ENG514 Official Handouts

Module - 01 · PARTS AND GOALS OF A LISTENING AND SPEAKING COURSE · The Four Strands

A well-balanced language course should consist of four roughly equal strands:

Learning through meaning-focused input; that is, learning through listening and reading where the learner’s attention is on the ideas and messages conveyed by the language. Learning through meaning-focused output; that is, learning through speaking and writing where the learner’s attention is on conveying ideas and messages to another person. Learning through deliberate attention to language items and language features; that is, learning through direct vocabulary study, through grammar exercises and explanation, through attention to the sounds and spelling of the language, through attention to discourse features, and through the deliberate learning and practice of language learning and language use strategies. Developing fluent use of known language items and features over the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing; that is, becoming fluent with what is already known.

These four strands are called meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development.

Meaning-focused Input: Learning through Listening and Reading

The meaning-focused input strand involves learning through listening and reading—using language receptively. It is called “meaning-focused” because in all the work done in this strand, the learners’ main focus and interest should be on understanding, and gaining knowledge or enjoyment or both from what they listen to and read. Typical activities in this strand include extensive reading, shared reading, listening to stories, watching TV or films, and being a listener in a conversation.

Meaning-focused Output: Learning through Speaking and Writing

The meaning-focused output strand involves learning through speaking and writing—using language productively. Typical activities in this strand include talking in conversations, giving a speech or lecture, writing a letter, writing a note to someone, keeping a diary, telling a story, and telling someone how to do something. Many spoken activities will include a mixture of meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output. One person’s output can be another person’s input.

Language-focused Learning

It involves the deliberate learning of language features such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse. The term language-focused learning is preferred because terms like focus on form and form-focused instruction are misleading in that they can involve a deliberate focus on meaning as well as form, and need not involve instruction but can be the focus of individual autonomous learning. The ultimate aim of language-focused learning is to deal with messages, but its short-term aim is to learn language items. Typical activities in this strand are pronunciation practice, using substitution tables and drills, learning vocabulary.

Becoming Fluent in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

The fluency development strand should involve all the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this strand, the learners are helped to make the best use of what they already know. Like meaning-focused input and output, the fluency development strand is also meaning-focused. That is, the learners’ aim is to receive and convey messages. Typical activities include speed reading, skimming and scanning, repeated reading, 4/3/2, repeated retelling, ten-minute writing, and listening to easy stories.

Balancing the Four Strands

Each strand should have roughly the same amount of time in a well-balanced course which aims to cover both receptive and productive skills. The three strands of meaning-focused input, meaningfocused output, and fluency development are meaning-focused strands. They all involve activities where the learners’ focus is on communicating and receiving messages. In the meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output strands, this meaning-focused communication pushes the boundaries of learners’ knowledge and skill and results in the largely incidental learning of language features. In the fluency development strand, the messages are very easy and familiar ones but they are still the main focus of the activities.

Integrating the Four Strands

The four strands are opportunities for certain types of learning. They differ from each other according to the conditions which are needed for the different types of learning. They can fit together in many different ways. For example, in an intensive English programme with many different teachers, there may be different classes for spoken language (listening and speaking), reading, writing and language study. It would then be important to make sure that the spoken language classes, for example, not only had meaning-focused input and output activities, but also included fluency development activities and only a very small amount of language-focused learning.

Principles and the Four Strands

The following pedagogical principles are aimed at providing guidelines for teachers. They draw on an earlier larger list (Nation, 1993) and can usefully be compared with other lists of principles (Brown, 1993; Ellis, 2005; Krahnke and Christison, 1983). The list is organized around the four strands with the final two principles focusing on what should be covered in course.

Provide and organize large amounts of comprehensible input through both listening and reading. Boost learning through comprehensible input by adding a deliberate element. Support and push learners to produce spoken and written output in a variety of appropriate genres. Provide opportunities for cooperative interaction. Help learners deliberately learn language items and patterns, including sounds spelling, vocabulary, multi-word units, grammar, and discourse. Train learners in strategies that will contribute to language learning. Provide fluency development activities in each of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Provide a roughly equal balance of the four strands of meaning focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. Plan for the repeated coverage of the most useful language items. Use analysis, monitoring and assessment to help address learners’ language and communication needs.

Learning Goals

A language learning course is used to reach learning goals. These goals can include the learning of: (1) language items such as sounds, vocabulary and grammatical constructions, (2) the content or ideas of the subject being studied such as geography, English literature, mathematics, or cross-cultural understanding, (3) language skills such as listening, writing, fluency in using known items, and strategies for coping with language difficulties, and (4) the organization of discourse such as rhetorical features and communication strategies.