Integrated Language Skills

What is teaching integrated language skills?
Integrated language skills are the combination of four interrelated language skills: reading, speaking, writing and listening. Teaching integrated language skills is the process of teaching a language by integrating the four interrelated language skills. In other words, teacher can use a whole language approach to teach integrated language skills. It will allow teachers to link each skill to another.



Why are we teaching integrated language skills?
It is important to teach integrated language skills since it brings some benefits to students. By teaching four interrelated skills, students will get better input of the use of each skill. It can gives students greater motivation that converts to better retention of principles of effective speaking, listening, reading and writing. In addition to it, students can have a chance to diversify their efforts in more meaningful tasks.

When do we teach integrated language skills?
Teaching integrated language skill can be done in situation within a communicative or interactive framework. Communicative or interactive situation will allows students to learn the language skills since it requires them to sending and receiving the message to their peers and teachers.

How to teach integrated language skills?
We can teach integrated language skills by using these following five models:

1. Content-Based Instruction
   This teaching integrates the learning of some specific subject-matters content with the learning of a second language. Learners are focused on very useful, practical objectives as the subject matter is perceived to be relevant to long-term goals.

2. Theme-Based Instruction
   This teaching provides an alternative to teach four language skills by structuring a course around themes or topics. It helps students to focus on the content. It can also engage their curiosity and increase their motivation. Moreover, they get better understanding since the content will be presented from simple to complex.

3. Experiential Learning
   This learning includes activities that engage students both left- and right-brain processing that contextualize language, that integrates skills, and that point toward authentic, real-world purposes. In this learning, students are given opportunity to use language as they grapple with the problem-solving complexities of a variety of concrete experiences. As the result of it, they will be directly involved in the creative process of fashioning their own products.

4. The Episode Hypothesis
   The episode hypothesis is teaching the language by structured the materials episodically. This hypothesis believes that learning a language will be easy if the materials present in an easily followed storyline. It helps students to understand the language systematically.

5. Task-Based Instruction
   This teaching focused on teaching the language by giving meaningful tasks that directly linked to the goals that want to be achieved. Students are given tasks that related to real-world activities.