Skill-integration An effective model of learning a FL

Abstract

In this paper I will consider the issue of skill-integration within a communicative model of teaching at the tertiary level. First, I shall state some disadvantages of the mono-skill model of learning. Then, I shall review some advantages of the skill-integration model. An attempt will, then, be made at integrating the two skills of listening and reading through a discourse-processing model of analysis. The purpose of such a model of analysis is to prepare students at this level of study to process spoken and written discourse in order to develop co-operatively their receptive skills. They will, thus, be guided towards using the linguistic and non-linguistic elements to deal understandably with what they listen to and read. Lying at the heart of discourse processing is the notion of interpreting, common to both skills. As a process it refers to giving linguistic items their appropriate contextual values. Put another way it consists in reconciling usage and use. It is believed that the need for a skill integration strategy based on these principles will yield a beneficial learning crop.