This document distinguishes between language systems and language skills. It discusses the key components of language systems, including phonology, lexis, grammar, morphology, syntax, and functional and situational aspects. It also outlines the four main language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing - and how they relate to each other as receptive or productive skills involving spoken or written communication. The document emphasizes that an integrated approach to teaching language systems and skills is important for effective language learning and communication.

1. Teacher: TRAN THI NHU TRANG, M.A.
Email: nhutrangspkt@gmail.com
ELT METHODOLOGY 2
Chapter 16
HCMC UNIVERSITY OF
TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION

2. DISTINGUISHING
LANGUAGE SYSTEMS AND
LANGUAGE SKILLS

3. THE KEY SUBJECT MATTER OF ELT
(Scrivener, 2005)
Language
Systems Language
Skills
Discourse

4. A sentence: Pass me the book.

5. Imagine that this cake were a language.

6. In order to study a language, structuralism subdivides it into the
following parts:
In last two hundred
years there
were 3 important
approaches
of Language
systems, first the
structural, covered
the study of
Language and
divided it in:
Phonology
Lexis
Vocabulary
Grammar
Then the linguistics clasified at 3 levels : phonology, morphology and syntax.

7. Then the linguistics clasified at 3 levels : phonology, morphology and syntax.
phonology
morphology
syntax
finally the communicative
approach adds 2 more units
situational and functional
aspects.
functional
situational

8. Phonology
Lexis
Vocabulary
Grammar
morphology
syntax
functional
situational
Language
Systems
It is important to know Language Systems because we need to know how a
Language works, how it is formed or constructed.

9. Helps us to know the sounds of a language.
Concerns about meaning of individual words or groups of words.
How words interact with each other within the sentence.
Is the identification, analysis and description of the structure
of morphemes and other units of meaning in a language
such as words, affixes, parts of speech

10. Is about the rules and principles that govern
the sentence structure of any individual
language
Helps us to understand when is proper to use
an expression and what expressions are
commonly used in certain situations.

11. Language systems
• Lexis
• Grammar
• Function
• Phonology
• Discourse
Focus on the significance of
words (vocabulary)
Focus on the relationship of
words within the sentence
 Focus on the situations in
which the words are used
Focus on the sounds
Focus on the relationship of
sentences or phrases
according to their functions

12. Commonly combined systems focus in many
language lessons would be:
GRAMMAR + PRONUNCIATION + FUNCTION

13. THE KEY SUBJECT MATTER OF ELT
(Scrivener, 2005)

14. Language skills
Receptive skills Productive skills
Listening Speaking
Reading Writing
• All 4 skills need to be adequately
mastered  be effective in communication
I
N
P
U
T
O
U
T
P
U
T

15. • Four language skills are related to each
other in two ways:
– the direction of communication (in or out)
– the method of communication (spoken or
written)
• Four language skills are sometimes called
the "macro-skills“ to be in contrast to the
"micro-skills“ (grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, intonation, syntax, formal
and informal speech)

16. Example:
(Scrivener, 2005)

17. Dynamic relationship between
INPUT & OUTPUT (Harmer, 2007)

18. Integrating skills
• Speaking as preparation and stimulus
• Texts as models
• Texts as preparation and stimulus
• Integrated tasks

19. Top-down & Bottom-up
• Top-down: begins with the
component parts of a subject 
gradually builds up to the whole
 take micro view of a subject
first
–Ex: phonics, letters, vowels and
syllables  speaking and reading

20. Distinctions
Top-down teaching Bottom-up teaching
Concerned with
motivating students to
learn through direct
interaction and
immersion, and
allowing them to find
meaning in a subject
by applying their own
experiences
More instructor-driven
and focuses on the
minutia (a small or
minor detail) of a
subject as a way of
decoding and simplifying
each component
through repetition and
memorization

21. Top-down & Bottom-up
• Bottom-up: focuses on providing
students a large view of a subject,
immersing them in the big picture
without explaining the components
that make up the subject
–Ex: writing, reading and pronunciation 
gradually learn the building blocks that
make up the English language
(intricacies of vowels, nouns and
pronouns)

22. Top-down & Bottom-up

23. Receptive skills (Harmer, 2007)

24. Teaching Receptive skills –
How to address the problem of
language difficulty?
• Pre-teach vocabulary
• Extensive reading &
listening
• Authenticity
(Harmer, 2007)

25. Teaching Receptive skills –
How to choose appropriate
comprehension tasks?
• Testing and teaching
• Appropriate challenge
(Harmer, 2007)

26. Productive skills (Harmer, 2007)

27. Productive skills – What to
pay attention to?
• Structuring discourse
– Writing: maintain coherence & cohesion
– Speaking: taking turns, using discourse
markers, etc.
• Interacting with an audience
• Dealing with difficulty

28. Productive skills – What to
pay attention to?
• Dealing with difficulty
– Improvising – invent or make new word or
phrase
– Discarding – abandon thought that can’t be
put into words
– Foreignising – choose a word in the language
known well and ‘foreignise’ it
– Paraphrasing - express the same message in
different words

29. • Supply key language
• Plan activities in advance
Teaching Productive skills –
What should teachers do?

30. • All four skills facilitate language
learning.
• Language learning is like learning
swimming.
• Language cannot be learned by just
cramming the rules of grammar or
lecture.

31. Conclusions
 Skills and Systems are closely intertwined; Skills can be improved only
with the help of the Systems.
 All four skills are interconnected support each other  cannot be
taught independently
 Listening and reading both rely on input from an outside source and
require knowledge of the language, background knowledge, and
comprehension skills.
 The productive skills of writing and speaking are more complex as they
necessitate taking knowledge of a language a step further to actually
produce new language.

32. REFERENCES
• Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language
Teaching (4th edition). Pearson Education.
• Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching: A Guidebook
for English Language Teachers (2nd edition). Macmillan
Education.
• https://dannyslab.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/language-s
ystem-vs-skills/
• http://englishvietnam.com/systems-language-skills-englis
h/
• http://discoverenglishblog.de/the-four-language-skills/#m
ore-563
• http://www.slideshare.net/lateachergaby/language-
systems