Teach English in Beizhan Jiedao - Shanghai Shi

Integrated SkillsIt is common and often necessary for english teachers to distinguish the macro skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) and numerous related micro-skills, then design courses or lessons revolving around one separate skill depending on the student?s weakness, objective, specific need, or something entirely different such as the availability of time and resources, and even their personal inclination or forte in teaching. Other reasons for teaching language skills separately include avoiding information overload in the classroom, maintaining organization of materials and activities, and focusing on quality rather than quantity by providing students more time to internalize each separate lesson more effectively. However, in real-life communication, our receptive skills (reading and listening) are naturally integrated with our productive skills (speaking and writing). For instance, in a conversation, we listen to something being spoken and then we respond by using speech. When making a report, we read written information, then we convey our thoughts in writing. In the classroom, even when focusing on one macro skill, at least one other distinct skill is inevitably integrated. An illustration of this would be that of students who speak in response to the teacher's written questions (thereby combining speaking with reading), or summarize a written passage through writing, again combining a receptive skill with a productive skill. When language skills are integrated in class, lessons become dynamic, and more meaningful and applicable for students. For these reasons, it is advisable for language teachers to incorporate integrated skills teaching into their courses. One effective strategy for language skills integration is content-based teaching. In this method, students attempt to combine the learning of a specific subject matter with the acquisition of language skills. In other words, in a content-based integrated skills class, the focus is in absorbing knowledge and skills in a particular subject?for instance, business or technology?as much as, or more than, the examination of language forms and structures. Still another way to understand the method is that in content-based, integrated skills teaching, english is simply the medium to impart content (knowledge, skills, information) in a specific subject area. This form of teaching is also called theme-based or topic based instruction. It has established benefits in relation to integrated skills building. Firstly, a topic-based class taps on the intrinsic motivation of students by leading them to learn language used in their university majors or in their line of work. It also develops their communicative ability as it emphasizes the pragmatic use of the language, going beyond just the classroom analysis and discourse of its components. This kind of learning encourages authentic language production among the students, since they are constantly in situations that let them experience the language, not just study it. Field trips, volunteer work, simulations and role-plays, and cross-cultural activities are all activities that involve experiential language learning. More important in light of skills integration, in any content or theme based class, the language produced by the students, as well as the presentation of the lesson by the teacher, will have to combine the four macro skills in a variety of ways such as reading to writing, listening to writing, or either reading or listening to speaking. Another feature of theme-based instruction is the emphasis on the accomplishment of language tasks as the central objective of lessons. These tasks require the integration and application of macro and micro skills in order to produce meaningful and purposeful language in actual communication. Examples of language tasks that might be included in such a class are lessons that involve the students in information exchange (discussion, debate and conversation); asking for and giving directions or instructions; researching, composing, and delivering speeches; and others. Finally, as an example of a content or theme based lesson that calls for the integration of language skills, the teacher conducts a lesson based on the specific theme of 'Environmental Issues.? Using statistics, facts, and other published sources that the students have to grasp through reading and listening, they formulate and put down in writing their arguments regarding the assigned issues. They then engage in a classroom debate that would call all their major language skills into action.