BASIC APPROACHES OF TEACHING INTEGRATED SKILLS.

Abstract

This article deals with methods of teaching English for students of higher education institutions. Language as a means of professional communication with representatives of different cultures, change experience and establish professional contacts with foreign colleagues. It makes little sense to talk about skills in isolation since, as Eli Hinkle stated “in meaningful communication, people employ incremental language skills not in isolation, but in tandem” When we are engaged in conversation, we are bound to listen as well as speak because otherwise we could not interact with the person we are speaking to (although some people, of course, are better listeners than others!). Lecturers frequently rely on notes they have written previously, and people listening to lectures often write notes of their own. Even reading, generally thought of as a private activity, often provokes conversation and comment. Writing, too, is rarely done in isolation. Much of today's communication is electronic (for instance, via emails and text messages). We read what people send to us and then reply fairly instantly. And even when we are writing on our own, we generally read through what we have written before we send it off. Sometimes, of course, this is not the case when dealing with emails and text messages, but writers and texters often regret sending their messages in haste! Furthermore, the appropriate teaching method depends in many ways on the information or skills being learned, and it can also be influenced by the ability and enthusiasm of the students. Also, integrating the skills allows you to build in more variety into the lesson, because the range of activities will be wider. Instead of just having listening, the students can have speaking, reading and writing practice. This can raise their motivation to learn English. Above all, integrating the skills means that you are working at the level of realistic communication, which provides all-round development of communicative competence in English. Integration of the four skills is concerned with realistic communication. Clearly, therefore, if skill use is multi-layered in this way, it would make no sense to teach each skill in isolation. We will, therefore, look at how input and output are connected in the classroom, how skills can be integrated, and how skill and language works are connected.