eamine the written word , so that reading and writing skills will be analysed. In the third part, we will discuss the importance o$ integrating skills in order to develop the communicative competence , which is the main ob-ective o$ * according to LOMCE 245630 De"em-e& 7 #'. /e deal with an essential topic since success$ul communication, which is the basis o$ understanding among human beings, depends on communicative competence and the mastery of the four linguistic skills. skills. In addition, The 8o&e!/ La/ua/e Cu&&!"u+um $or 0rimary %ducation emphasies the signi+cance o$ this topic by including in its ob-ectives, blocks o$ contents and assessment assessment criteria the development o$ listening, speaking, reading and writing with a communicative purpose as well as paying attention to the components o$ communicative competence such as the use o$ strategies, strategies , linguistic and linguistic and socio-cultural aspects, aspects, etc. FIRST earning earning a language in 0rimary %ducation has a practical ob-ective& to be able to communicate. In order to use a language efectively, we need to combine diferent abilities or skills. /e can identi$y $our ma-or skills when using a language to communicate& listening, speaking, reading and writing. 2ccording 2ccording to 9e&em* :a&me&, these ma-or skills can be classi+ed according to the medium and the activity o$ the speaker. In this way, speaking and listening are said to relate to language epressed through the aural medium whereas reading and writing are said to relate to language epressed through the visual medium. medium. I$ we classi$y these skills according to the activity o$ the participants, speaking and writing are said to be productive be productive skills skills since they demand some kind o$ production on the part o$ the language user, whereas listening and reading are receptive skills, receptive skills, since the language l anguage user is receiving oral or written language. language. In order to achieve a proper learning, it is convenient to take into account some %&!"!%+e(, so that children learn in a natural way& not speaking be$ore 1
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listening, not reading be$ore speaking and not writing be$ore reading. 3ne o$ the reasons to $ollow this se4uence is that the mother tongue is learnt in this way. 2ccording to the Commu!"a#!$e A%%&oa"', the $our skills must be worked on at the same time, but not to the same etent. 5eading and writing are abstract activities, and children are not mature enough to deal with abstract concepts. There$ore, they must be reached at the end o$ 0rimary %ducation and that is why LOMCE 245630 De"em-e& 7#'. has kept this in mind and emphasies oral skills over written skills in 0rimary %ducation. 2$ter eplaining how the $our skills are classi+ed, we will go on developing each skill separately. In order to do so, we will $ollow 9e&em* :a&me&6s medium classi+cation. /e will provide a de+nition o$ each skill and its main principles, as well as the strategies and the stages which must be $ollowed to carry out the activities in which these skills may be involved. *irst, we will deal with the analysis o$ the skills epressed through the aural medium via (%oe 1o&)(. et us start with the +!(#e!/ skill. Listening can be dened as the ability to understand and respond to spoken language. This is an essential skill and it provides the aural input that serves as the basis $or language ac4uisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication. 7owever, $ar $rom passively receiving and recording aural input, listening activities involve the listeners actively in the interpretation o$ what they hear, bringing their own linguistic and background knowledge to bear with the in$ormation contained in the aural tet. 2ccording to Do ;*&e, it is important to remember that, as in mother tongue ac4uisition, 8a learners ability to understand language needs to be more e!tensive than his ability to produce language" .
a) b) c) d) e) $)
et us go on eamining the main principles which should be $ollowed in order to achieve suitable and bene+cial teaching9learning listening activities& They must have denite goals, care$ully stated. They should be constructed with care$ul step by step planning. They should demand active participation $rom the student. They should stress conscious memory #ork . They should teach, not test. They should have a communicative purpose&
a) b) c) d) e) $)
2part $rom these principles, listening strategies are another key element when dealing with the listening skill. These are techni$ues that contribute directly to the comprehension and help the #ay in #hich input is received. Since listening is not a passive hearing o$ sounds but a comple and active process, teachers must train students in& Identi$ying the topic. 0redicting and guessing in$ormation using their prior knowledge. In$erring the meaning $rom contet. istening $or global understanding (listening $or gist). istening $or speci+c in$ormation. istening $or detailed in$ormation. The Commu!"a#!$e A%%&oa"' and the Lea&e&<"e#&e) A%%&oa"' emphasie the a"#!$e &o+e o, #'e +ea&e& . There$ore, lessons must be planned
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in a way that ensures children#s involvement in classroom activities. 2 listening lesson, in order to be efective, must $ollows : stages, which are& < P&e<+!(#e!/ stage& It is a preparatory phase. The a!m o$ the activities carried out at this stage is to prepare students for #hat they are going to hear and create e!pectation. This can be achieved through a"#!$!#!e( such as predicting content $rom a title, commenting on pictures or photographs, asking $or the students# opinion on the topic, pre9teaching key words (vocabulary) and grammar eercises, among others.
< ='!+e<+!(#e!/ stage& The a!m o$ the activities carried out at this stage is to develop listening strategies and keep the students active. These tasks can be either etensive or intensive listenings. 3n the one hand, in e>#e(!$e +!(#e!/ activities, global understanding is encouraged, $or eample& matching pictures, se4uencing a story, answering 4uestions, $ollowing instructions (listen and colour, listen and do...). These activities are appropriate $or the +rst levels. 3n the other hand, !#e(!$e +!(#e!/ activities are tasks that re4uire a speci+c search $or in$ormation o$ any kind (sounds, words, intonation patterns, etc.) as well as dictations, gap9+lling activities, +nding diferences between two versions o$ a story, etc.
< Po(#<+!(#e!/ stage& The a!m o$ the activities carried out at this stage is to check comprehension and evaluate. *ollowing on the listening passage, a lot o$ activities are possible& etending lists, summarising, matching with a reading tet, per$orming role plays, practise pronunciation, vocabulary and structures $rom the tet, etc. 2$ter having eplained the listening skill, we will go on to address the (%ea!/ (!++. S%ea!/ can be de+ned as the ability to communicate in speech% #hich has to be appropriate to specic conte!ts. The main aim o$ oral production is to speak uently, that is to say, the speaker should be able to epress his ideas with clarity, correction and without too much hesitation. In order to achieve this ob-ective, the student should go $rom the initial stage o$ imitation to the +nal stage o$ $ree production. ;evertheless, there are o$ten silent periods which cannot be interpreted as learning absence. 2ccording to S#e%'e ?&a('e, the ability to speak &uently comes #ith time% after the ac$uirer has built up a certain linguistic competence by understanding the input . In addition, errors are normal, because as C'om(* states, they are positive evidence that learning is taking place. It is important to bear in mind that speaking involves three areas of knowledge & 9
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< P&a"#!"e@ The students can practice in pairs the verbal $orm already presented. These activities will be controlled by the teacher although some variation is allowed. There are two levels within this stage& 3n the one hand, there is "o#&o++e) %&a"#!"e , in which students will use correct and simple language within a situation or contet per$orming activities like telling the time looking at a clock or asking 4uestions about pictures. 3n the other hand, there is /u!)e) %&a"#!"e, which will o$ten be done either in pairs or small groups, per$orming activities like practicing a model dialogue with possible variations or making surveys.
< P&o)u"#!o@ This is the most genuine communicative stage as the students will have to put in practice in a creative way all he has learnt, without the teacher6s control. In this stage, the development o$ the discursive competence, that is, coherence and uency, will take place. 2t this stage communicative activities take place and the range is endless& playing card games, giving mini9talks, role9 play, problem9solving, drama...
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3nce reading in %nglish has been considered, we will $ocus on how to write in %nglish. =&!#!/ skill is more than the production of graphic symbols% as symbols have to be arranged according to certain conventions. 2ccording to Ma##'e1( , we may distinguish $e (u-(!++( related to writing& graphic skills% that is writing words correctly including aspects such as capitaliation, punctuation and spelling= grammatical skills% the ability to use a variety o$ sentence patterns and constructions, stylistic skills% the ability to epress precise meaning in a variety o$ styles and registers , rethorical skills %the ability to use cohesion devices in order to link parts o$ a tet , organisational skills% writing ideas with coherence and summarie relevant points. /riting correctly in a language re4uires a lot o$ practice and is a slow ability to ac4uire. *or that reason, in 0rimary %ducation it should be done in a guided way. The strategies that a student should learn are, among others, writing words and elementary linguistic $orms correctly, writing appropriately according to the contet and writing with coherence. In the early stages o$ learning %nglish, students will generally write very little. sentences, gap9+lling or dictations. ike many teaching techni4ues that go out o$ $ashion $or a while, dictation is making a comeback, especially due to the revision undertaken by Pau+ Da$!( and Ma&!o R!$o+u"&! , who looked at the sub-ect and $ound dynamic alternatives to the dictation o$ large chunks o$ uninteresting prose by a boring teacher. In addition to these controlled activities, sometimes students will also be encouraged to produce $ree writing, although they will need a lot o$ support.
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*our stages must be $ollowed when teaching to write& Co%*!/ & students copy material provided by the teacher& tets, sentences, etc. ?opying is o$ great pedagogical value because it helps students rein$orce spelling or sentence structure and it also helps them to retain words. Some eamples o$ copying may include listing, classi$ying words into categories, putting lists o$ words in alphabetical order, etc.
P&a"#!"e (#a/e@ It must begin as a guided copying at #ord-level& making a list, a personal dictionary, crosswords, matching labels to pictures, anagrams, then progress to sentence-level& writing speech bubbles $or cartoons, se4uencing sentences and copying, correcting mistakes and +nally, i$ we want our students to write uently, they will have to learn how to write paragraphs. This is commonly done by providing a model $rom which to work, e.g. our students see a tet and then use it as a basis $or their own work. 9e&em* :a&me& calls this eercise parallel #riting".
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P&o)u"#!o (#a/e@ Students will be encouraged to produce writing. 2t this level, this skill will demand sentence, tet structure, organiation o$ ideas@
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TIR+ 2$ter having eamined the spoken and the written word, we will turn to the de+nition o$ integrated skills as well as to the concept o$ communicative competence. I#e/&a#e) (!++( can be de+ned as the process by means of #hich a series of activities or tasks use any combination of the four linguistic skills. I$ we think about how we communicate in everyday li$e, we notice that, in general, we do not use these skills in an isolated way& we combine them. Thus, in the %nglish class, we have to do the same and design activities that integrate several skills.. The integrated9skill approach involves the teaching o$ the language skills in con-unction to each other, and eposes learners to authentic language. Integrating the language skills promotes the learning o$ real content and is highly motivating to students. 2ccording to Do ;*&e, in order to integrate skills, it is essential to use varied groupings when designing integrated activities because they ofer many opportunities $or listening, speaking, reading and writing. Some activities in which skills are integrated are role-play , dictations or project works, which involves some research and some group discussion about the topic until eventually, the students write the +nal product. There$ore, it is very use$ul $or integrating skills
Summing it up, it could be said that skill integration will help to the ac4uisition o$ "ommu!"a#!$e "om%e#e"e . This term was coined by De++ :*me( and it was deliberately contrary to C'om(*6s L!/u!(#!" Com%e#e"e , who tried to eplain how a child learns a language. *or ?homsky, competence simply implied the knowledge o$ the language system. 7ymes maintained that ?homsky6s theory was incomplete, and that a communicative and cultural dimension should be incorporated. 2ccording to him, a speaker does not only need the ability to use grammatical structures, but also to learn how to use those structures in a community (appropriateness). In other words, :*me( stated that in order to learn a language, a native speaker does not only need to utter grammatically correct $orms (as C'om(* thought), he also has to know the rules of use, that is, where and when to use a sentence, and to whom. Thus, 7ymes replaced ?homsky6s notion o$ ?ompetence with his own concept o$ ?ommunicative ?ompetence, and distinguished $our aspects& Systematic potential / 2 native speaker possesses a potential $or creating language. Appropriacy/ 2 native speaker knows what language is appropriate in a given situation, in a particular contet. Occurrence / 2 native speaker knows how o$ten something is said in the language and act accordingly. Feasibility/ 2 native speaker knows whether something is possible in the language, although some structures are grammatically correct, they are not possible in the language. These $our categories have been adopted $or teaching purposes. ater on, linguists ?anale and Swain epanded the previous description o$ 7ymes, establishing +ve subcompetences o$ the ?ommunicative ?ompetence. 2s a result o$ this, the act 1""A>11 o$ 1B th Cune (.3.%. DE Cune) establishes the teaching re4uirements nationwide and sets up that ?ommunicative ?ompetence $or *oreign anguage earners comprises +ve subcompetences& G&amma& "om%e#e"e@ It re$ers to the ability to put into practice the linguistic units according to the rules o$ use established in the linguistic system, 6
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$or instance, the mastery o$ grammatical structures and vocabulary. Students should be able to cope #ith di0culties in phonology% orthography% vocabulary% #ord and sentence formation. D!("ou&(e "om%e#e"e@ The ability to us diferent types o$ discourse and organise them according to the communicative situation and the speakers involved in it, using cohesion and coherence. Students should be able to distinguish the di1erent devices to use in oral and #ritten language. So"!o+!/u!(#!" "om%e#e"e@ The ability to ade4uate the utterances to the speci+c contet according to the accepted usage o$ a particular linguistic community. Students should be able to understand the social conte!t in order to e!press and understand social meanings properly. S#&a#e/!" "om%e#e"e@ The ability to de+ne or make ad-ustments in the course o$ the communicative situation, and the capacity to use verbal and non9 verbal strategies in order to make communication efective. Students should be able to use strategies to cope #ith grammar problems % #ith sociolinguistic di0culties as #ell as #ith discourse di0culties in general. So"!o"u+#u&a+ "om%e#e"e@ 2 certain knowledge o$ the social and cultural contet in which the *oreign anguage is used. Students should get at least some command of the basic social and cultural features of L2 in order to communicate appropriately. Conclusion To conclude, we would like to remark that, as proven in this topic, it is important that the activities and techniues we use in the classroom aim to develop the four skills of language in students so that they can take part in any communicative situation. There$ore, we should try to achieve communicative competence in our students, aiming activities to develop oral and written comprehension (listening and reading skills) and oral and written e!pression (speaking and writing skills). In this topic we have analysed the spoken word as well as the development o$ listening and speaking skills in students when learning a language. Then, we have eamined the written word , and the achievement od the reading and writing skills. *inally, we have discussed the importance o$ integrating skills in order to develop the communicative competence , which is the main ob-ective o$ * according to LOMCE 245630 De"em-e& 7#'.
In order to develop this topic, the $ollowing -!-+!o/&a%'* has been used& 7alliday <.2.F.(
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