THE LANGUAGE SYSTEMS AND SKILLS

Language Systems and Skills,

and Their Use in the Communicative Approach

Language is made up of systems and skills. Systems are the ways in which any and every language is organized. They are the tools used to communicate in a certain language. The language systems are four: Structure/grammar, lexicon/vocabulary, pronunciation, and functions.

Structure/grammar involves rules such as word order, sentence structure, verb tenses, how words are combined into sentences, word forms, morphemes, compound words and so on. Lexicon/Vocabulary refers to all the words used in a particular language or subject. Pronunciation has to do with all the audio aspect of the language, such as phonemes, intonation, accent, and stress. Functions are about communicative intentions.

Skills are the way people use language, producing or receiving, which are divided in two categories: productive (writing and speaking) and receptive (reading and listening). The language skills are acquired in the following order: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Language systems and skills can connect between themselves as structure/grammar is used in the four language systems, lexicon permeates de four language systems, pronunciation has mainly to do with the productive skill speaking and the receptive skill listening, and functions with every single skill.

In a class where the communicative approach is being used, the teacher has to go through a few phases, and from one phase to the following there must be a decrease in the teacher’s control and an increase in the students’ control. The class is to begin with the presentation of the topic which is going to be taught, so called warm-up or lead-in, where the teacher is supposed to assess what students know about that specific topic and build up on what they already know, usually presenting a real-life situation.

Then it’s time for the engage phase, when the topic is going to be taught, always beginning with meaning and then teaching form. If the topic is grammar, it can be taught inductively. If it is about function, the teacher can assess with the students the various meanings that are implicit and the language that is being used to express that function. If it is lexicon, it is time to present the new word in a real-life context which they can relate to. At this moment, the use of visual aids, the board and gestures are encouraged. Then the class moves on to the study/practice phase, where the teacher’s control has already decreased, and smoothly moving to the production phase, where the teacher has no control what so ever.

In all those phases, the students have to be encourage to use all the language skills, as the teacher assigns tasks, specially in the practice and production phase, such as gap fills, matching half sentences (grammar), matching words with definitions (lexicon), matching words with pictures (lexicon), filling in charts/graphs, doing a role-play (functions ), games, multiple choice and so on.