Integrating Language kills
There are two objectives (reasons) for
using integrative activities in language
classrooms:
1) To practise and extend the learner’s use
of a certain language structure or
function.
2) To develop the learner’s ability in the
use of two or more of the skills within
real contexts and communicative
framework.
Reading and listening are related language
skills in that both are receptive skills,
concerned with the intake or impression of
ideas conveyed through language. Although
each one has independent elements and
skills there seen to be intellectual elements.
Common to both. Investigators have found
moderate but positive correlation between
skills in these two areas.
Speaking, listening and pronunciation are
three components of oral communication.
They are viewed as indispensable to any
coherent curriculum design. They are
characterized
as
reciprocally
interdependent oral language processes.
Advantages of integrating
language skills
Integrated activities provide a variety in
classroom and thus maintain motivation and
allow the recycling and revision of language
which has already been taught separately in
each skill.
Integrated skills approach exposes English
language learners to authentic language and
challenges them to interact naturally in the
language.
Learners rapidly gain a true picture of the
richness and complexity of the English
language as employed for communication.
Integrated skills approach, as contrasted
with the purely segregated approach,
exposes English language learners to
authentic language and challenges them to
interact naturally in the language.
Moreover, this approach stresses that
English is not just an object of academic
interest or merely a key to passing an
examination;
instead English becomes a real means of
interaction and sharing among people.
This approach allows teachers to track
students’ progress in multiple skills at the
same time.
Integrating the language skills also
promotes the learning of real content, not
just the dissection of language forms.
Finally, integrated skills approach, whether
found in content-based or task-based
language instruction or some hybrid form,
can be highly motivating to students of all
ages and backgrounds.
All aspects of language are interwoven.
Since reading is normally superimposed
on a foundation of listening. The ability to
listen seems to set limits on the ability to
read.

There are many specific links between
reading and listening such as : (1) the act
of receiving, (2) analogous features, (3)
vocabulary, and (4) common skills of
thinking and understanding.
Receiving: The receiver in both listening
and reading gets material to decode into
meaning.
Analogous features: The process of
learning to read may include finding
analogies among the components of
listening and reading. For example, a
beginner may translate and superimpose the
symbol read up on the one to which he or
she has listened. It seems that no one ever
reads totally by vision alone.
Once a child has adequate reading skill, the
two receptive process of reading and
listening should be mutually supportive.
The understanding of a component in one
can enhance the development in the other.
For example, a drop in pitch and a definite
pause in oral language can be associated
with terminal punctuation in written
language.
Vocabulary:
Children need to experience language both as
a listener and as a speaker before they
comprehend it as a reader. As the saying goes,
first they need to "get it in the ear". The
classroom implications of this relationship are
that the size of the listening vocabulary may
indicate the possibility of improvement in
reading; the size of a visual vocabulary may
provide one test of reading achievement.
Common skills of thinking and understanding:
Listening and reading make use of many of the
same feelings, background experiences,
concepts, and thought strategies. Processes
that go beyond the mere physical acts of
seeing and hearing are similar yet, the physical
reception and translation of sounds into
meaning through listening is different from
the reception and translation of print into
meaning in reading. There is some evidence
that listening instruction may bring
improvement in reading skills.
Listening and reading make use of many of the
same feelings, background experiences,
concepts, and thought strategies. Processes
that go beyond the mere physical acts of seeing
and hearing are similar yet, the physical
reception and translation of sounds into
meaning through listening is different from the
reception and translation of print into meaning
in reading. There is some evidence that
listening instruction may bring improvement in
reading skills.
There is some speculation that improved
reading comes with improved auditory
discrimination. Hearing difficulties may
accompany reading difficulties.
Both listening and reading use signals, such
as pauses and intonation for oral language
and their corresponding punctuation marks
for written language.