Page 238 - Beyond Methods

226 Integrating language skills
learners actually practice in the classroom. If we step into any nor- mal language classroom, we rarely see teachers and learners in a reading class only read, or in a writing class only write, or in a speak- ing class only speak. That, of course, would be impossible. Faced with a set of predetermined curricula and prescribed textbooks, what most teachers do is to place extra emphasis on a specific skill des- ignated for a specific class while helping learners freely use all the skills necessary for successfully carrying out a classroom activity. In other words, even if the class is supposed to focus on one speci- fic skill at a time, teachers and learners do the inevitable, namely, follow an integrated approach.
Reflective task 10.1
Think about any recent L2 class you may have taught or observed. Recall how or whether the teacher in that class integrated or segregated language skills and to what effect.
A History of Separation
Skill separation is, in fact, a remnant of a bygone era and has very little empirical or experiential justification. It is based on a particu- lar belief in language, language learning, and language teaching. During the1950s and ’60s, before the advent of communicative ap- proaches, proponents of audiolingual method believed that language is basically aural-oral. That is, speech is primary and constitutes the very basis of language. They also emphasized the formal properties of grammatical usage more than the functional properties of com- municative use. Given such an emphasis, it appeared reasonable to separate language skills. However, as Widdowson (1998, p. 325) ob- serves, “We can talk of skills in respect to usage, but if we talk about language use, we need a different concept, and perhaps a different term.” Not only did the audiolingualists divide the language into four skill areas but they also recommended a strict sequencing of them: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, in that order. That is, they believed learners should not be allowed to attempt to speak before they learn to listen, or to write before they learn to read. This