SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:

DEVELOPING LANGUAGE SKILLS IN THE CLASSROOM

Presented by:
Group: fp_telf_2015-06
PEFPMTFL1906557 William F. Andahua Arelln
ESFPMTFL1977096 Levenia Josefina Duran
ECFPMTFL1826130 Hilton Hermel Correa Castro

January 16th, 2016

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INDEX
Introduction...3
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2.
3.
4.
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6.
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10.

The learning theories implicit in the way the units are presented and develop....4
The extent to which the skills are integrated5
The product-process aspects of the two units...6
The authentic/genuine aspects..7
The issue of simplification of text...8
The relationship between the skills work and the learning/practice of grammar..8
The opportunities for production (oral and written) the units provide..9
The types of production required..10
The variety (or otherwise) of the activity types.....11
Which unit do you prefer? Why? At conclusion as to which of the two units you
prefer, if indeed you have a prefer one...12
Conclusion...13
References..14-15

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Introduction
The present assignment has been worked by three English teachers from different countries and
teaching background, and in this assignment we are able to present the importance of Developing
Language Skills in the classroom using two units from two different books. The four languages skills:
listening, speaking, reading and writing are being discussed, exposed, compared, and criticized.
Moreover, we show how a book is such an important tool in teaching a new language; teaching foreign
language skills will not only open the learners and the teachers minds, but also syllabus designers and
researchers to have modern perspectives, new opportunities and experiences. Furthermore, we also
highlight the importance of the presentation, development, integration, authenticity, grammar practice,
and other activities that are used in the DLS paradigm to motivate and smooth the way for preparing the
learners for the real world in the new language.
The objective of this assignment is to analyze, compare and contrast the way two units, from
different books, deal with the four skills indicating certain pertinent points such as authentic/genuine
aspects or the types of production required among others.
The units to be analyzed and compared are: Botelln taken from the text book, published in the
Basque Country, used in secondary schools and Unit 7 from the book Bachillerato Made Easy 2.
Students Book published by Richmond Publishing. Through this assignment we are going to relate and
evaluate how each skill is going to fit our students needs.

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1. The learning theories implicit in the way the units are presented and developed.
There are different theories concerning language development an according to different theories
of second language acquisition during the history, it could be mentioned that learners need to use
accurately and effectively the L2. How can they use? The answer is by using the four skills. The
interactionists claim that "children are born with a powerful brain that matures slowly and predisposes
them to acquire new understandings that they are motivated to share with others". It can be said that
language learning is influenced by the desire of learners to communicate with others.
In the unit called Botelln, the main objective is basically speaking skill, the objective of the
unit is to express an opinion on a given topic justifying it with relevant arguments and using appropriate
linguistic expressions in order to defend a specific point of view.
Moreover, could make groups considering the time and to be more effective to get oral production from
learners. We can mention that communicative an interactive approach is used in the unit Botellon!
On the other hand, in Bachillerato Made Easy text unit, they emphasize on grammar and
reading, this material demands the use on translation to the mother tongue, they emphasize a lot in
grammar rules. There are some grammar activities that do not match with the context. The other
important aspect is focused in written essay and oral activities, within the oral section of the text the first
activity is focused on small group, where the learners will have a discussion in reference to the topic;
however, since we are given the students edition identify the grouping approach or whether it must be
determined then by the teacher in the classroom.
Raimes (1985:83) relates that they are saying something that nobody cares about in order to
practice something else. For Raimes, the teaching of writing should stress the students ideas.
2. The extent to which the skills are integrated
In English teaching learning, is important to take into account how we can integrate the four skills
giving the same importance to all of the skills. When analyzing Bachillerato Made Easy, we have
noticed that the activities begin with speaking; there are some activities to be discussed in groups by
students, a characteristic of communicative language teaching, motivating students to learn to increase
their fluency, to enhance their speech.

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As we know reading is a good strategy for the students to learn English since in our experience as
teachers we can prepare lessons to motivate students or to read books and that call their attention. We can
prepare a pre-reading plan taking in account the purpose to diagnose students prior knowledge and
provide essential background knowledge, We extract from the Bachillerato Made Easy material the
following analyze (analysis)? The topic is well-structured and simplified to understanding through the
reading skill due to the key information presented and different vocabulary and expressions stated without
using redundancy. On the while reading activity students have the possibility to find unknown words to
put in order the phrases to show in the exercise. It contains general ideas about the text. The post-reading
task verify the comprehension level of the students on the meaning of the lecture with various tasks like
true or false, multiple choice questions, synonyms grammar general exercises.
The essay model displayed at the end is important for integrating writing after following good
reading exercises like scanning and skimming. Also it gives attention to language notions, and it is also a
written text that is not connected to the friendship topic.
Finally about listening, in the recent years the skill of listening has gained a lot of importance in
determine the level of this competence on the students. Analyzing the task of listening in the material
Bachillerato Made Easy we determined that it is not very elaborated and it is isolated from the topic.
In Botelln! material , the main skill to develop is speaking from the start to the end; also
reading, listening and writing skills are included but in less percentage. We have exercises of matching,
comprehension, expressing opinions based on reading. The tasks that comprise the activity of speaking
aim to promote interactive communication and scaffolding among students and put accent on the work on
pairs or groups which is an important approach to improve the conversation level of the students.
It also involves reading by some comments stating some youth issues and providing arguments,
we can mention that reading skill was given importance through various activities of reading that
connects most of the time with the writing activity. We have exercises of matching, comprehension,
expressing opinions based on reading.
Writing ability is the skill to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings to other people in written
symbols to make other people or readers understand the ideas conveyed. This material lets students to
develop critical thinking, since they have to provide solutions based on the written comments provided, in
which students show agreement or disagreement and propose solutions according to their arguments.

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According to listening, is does not present a lot of exercises; however, it takes the students to
watch two videos that you have to watch on Internet. The main focus of the activity is to determine the
differences that they notice on the two videos from content point of view. With this type of activity that
has included the visual contact, and in this way the students can focus more, is specific to sharp the
attention of the students on the details that they hear for them to use these details later on the debate.
Furthermore, because of the visual contact, the task should be easier to assimilate and is making the
students to present argument to support their point of view in the debate, based on what they hear and see.
The task of the second activity is to listen to an interview. The students must check the correct answers in
the box. This type of task is used to analyze how much the students were able to comprehend from the
listening, as they have to determine if the meaning of the words as a whole with the ones from the
exercise is the same or not.
3. The product-process aspects of the two units.
Everything that teachers do within the classroom is called process and everything what their
students learn is called product but how to acquire a good process in order to have a good product? So,
a good process according with (Walls, 1999) makes an effective teacher and he concluded that The
Four Access represent a consolidated way of thinking about the "process" of teaching as it influences the
"product" (student learning).
In Bachillerato Made Easy, if we think of process as all the activities to develop, like planning,
organizing, drafting, reviewing, editing and so on (Lynch, 1996:48), In this unit the goals that students
must achieve are not well defined; the unit provides students clear directions and explanations concerning
the course organization and contents; then in order to get a good product this unit begins with speaking by
using an oral discussion to introduce the topic about Friendship, next it takes reading to give vocabulary
and very useful expressions, after that it is graded by some exercises. Finally it checks vocabulary out by
synonym association.
In Botelln! goals are clear and it presents step by step how to perform a debate giving
correct instructions to get it. In this unit L2 is achieved by students through progressive skills, with
interactions among students and procedures to provide information such as survey fill in charts, and so
on. In this unit the activities are focused more on reading, writing and speaking so this material has a
good process for learning to get a good product, too.

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4. The authentic/genuine aspects.

It is very important to use authentic materials to teach an EFL class. The authenticity of the
material is an important tool that helps the teacher transmits the necessary knowledge to the students.
However it is difficult to determinate what is an authentic material. Nunan (1988) defines authentic
materials as the materials which have been produced for purposes other than to teach the language.
Therefore, text choice is a very difficult process that has to be made in order to teach to students the usage
of the language. Tony Lynch (199:124) says that: The definition that most language teachers accept is
that authentic texts are samples of language used by or for native speakers. That brings us to the
discussion about the authenticity of the two book units from Botelln! And Bachillerato Made Easy.
An authentic material should train the learners to be comfortable with the real world situations
using the learning language. According to Breen (1985) there are four type of authenticities and they are:
Authenticity of the text: which help learners to develop and authentic understanding, Authenticity of the
learners: refers to the ability of the learner to interpret the material, Authenticity of the task: that provides
the learners to be busy with authentic communication, and Authenticity of the classroom: in which the
learners help each other sharing the target language. As a result, the two units from the books show
authenticity of the text because they are information source for the learners. They provide an easy
understanding of the target language and learners are motivated to answer the question after the reading.
Motivation is an important key point in the genuine of the material. If the learners are motivated, they
learn the language by making them feel they are learning the real language Guarmiento & Morely
(2001). So both units are unique and genuine.
On the other hand if we compare what type of authentic text they are, we can define Botelln! As
an authentic text that focuses on Humanistic Approach. This approach emphasizes the unity of learners
feelings and the learning process R. Hammed Al Azri and M Al-Rashid (October 2014). On other words,
Botelln! Unit is perfectly made for teenagers in order to understand the target language through their
feelings, problems and normal life situation as a young adult.
For Bachillerato Made Easy. is also an authentic text that focuses on materials approach: that is
the learning in this approach is text-centered R. Hammed Al Azri and M Al-Rashid (October

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2014).Therefore, this text provides the learners not only with feelings but also with a pedagogic
background. Nunan (1989) refers to pedagogic authentic materials to the type that stimulates interne
process of acquisition only without getting the learners to practice the skill that be needed in the real
world.
5. The issue of simplification of text.
The simplification of the text is another point to look at after we decided that both units are truly
authentic. There are different points of view regarding the simplification of the text. Some researchers
refer to the used of simplification as a negative aspects in the development of the languages skills in the
classroom. The used of Text Simplification make learners to confront many difficulties in learning a
foreign language. Grellet (1981:7) talks about this issue and her opinion is that Paradoxically,
simplifying a text often results in increased difficulty because the system of references, repetition and
redundancy as well as other discourse indicators one relies on when reading are often removed or at
least significantly altered. Consequently, simplifying a text is not a solution to make it easy for the learner
because it doesnt transmit the real knowledge. However, Widdowson (1978) believes that simplification
can take place, within the conventions of a given language field, while maintaining authenticity in the
sense of learner response. To do this, the text has to engage the learners interest. If the learner
understand and response to the text, then simplification has been done successfully. In the two units text,
first the Botelln! Provides a very simple text in which uses vocabulary and definitions to provide the
learners with a new lexicon knowledge in the learning language. As a unit from Bachillerato Made Easy.
the text is more elaborated and it has more details for the learners to read and answer the questions using
the information that is provide. For that reason, we dont think that both text are simplified.
6. The relationship between the skills work and the learning/practice of grammar.
As refers to grammar both book units are very different. The Botelln! Provides only one page in
which the students have to correct the sentences. In this case, grammar is presented very informal and it is
not the important skill that is being offer to the learners. The teaching of grammar means teaching how
English works through helping students to understand grammar concepts Azar (2007). In addition, The
Botelln! unit is very poor in grammar. Furthermore, Bachillerato Made Easy. provides a wide range
on the grammar learning/practicing skill. The grammar is also very formal, very structural and organized.
It also gives the students the opportunity to do many different grammar exercises and gives more
examples about it. Grammar is not acquired naturally; it needs to be taught Zangh, J (May 2009).

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7. The opportunities for production (oral and written) the units provide.
According with the development of language learning and even under language communication,
the four language skills are both two ways process; it mean that to establish a real communication there
have to be a transmitter and receptor, the ways how this communication is performed can be developed
whatever choosing one of the four skill used in language communication. Oral communication for
example, is a process between speaker and listener where both of them have to develop an important role
in the communicative process, As Byrne states (1986: 8)
Oral communication is a two-way process between speaker and listener where both have a
positive function to perform the speaker has to encode the message he wishes to convey
in an appropriate language, while the listener, (no less actively) has to decode (or interpret)
the message.
Analyzing these thoughts, we can infer that speaking is therefore an interactive process where
the speaker express his ideas, opinions and thoughts, there he point out his wishes, desires; speaking help
to resolve or is an excellent tool to negotiate, and it help to maintain a social relationship between
members of a community.
On the other hand writing is considered as written production and this skill is as important as the
other language skills, it is extremely important issue to learn and perform a correct language
communication, When we as teachers and students as learners, must procure to perform on the best way a
correct teaching learning process.
Considering the material provided by the teacher, we can notice that this material provide students
and teachers an important and excellent path to teach, learn and perform the new language learning.
Bachillerato Made Easy, provides an important gap to work with a group-work, self-access and
Presentation - Practice - Production, for both production skills (oral, written) the unit aim to be teachercantered, as the teacher carry out the activity and provides to his students necessary information; likewise
it convey a student centred because they are able to decide what to say, how to say it, or what to do

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according with the requested tasks. For example: at the beginning, the work text give the opportunity to
make a reflection about the topic, and get the students to engage into the objective of the class, then in
oral production the learners start discussing with a self-assessment task in two different exercises, in the
first exercise learners have to reflect about their behavior in a given situation and in the second part they
have to work in groups where they have to perform a free discussion about the same topic presented along
the unit, and for written task the unit provide to learners with necessary elements and structure, according
with vocabulary and grammar requirements.
On the other hand Botelln! gives to the opportunity to work in an interaction between
students, there students can work in groups or independently, they can work alone, pairs or as a whole
group, they can interact in their own way and the teacher can act as a facilitator by monitoring the
students work, for example checking and correcting the writing tasks, conduct they in reading steps to
agree or disagree or guide then under the correct path.
As in the first unit, this material gives to students the opportunity to think about social situations
and elicit to the students to think about the problem and invite them to participate by giving oral and
writing opinions or inferences, answer some questions about the theme, or procure solutions to this
phenomenon
8. The types of production required.
As we know Language production means talking, usually when people talk is because they need
or have something to communicate or something to say; according with psycholinguistics studies
language production concerns itself with the cognitive processes that convert nonverbal communicative
intentions into verbal actions. All these processes convey or carry out many series of thoughts and
intentions into sound, where speakers have to use a big structure of elements to do a code switch to
convert thoughts or intentions into outgoing messages.
According with the presented material we can identify there are three main stages in each unit:
Presentation, Practice, and Production. This architectural system we can rely on that all these stages can
help learners to learn more efficiently.
The presentation stage involves explaining the aims of the unit which students have to
accomplish, so children or even students of different ages or status conditions know what, how and why

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they will learn. There we also perceive during this stage that the teacher explains and give directions to
his students to help them to achieve in a better way the new language, including both its meaning and
form, and how to say or write it correctly.
The practice stage: There students are elicited to exercise or practice the new language, teacher
helps children (learners) to use the new language by just explaining them how to perform the new
acquired language by development the duties and using the error correction stage.
The final part is the production stage. In this section the student is elicited to demonstrate what he
has learnt, in this moment the teacher must and can help and motivate the students to communicate with
their partner or even with his partners or his community using the language which has been achieved. For
example in Bachillerato Made Easy they write an essay by their own, at this moment of the production
are required some steps to create an essay (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation).
In Botelln! Students are elicited to infer and produce a discussion about a social problem that is
happening in Spain; there is the moment to perform a diplomatic discussion about the phenomenon, In
this stage of study is required group work, or pair work to discuss and perform the communicative
language, for written part they are elicited to create a discussion organizer where they can write notes
with their own ideas and there is the chance to proposing a/or solution/s.
9. The variety (or otherwise) of the activity types.
Working with a wide variety of activities, provide students the opportunities to construct an
strong basement of knowledge which in the future all these will constitute into the pivot structure to
produce the aim goals.
In addition, working with several activities help students to gain self-rely, be aware and
conceptualize understandings related to the learning process, activities help students to get ahead into the
learning performance where they have the chance to apply their knowledge using an extent variety of
processes and techniques under the based context.

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Working with activities which enrich the four language skills help students to build a wellstructured and designed stair which support learners in the achievement, creating and producing learning
processes.
Bachillerato Made Easy unit, presents activities where students have the opportunity to speak,
(oral production) dialogues, role-play, about their own behavior; there students have the opportunity to
develop exercises where they can perform the writing skill when they have to write some paragraph or
write (answer) the proposed exercises; The reading skill is performed when they have to read the
paragraphs which is analyzed and where learners have the chance to take conclusions from the message
which is carried out.
Taking into the consideration Botelln! unit, the speaking section activity is allowed when
students have to discuss about the issues and factors that is happening inside of a society, there are the
opportunities to focus and discuss why it is happening and to propose some solutions for the problem;
another activity that we can observe is that we can work individually about important points of this
phenomenon, there students can write, talk, and even listen from their partners, the arguments of this
particular issue and of course they can state their own reason about the problem and suggest solutions to
fix this society behavior by the oral or writing way.
10.

Which unit do you prefer? Why? At a conclusion as to which of the two units you prefer, if

indeed you have a prefer one.

Into a teaching language process are many kind of tools and methods to help teachers to teach the
new language, as teachers we have to consider as many materials as we can use; then a text book is not
only the most important neither the least; it is only as good as the teacher who uses it.
It is important to remember that a textbook is just one of the many tools that teacher have or have
to have into their own warehouse, perhaps it is a very important tool which helps them to develop their
language teaching job but as teacher we have not to over-rely on textbooks and don't consider other aids
or other supplementary materials which are as important as is a text book in the language teaching
process.
Into our consideration we agree with we have to use as much material that we can get to perform
our teaching process; there, both of the units, Bachillerato Made Easy and Botelln! are so important

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and useful tools to teach English, but if we have to choose only one of them we prefer Bachillerato Made
Easy because it is authentic, and it focuses the attention not only to a social phenomenon but in social,
personal, moral and ethical values; we consider that this unit gives us the opportunity to improve the four
language skills, and other things such as grammar that are important in the learning a new language
process. Furthermore the unit has different activities for each skill and helps the learner and the teacher to
achieve the proposed goal.
Conclusion:
As teachers of a new language, we have to be aware that to perform this issue we must consider
as many elements or things that can help us to drive in better way our teaching activities, considering the
activities that as language have to be developed in order to achieve the four skills (listen, writing, reading
and speaking). As teachers we have to looking for the best activities to get that our students achieve the
aims and of course teachers ones too. Developing activities which help to achieve the four skills in
language context serve too many valuable purposes, they give learners scaffold support, opportunities to
create, contexts in which they can use the new language to perform real communication, evidence of their
own ability (proof of learning) and, the most important when as teachers we feel realized when they are
able to deliver and receive messages according with the context of language.
From activities, teachers provide learners with important activities to achieve each skill, they
could be able to speak or listen a song, read a paragraph, perform a dialogue, and write an essay read a
book in their own peace or with their partners or their community; When we are talking about talking and
writing skills, we are referring to production stage, where, the students are able to demonstrate the results
that they were fighting for, and consequently it is comfortable to teachers and students when we are
witness get or achieve the proposed goals.

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REFERENCES:
Azar, B (2007). Grammar-Based Teaching: Practitioners Perspective. TESL-EJ
Berliner, D. C. (1987). Ways of thinking about students and classrooms by more and less experienced
teachers. In J. Calderhead (Ed.), Exploring teachers thinking (pp. 60-83). London: Cassell.
Burns, A (2009) Grammar and Communicative Language Teaching: Why, When and How to Teach it?
Department of Linguistic from the Macquaire University.
Guarmiento, W and Morley, J (2001). Text and Task Authenticity in the EFL Classroom. Oxford
University Press.
Hamed Al Azri, R and Al Rashid, M (2014). The Effect of Using Authentic Materials in Teaching.
Harris, T., Ball, P. () Developing Language Skills in the Classroom. Funiber.
Nunan, D (2004) Task-Based Language Teaching. University of Hong Kong.
Raimes, A. What Unskilled USL Students do as they write. A Classroom study of Composing, TESOL
Quarterly 19, 2.
Richards, J., Rodgers, T. (2001). The Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York. NY.
Cambridge University Press.
Slobin, D. I. (1996). From "thought and language" to "thinking for speaking." In J. Gumperz and S. C.
Levinson, Eds., Rethinking Linguistic Relativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, J (2009). Necessity of Grammar Teaching. China Agricultural School.

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http://www.skillsyouneed.co.uk/writing_skills.html#ixzz2IY8QFVA5
http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/bock.html

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