The document discusses the four language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It provides an overview of each skill: Listening involves processing sounds into words and messages. Speaking requires using parts of the body to create sounds and communicate. Reading is the process of deriving meaning from written symbols. Writing involves using symbols to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. The four skills are interrelated and involve both receptive and productive abilities in both oral and written modes.

1. English Language : The
Four Skills
Helen Yong Lee Geok
9/25/2013

2. Introduction
When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete
communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then
to speak, then to read and finally to write. These are called the four “language skills”.
Listening
“Listening” is receiving language through the ears. Listening involves identifying
the sounds of speech and processing them into words and sentences. When we listen, we
use our ears to receive individual sounds (letters, stress, rhythm and pauses) and we use
our brain to convert these into messages that mean something to us.
Listening is any language requires focus and attention. It is a skill that some people
need to work at harder than others. In addition, teaching the learners a lot of listening
activities is a good way of enlarging their vocabulary. People who have difficulty
concentrating are typically poor listeners.
Like babies, we learn this skill by listening to people who already know how to
speak the language. This may or may not include native speakers. For practice, we can
listen to live or recorded voices. The most important thing is to listen to a variety voices
as often as you can.
Therefore, to become a fluent speaker in English, we need to develop strong
listening skills. Listening is not only helps we understand what people are saying to us,
but it also helps us to speak clearly to other people. It helps us learn how to pronounce
word properly, how to use intonation and where to place stress in words and sentences.
Good listening skills bring benefits to our personal lives including a greater
number of friends and social networks, improved self-esteem and confidence, higher
grades at school and academic work and even better health and general well-being.

3. Speaking
“Speaking” is the delivery language through the mouth. Speaking is also known as
the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated and it
seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. To speak, we create sounds
using many parts of our body including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords, tongue, teeth
and lips.
This vocalized form of language usually requires at least one listener. When two or
more people speak or talk to each other, the conversation is called a “dialogue”. In
addition, speech can flow naturally from one person to another in the form of dialogue. It
can also be planned and rehearsal as in the delivery of a speech or presentation. Of
course, some people talk to themselves! In fact, some English learners practice speaking
standing alone in front of a mirror.
There are three kinds of speaking situation that we should understand which are
interactive, partially interactive and non-interactive. Interactive speaking situations
include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we have a chance to ask
for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner. Whereas in
partially interactive situations its involve giving a speech to the audience and no
interruption during the speech. The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge
from the expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is
understood. The non-interactive speaking can be defined as recorded speech such as
when recording a speech for radio broadcast.
To conclude, speaking can be formal or informal. Informal speaking is typically
used with family and friends or people you know well. Formal speaking occurs in business
or academic situations or when meeting people for the first time. Speaking is probably
the language skill that most language learners wish to perfect as soon as possible. Fluently
in speaking can help build up our confidence level while speaking to others.

4. Reading
“Reading” is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can develop independently
of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them especially in societies
with a highly-developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary that helps
listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly.
In other words, reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and
getting meaning to them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols
(letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words,
sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us.
Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other can hear). Reading is an
important way to of gaining information in language learning and it is a basic for a
language learner. Therefore reading skills refer to the specific abilities that enable a
person to read with independence and interact with the message.
Reading is therefore a highly valuable skill and activity, and it is recommended
that English learners try to read as much as possible in English. Moreover, reading is a
complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning.
Like all language, it is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is
shaped by the reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude and language community
which is culturally and socially situated.
To sum up, reading process requires continues practice, development, refinement,
creativity and critical analysis.

5. Writing
“Writing” is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation and
spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable form. Writing is the productive
skill in the written mode. It too is more complicated and often seems to be the hardest of
the skills, even for native speakers of a language, since it involves not just a graphic
representation of speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a
structured way.
To write clearly, it is essential to understand the basic system of a language. In
English, this includes knowledge of grammar, punctuation and sentence structure.
Vocabulary is also necessary, as is correct spelling and formatting. The result of writing is
generally called text, and the recipient of text is called a reader.
Nowadays, motivation for writing includes publication, storytelling,
correspondence and diary. Writing also has been instrumental in keeping history,
dissemination of knowledge through the media and the formation of legal systems.
A writer may write for a personal enjoyment or use, or for an audience of one
person or more. The audience may be known (targeted) or unknown. Taking notes for
study purposes is an example of writing to one’s self. Blogging publicly is an example of
an unknown audience. A letter to a friend is an example of writing for a targeted
audience. As with speaking, it is important to consider your audience when writing.
There are many different styles of writing, from informal to formal.
Therefore, the four language skills are related and connected to each other in two
ways; which is the direction of communication (in or out) and the method of
communication (spoken or written). This four language skills or sometime called the
“macro-skills” are very important and necessity in towards learning a second language.