Integration

      An integration of the four skills is vital part of being a teacher. We must learn the skills and methods taught in Brown in order to incorporate all four successfully. The four skills we refer to are listening, speaking, reading, and writing all of which are crucial elements in the classroom. We as teachers strive to help our students excel in all of these areas and different methods are required to cater to each of these skills. Before even discussing the methods needed, it is important to understand why these skills are so essential to well rounded learning. 

     Standards are something we must work around every day when planning lessons and executing them. They are guidelines we must follow whether set by the state or nationally. While they can be a pain to think of constantly, they do serve as a constant reminder of these four skills we have to include in our classroom. It seems simple to  incorporate listening, speaking, reading, and writing everyday but some weeks get away from us and we realize the students haven't written anything all week. The standards are there to remind us the students need to grasp these skills in order to communicate efficiently and effectively. 

     Brown breaks down different methods that help us integrate all of these skills as a whole. A few methods he mentions are content-based instruction and theme based instruction. Content based instruction focuses on real life application of material in the TL. This method is great for integration because in real life application you can read examples, write your own, discuss orally, and in explanation you are using your listening skills. This is the method a lot of teachers try to incorporate on a regular basis in their classroom. Another method Brown discusses is Theme Based. It focuses on theme based curricula which is great for students because it makes all the material much more relateable. Students can make connections more easily because all of the material is centralized around one theme. It is viewed as the stronger approach of the two because it is more interactive and detailed. This lends itself to the episode hypothesis stating students can recall and reproduce information more clearly if sentences or materials are more closely connected.

          Kuma also refers to episode hypothesis when discussing contextualizing linguistic input in chapter 9. Students can use context clues to understand words and vocabulary but it is helpful when there is repetition. If you are focusing on prepositions, use the same preposition in the response as you did in the question. Ex: Did you go in the house? Yes I went in the house. By repeating these examples, students develop the different meanings of words as well as how they are used. This idea stresses the importance of integrated skills because if students experience grammar or vocabulary in all the different mediums, they will be able to contextualize at a higher level.

          In chapter 10 Kuma opens by stating, "In the practice of everyday life, we continually integrate these skills. Rate indeed is the day when we only listen, or only speak, or only write, or only read. Just think of how artificial and tiresome it would be if, for some peculiar reason, we decide to separate these skills…" Every day we use each of these skills interchangeably and yet in the classroom setting some of these skills are overlooked. It is interesting as to why these skills aren't always present in the classroom.

Why is it that all of these skills aren't always incorporated? What difficulties do teachers face in incorporating these skills? What disadvantages could the students experience if they aren't exposed to all of these skills?