English Language Skills

1732 Words7 Pages
ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS Since English has become such an international and relevant language, it has become necessary for learners to develop the language skills required to use it in a successful way. Through the years these skills have been of paramount importance in the ELT. For this reason, it is important when we learn English to learn the skills to complete the communication. But what are these “language skills”? This paper will try to provide a wide explanation depending on different authors and perspectives about the concept of skill, what are considered as language skills and which are their main components. In first instance Paul (1966) Justice defines language as “a complex system involving ideas (thoughts) and expressions (words)” (p.4). Thus, any language implies skills that complete and help us to express what we really want to say. According to Chastain a language skill is “an ability to use properly and in an effective way the language for communication, they are acquired with the experience” (1976, p.279). Kosman (1999) agrees that language skills are developed talents and abilities that improve with the practice and experience. Likewise Nunan (1998) points out that most of the tasks require more than one skill. In the case of English language there are four skills that must be integrated in the teaching-learning process in order to achieve a communicative competence: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The four English language skills are divided in: receptive skills (listening and reading) and productive skills (speaking and writing). In the past, receptive skills in English as a second language were not such important as speaking and writing, but it was in the 1960´s when secondary skills came into fashion (Anderson and Lynch, 1998). Listening according to Nunan is “a process of decoding the sounds, that one hears
Open Document