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Integrating the Language Skills By Collaboration In A Task-Based Project Through A Theme

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Integrating the Language Skills By CollaborationIn A Task-Based Project Through A Theme

Pei-ju Huang

Department of Applied Foreign Languages, Nanya Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT

Many EFL programs, including English-major departments in Taiwans

universities, traditionally segregates language skills for instructional purposes, often

highlighting just one skill at a time. Sometimes teachers and administrators think it is

logistically simpler to present courses on writing divorced from speaking, or on

listening severed from reading; and sometimes they believe it is impossible to

concentrate effectively on more than one language skill at a time. In this paper,

therefore, I first describe the problems with the segregated-skill approach which I

observed in most EFL classrooms in Taiwan, and then summarize two significant modes

of skill integration theme-based and task-based instruction. By merging these two

powerful modes, I would further present a course design to show how it is valuable and

interesting to link a task-based project together through a common theme, Hero, so

that task-based instruction can not be too fragmented. Finally, the combination is

recommended to be best used for the post-secondary and adult level students of EFL,

and titles of many EFL courses in Taiwans English-major departments are suggested tobe reflected or, further, revised.

Key Words: segregated-skill approach, skill integration, theme-based and task-based

instruction, a course design


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1. INTRODUCTION

With all our history of treating the four skills in separate segments of a curriculum,

there is nevertheless a more recent trend toward skill integration. That is, rather than

designing a curriculum to teach the many aspects of one skill, for example, reading,

curriculum designers are taking more of whole language approach whereby reading is

treated as one of two or more interrelated skills. A course that deals with reading skills,

then, will also deal with related listening, speaking, and writing skills. However,

many EFL programs, which include most English-major departments in Taiwans

universities, traditionally segregate language skills for instructional purposes, often

highlighting just one skill at a time. This situation contradicts the integrated way that

people use language skills in normal circumstances.

This paper, therefore, focuses on a key issue in EFL instruction: the integration of

the four main language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) and the

subsidiary language skills, such as grammar, study skills, punctuation, pronunciation,

vocabulary, and critical thinking, within the EFL curriculum. To begin with, I describe

the problems with the segregated-skill approach which I observed in Taiwans EFL

classrooms. Second, I would liked to summarize contend-based and task-based

instruction, two significant modes of skill integration, and one most commonly used

content-based instruction, theme-based. Finally, I present a theme-based course I used

with my junior students to show how it is valuable and interesting to link a task-based

project together through a common theme, Hero, so that task-based instruction can

not be too fragmented.

2. RATIONALE OF SKILL INTEGRATION

As EFL teachers, we might previously encountered one or more of the following

terms: discrete skill, isolated skill, segregated skill, single skill, and separate skill.

These terms all refer to an emphasis on one skill or at best two skills at a time in the

language classroom. The opposite of all these terms is known as integrated skillsor

skill integration, that is, the linking of the main and subsidiary language skills for the

purpose of real communication. In an instructional approach that favors integrated

skills, the skills are interlocked, ideally as they are in everyday life. Practice with any


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given skill strengthens other skills.

2.1 Problems with the Segregated-Skill Approach

In such an approach, mastery of discrete language skills or subskills, such as

listening comprehension, phonics, speaking, or punctuation, is often seen as the key to

successful learning, and there is typically a separation of language learning from content

learning (Mohan 1986; Cantoni-Harvey 1987). In my observation of many EFL

classrooms, I identify two levels of segregated skills, along with their associated

problems: first, total skill segregation, and second, partial segregation.

2.1.1 Total skill segregation

In the purest form of segregation, language is taught as an end in itself rather than a

means to an end, the end being authentic interaction and communication (Dubin and

Olshtain 1986). Many EFL programs, including most English-major departments in

Taiwans universities, traditionally segregate language skills for instructional purposes,

often highlighting just one skill at a time. Accordingly, we frequently encounter

classes labeled Intermediate Reading, Advanced Writing, or Basic Listening.

This form of instruction including syllabus design, curriculum arrangement, and

student placement is usually founded on pragmatic, administrative decisions rather

than on a conceptually sound theory of language learning and teaching.

Moreover, strictly separate-skill classes sometimes end up concentrating on

subsidiary skills like grammar and vocabulary, even though the course title refers to one

of the main language skills (listening, reading, speaking, or writing). With a mandate

to teach a reading or listening course, teachers desperately focus on concrete items such

as vocabulary expressions and grammar points. Memorization rather than

understanding is the primary process students are involved in these kinds of classes.

Motivation, interest, and class involvement plummet when the language is taught in this

fragmented, noncommunicative way.

2.1.2 Partial skill segregation

In many cases, an EFL course is labeled by a single skill, but this segregation of

language skills is unsuccessful or only partial. Frequently skills other than the targeted

one appear. I call this situation partial skill segregation a circumstance in which the


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language skills appear at first glance to be isolated in instruction but are actually not

separated completely.For instance, in a class on Intermediate Reading, the teacher usually gives some

or all of the directions orally, thus forcing students to use their listening skills to catch

the details of the assignment. In this class students might discuss their readings, using

speaking and listening skills and a host of subsidiary skills, such as pronunciation and

grammar. Students might be asked to summarize or analyze readings in written form,

thus activating their writing skills. However, the focus remains always on reading.

2.2 Advantages of Skill Integration

It is very important for every EFL program to provide numerous and extensive

opportunities for natural communication that integrates the main and subsidiary

language skills in principled ways. In actual language use the way we really

communicate any single skill such as listening is rarely employed isolation from other

language skills like speaking or reading. This is because communication requires the

integration of both the main and the subsidiary language skills. In integrated-skill

instruction, learners are exposed to authentic language and are involved in activities that

are interesting and meaningful. Integrating the main language skills and the subsidiary

language skills has many advantages:

1. Language becomes not just an object of academic interest but a real means of

interaction among people.

2. Skill integration allows mutually supportive growth in all the main skills and the

subsidiary skills.

3.

In an integrated-skill format, language instruction promotes the learning of real

content, rather than the discussion of language forms.

4. The learning of authentic content through language is highly motivating to students

of all ages and backgrounds.

5. Teachers are given the power and the opportunity to track students progress in

multiple skills at the same time.

3. TWO MODES OF SKILL INTEGRATION

3.1 Content-Based Instruction: Theme-Based Model


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One of the most important modes of skill integration is called content-based

instruction, in which students practice in a highly integrated fashion all the languageskills while participating in activities or tasks that focus on important content in areas

such as science, mathematics, and social studies (Brinton, Snow, and Wesche 1989).

In his pioneering work on content-based language learning, Mohan (1986) argues:

Any educational approach that considers language learning alone and

ignores the learning of subject matter is inadequate to the needs of these

learners. What is needed is an integrative approach which relates language

learning and content learning, considers language as a medium of learning,

and acknowledges the role of context in communication. (p.1)

In content-based language instruction, the language teachers primary goal is to

help students develop communicative competence. The primary goal requires the use

of normal, real-life, communicative language, which in turn presupposes the integration

of the four main language skills and the subsidiary language skills. The teachers

secondary goals are to introduce concepts and terminology relevant to a given subject

area, to reinforce content-area information learned elsewhere, and to teach specific

learning strategies for writing, reading, or general study via the means of interesting

content (Mohan 1979 & 1986).

The most commonly used form of content-based instruction is called theme-based,

in which the language skills are fully integrated in the study of a theme, for example,

weather, family, ecology. The theme must be of strong interest to students and must

allow a wise variety of language forms and functions to be practiced. Theme-based

instructon works effectively because the themes are chosen for their relevance,

importance, and interest to the students. These factors are central to students

motivation (Crookes & Schmidt, 1989)

3.2 Tasked-Based Instruction

Another widely used form of skill integration is task-based instruction. These are

activities that require comprehending, producing, manipulating, or interacting in

authentic language while attention is principally oriented to meaning rather than form

(Nunan 1989). In task-based instruction, basic pair work and group work are often

used; for instance, students work together to write and edit a class newspaper, develop a


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television commercial, conduct simulated job interviews, role-play town meeting on

environmental issues, and so on. More structured cooperative learning formats such asNumbered Heads Together, Think-Pair-share, STAD, and Jigsaw (Johnson and

Holubec 1986; Slavin 1989-1990) are often used in task-based instruction.

Talbott and Oxford (1991) describe a task-based English Through Video-Making

course for university-preparatory EFL students that demonstrate the highly

communicative integration of language skills occurring while students wrote, produced,

directed, choreographed, and acted in their own television programs.

4. A COURSE DESIGN OF A TASK-BASED PROJECT THROUGH ATHEME

According to Nunan (1989), tasks are typically activities that can stand alone as

fundamental units. However, I believe that it is valuable to link tasks together through

a common theme; otherwise, task-based instruction can sometimes be too fragmented.

Thus, I tried to combine task-based instruction with one of the most valuable forms

of content-based instruction, theme-based. By merging two powerful modes of skill

integration task-based and theme-based instruction, I established two parallel projects

(individual and collaborative one) to model for the students the real-life integration of

language skills, get them to perceive the relationship among several skills, including

both the main and the subsidiary language skills, and provide the teacher with a great

deal of flexibility in creating interesting, motivating lessons.

4.1 Lesson Plan

A Course Design for A Task-Based Project

Through a Theme: Hero

Duration: 15-17 periods (a project for one-semester course)

Population: 16 high-intermediate EFL junior students in a technical college

Objectives:

Enhance learners four main language skills:

Students learn numerous words and expressions about the theme HERO that

challenge the general stereotypes, by


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- reading and oral discussing stories, poems, newspapers

- listening to songs

- watching videos

- re-writing a biography for a hero or a heroine

Promote learners subsidiary language skills:

Students learn different skills (other than language skills) by

- making a chart or mapping

- recording and collecting by keeping journals

- developing an awareness of the whole realm of human emotions and experiences,i.e., love and hate, loneliness and companionship, happiness and sadness, and so on

- working out together the ways to deal with different kinds of opinions and

thoughts.

Strategies:I establish two parallel projects to promote the understanding and the

various functions of the terms or phrases for the selected theme.

Keeping personal learning log: students write their personal learning log to do an

individual reflection on the theme, and explore the new, inner look for the theme

from different perspectives

Editing a heros mini-biography: student form groups of study committees to pick

up one hero for every group, find information about the hero as much as they can,

read the heros stories or reports, and edit a mini-biography as a group project.

Teaching Materials:

DVD of Disney Cartoon Pocahontas or Mulan

Song about the theme Hero by Mariah Carey

Three Readings on the theme Hero

Newspaper report featuring Kerri Strug, an American female gymnast

Story of Helen Keller

Poem by Mary ONeill

(More reading of the world or local news would be included in the course.)

Language Learning Activities: I am going to include activities to instruct the learning

of the thematic unit.

Journal writing


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Reading

Listening

Vocabulary learning by mapping

A heros biography editing

4.2 Course Development

I then grouped students to share the words, phrases, or sentences they had

underlined, and discuss the questions posed by the teacher. The students

Periods Procedures

#1 I began the course by asking the students, What do you think a hero is?

I then wrote down their responses, did a word map on the blackboard, and

asked them to copy it on the first page of their journal. They were told to

keep a journal, in which they could reflect, explore, comment on, record

the change, and express their feelings and reactions to the theme.

I told them that through the semester we were going to read variety of

pieces and did a group project about the theme just introduced. At the

end of the semester, we would go back to these old perspectives we hadlisted on the first page of their journals and see if they were challenged.

#2 We watched a cartoon for a heroine, Pocahontas. After that, they were

grouped to discuss and analyze the character as a heroine.

The homework for today is also to write a journal about the class

discussion in class.

#3 We listened to a song,Hero, by Mariah Carey. By listening to the song,

they were expected to build more high-level words for the theme.

Students were given the song sheet and I briefly explained the song. The

first time when I played the song the students could only look at the lyrics

and listen to the song so that they would get a general idea about the

meaning the song conveys. The second time when I played the song,

students were asked to underline any words, phrases or sentences that they

felt might be the elements of theHero.


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were then asked to contrast what theHerothey have just identified from

the song with the hero they previously thought about.#4 Students worked collaboratively to write the various words or phrases that

they had identified to deal with theHeroon a very big poster. The large

poster was hung up besides the blackboard so that whenever students

learned new elements for the hero, the students could come and add them

to the poster.

I then discussed words or phrases they had just written down, and asked

them why they thought it was important to be a hero. With the students

help, I put the words, phrases with the same meaning together.

#5-6 I used three readings to enhance their concept about the theme. We read

them together in class. Each reading included the four steps:

(1) I read it out loud and when I read, the students underlined the words,

phrases, or sentences they thought related to the hero.

(2) I asked the students, Can anyone tell me if this person is a hero or a

heroine? Why? They volunteered to answer it.

(3) The students were grouped to do discussion.

(4) They were asked to add the new elements or characters they had just

identified from the reading to the word map on the poster, and the students

should copy them on their journal.

The first reading is an Olympic Games news report featuring Kerri Strug,

an American female gymnast, whose vault wins the medal for U.S.

gymnastic team:

#7 The second reading was a story about Helen Keller. We went through the

whole process as #6.

#8 The third reading was a poem by Mary ONeill, and the same procedure as

#6.

#9 By now students formed a cluster of words about human emotions and

experiences. We were going to contrast what the hero we had identified

from the song, poem and readings with the hero we thought about at the

very start of the course.

At the end of this period, the students were grouped into four study


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committees. For each group, they had to select one person they would

explore by themselves why he or she became a hero or a heroine. Theywere encouraged to use the elements of a hero we had collected on the

poster to compare what they were going to find.

#10-14 Students spent five periods of days doing a mini research about the hero

they picked up. At the end of the #14, every group of students was

required to finish writing and editing a mini-biography about the hero.

They were asked to identify the distinctive characters the hero was

equipped with in their illustration.

#15 Students in every group made an oral presentation on the hero or heroine

theyd explored. Other groups of students were encouraged to ask

questions.

5. DISCUSSION

Students need to encounter integrated-skill, authentic language about many themes

that engage their interest and heighten their motivation. They must encounter these in

the form of real-life language tasks. This is why I offer this combination of themes

and tasks to my students. Observation of the experimental instruction indicates that

the combination of tasked-basked and theme-based mode generates highly positive

student attitudes and motivation. As noted earlier, my experiences also indicate that it

is best to link tasks by means of an overarching theme; this underscores the relevance

and unity of the tasks.

I also found that tasks become increasingly complex and multifaceted at higher

levels of skill development when students are more able to handle such transactions.

For instance, two beginners might be asked to introduce themselves and share one item

of information. At a more advanced level, students can do tasks like taking a public

opinion poll at the university or at a shopping mall which would require significantly

more language and social competence. Therefore, I suggest at the post-secondary and

adult level, the best combination for integrating language skills is probably theme-based

and task-based instruction.

Moreover, titles of many EFL courses should reflect the integration of skills that

actually takes place when communication occurs. For example, I would suggest that


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courses might be revised as Speaking and Listening, Reading and Writing, or

Writing and Grammar. Alternatively, courses might bear titles such as IntermediateCommunication involving all language skills. Or, using themes and tasks, courses

might be suggested as Crisis in Our Environment, English Through

Newspaper-Writing, Social Issues in Taiwan.

Even if it were possible to effectively and fully develop one or two skills in the

absence of the other language skills, this does not ensure adequate preparation for later

success in academic tasks in United States universities. A person who can read

adequately but cannot speak or write well has a serious handicap in our academic

system; some degree of ability in all skills is a virtual necessity.

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