The document discusses the development of linguistic skills including oral and written expression and comprehension. It covers four main language skills - listening, speaking, reading, and writing. For each skill, it outlines principles for practice, including input preceding output, realism, and variety. It also discusses communicative competence and subcompetences including grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, strategic, and sociocultural competence.

1. TOPIC 3. DEVELOPMENT OF LINGUISTIC SKILLS: ORAL EXPRESSION AND COMPREHENSION; WRITTEN EXPRESSION AND COMPREHENSION. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH.

2. INTRODUCTION A language is a system of units, rules and relations shared by the members of a linguistic community. To master a language we need to develop four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Communicative Competence is the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately in a practical way to achieve communication goals in a variety of contexts and situations.

3. Classification of the language skills READING Reading is a cognitive process by which people translate a series of written symbols into meaning. WRITING Writing is the act of encoding a message using symbols according to certain rules. Visual means LISTENING Listening is a receptive skill which involves understanding of a message that has been sent through oral means (sounds) SPEAKING Speaking allows student to produce and express oral messages that contain information about ideas, feelings, thought and infinite number of topics. Oral means Receptive Productive

4. Principles in order to practice Input precedes output: listening before speaking and reading before writing. Realism: to link the practice with the pupil’s interests and experiences. Variety: to include in our lessons a wide range of topics, accents, situations, etc. Confidence: creating a good atmosphere in the classroom is essential.

5. Listening (Oral comprehension) 1. Pre- listening activities. Visual aids, miming, written support (for example subtitles) and other context- building tools. 2. While listening activities . To check if they are following the explanation, dialogue or song: questions, go out to blackboard… 3. Post- listening activities . All activities should have a specific aim (greeting someone, asking for directions, etc.). We can use role plays.

6. Speaking (Oral expression) Presentation. Silent period: Input precedes output (listening before speaking). Routines or patterns and basic vocabulary e.g. Can I go to the toilet? 2. Controlled practice: Pupils use questions, dialogues and discussions. The teacher chooses the context, situation or function to be practiced. 3. Creative or free production stage. Students choose themselves the context, situation or function. Body language is one of the most important resources to express meanings. Oral skills, both listening and speaking, have associated: rhythm, intonation and stress.

7. Reading (Written comprehension) Pre- reading exercises: To show the word first in its oral form and then in its written form. To use visual aids and other contextual supports . 2. While- reading exercises: Summarize, place the text within one’s own experiences, interpret the meaning of new words guessing from the context, mimic… 3. Post- reading exercises: Exercises to check the students’ comprehension e.g. questions. The main objective is a global comprehension of the text’s meaning through meaningful activities and not a meaningless repetitive activity. Comics Stories

8. Writing (Written expression) Controlled practice use of words and sentences. The most traditional and widespread activities to develop writing skills are mechanic exercises such us drills and copying. These activities provide opportunities to practice handwriting, grammatical structures, vocabulary and spelling. The content should be adapted to our students’ level and interests. 2. Directed production based on definitions, descriptions and easy written composition. We can use gap- filling, examples and templates to write letters, messages, emails, comics… 3. Free production personal writing and expressions. Students produce short articles about subjects they find interesting, using their own language. We can work with Pen- pals,…

9. Linguistic competence . This competence helps to a constructive relationship with others, is fundamental in the resolution of conflicts and making sense of other cultures. Communicative competence includes linguistic aspects like phonology and orthography, grammar, vocabulary and textual discourse, and pragmatic aspects like functions, variations, interactional skills and cultural framework.

10. Subcompetences Grammatical competence: Ability to use the rules of the language system. Discourse competence: Ability to use different types of discourse depending on the communicative situation and the interlocutors. Sociolinguistic competence: Ability to adapt statements to a particular context. Strategic competence: Ability to change the course of the communicative situation depending of our purposes. Sociocultural competence: To know the social and cultural context in which the language is used.