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written by Benny Lewis

Reading time: 11 minutes

Published: Oct 6, 2017

Updated: Oct 18, 2021

Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening: The 4 Basic Language Skills, and How to Practise Them

Reading, writing, speaking and listening – the four foundational skills of language learning.

You can’t build a house without a strong foundation (well, that’s if you want the house to stay upright in all weather!). Similarly, you won’t become a well-rounded speaker of a language without building upon the four foundations of language learning.

It took me quite a while to realise this.

I studied languages for years at school – and even after school without much success. I even moved to Spain to learn Spanish. It was a lightning bolt moment that made me realise I could spend hours learning how to read or write Spanish, but I had to actually start speaking to achieve fluency.

As you continue language learning, you will probably discover that you’re stronger in some areas than others. Typically, people struggle most with listening and speaking.

How I Discovered My Achilles Heel: Listening Comprehension

Listening is the big one for me.

When I was learning German I set myself a goal of passing the advanced CEFRL exam . I passed four out of the five sections of the exam.

It was only my listening that wasn’t up to scratch.

I didn’t mind too much – I could hold confident conversations in German, after only 3 months of intensive study. That being my aim, I was happy with my result .

However, the experience helped me see that I need to focus more on listening when I’m learning a new language.

The key factor of the four basic language skills is that they complement each other . As a science nerd, I know that Newton’s third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction . So, if you want to be a well-rounded language learner, you need to ensure that you’re giving each skill the attention that it needs.

What are the Four Basic Languages Skills?

These are the cornerstones of learning a language.

The skills work in pairs. When you’re reading or listening, you’re consuming a language .

However, when you’re writing or speaking, you’re producing a language .

Once you’ve mastered these skills, you can safely say that you’re fluent in that language.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how you can strengthen each individual skill, to ensure that you’re making the most out of your language practice.

How to Improve Your Reading Skills

There’s a very obvious place to start for those wishing to improve their reading skills: books!

Books not only help you learn a new language. They’re also a way to discover the culture behind the language.

Thanks to the Internet, paper books aren’t your only option for reading practice. Most languages have thousands of books available to download online – many of them free.

Here are just a few of my favourite reading resources, to get you started.

1. Picture or Comic Books

Picture books are an excellent resource for beginners. Chances are, you used picture books to help you learn to read in your native tongue. So it makes sense you’d start here with your target language too.

Once you’re beyond the absolute beginner stage, I recommend comic books. They’re fun to read, and the pictures help you follow the story even if you don’t know all the vocabulary.

2. A Good Dictionary and a Pocket Notebook

A dictionary is a language learner’s best friend. As you delve deeper into your target language, you’ll frequently come across new words. By having a dictionary on hand, you can find out what those words mean right away, and jot them down in your notebook.

I recommend investing in a pocket notebook. That way you can carry it around, add notes to it or review what you’ve already complied when you’re waiting in line or on public transport .

You can do the same thing digitally. Almost all languages these days have a dictionary available as in app form. And with a note-taking app like Evernote you can keep your notes organised into virtual notebooks – for example by topic.

3. Dual-Language Books

Reading one book in two languages concurrently is a great way to improve your language skills, and it can give you a big confidence boost as you realise how much of the language you already understand.

4. Newspapers or Online Journals

With newspapers you’ll not only improve your knowledge of a language, but you’ll also find out more about the politics, art and attitudes of the countries where the language is spoken.

Many newspapers are available to read online for free .

Whatever your interests – food, fashion, fitness, or just about anything – chances are there’s a blog about them in your target language.

I can guarantee there’ll be enough material online to last you a lifetime… and then some.

How to Improve Your Writing Skills

Perhaps all this reading will get your creative juices flowing , encouraging you to sit down and do a little bit of writing!

For many language learners, writing is the first time they actively try to produce language , rather than consume the language. And even though I advocate speaking from day one , I see writing as an important part of this process. I always recommend preparing a script before your first conversation.

Here are a few other ideas to get you started with writing.

1. Write a Letter to a Pen Pal

Did you ever take a language class at school where your teacher encouraged sending a letter to a pen pal in a far-off land? Well, they were certainly onto something there.

If you’re at a beginner’s level, you can keep it to a few lines on a postcard. If you’re more advanced, set yourself the task of penning (or typing, if your handwriting is difficult to read!) a page-long letter.

It doesn’t even have to be a letter that will ever see the light of day. Address it to your Mum, a friend, or even your dog. It doesn’t matter. As long as you’re writing, that’s the key factor here.

If you’re looking for a friendly person to write to, italki is a good place to start.

2. Set Yourself a Daily Goal on Duolingo

Duolingo offers plenty of writing exercises at all skill levels so you can practise writing your target language as much as you want.

3. Start a Blog in Your Target Language

I’m consistently amazed by how many opportunities have come my way from starting Fluent in 3 Months . I’d recommend anyone who’s learning a language to start a blog. And if you’re doing that, why not write some posts in your target language?

Even before I started this blog, I used to create videos in the languages I was learning.

Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve realised is that everyone has a story that others will be interested in hearing.

You’ll find that starting a blog will have a double effect. You’ll be getting consistent practice writing in your target language, for sure. However, you may also gain a community of readers to support you along the way.

How to Improve Your Speaking Skills

Speaking: the skill of doom! Most language learners find speaking their new language a daunting prospect. I know people who’ve been studying for years and still haven’t had a conversation in their target language.

I get it. Speaking a foreign language for the first time to a native speaker is a massive task. What if you get something wrong? Will people be offended that you’ve massacred their language? Will they think you’re stupid and laugh at you?

Personally, I think speaking is the most effective thing you can do to improve your language skills. Yes, it’s scary at first. But once you’ve chatted with a few native speakers you’ll quickly build your confidence.

And in my experience, I’ve never had anyone call me stupid or laugh at me for messing up my speech. In most cases, I’m the one left laughing at any mistakes I’ve made, and the other person is just thrilled to see that I’m trying.

This is why I’ve made it my mission to help people get over their fear and start speaking in their target language from the day they start learning .

To strengthen this skill, you will of course have to find someone to practise speaking with.

Here’s how to do just that.

1. Find a Language Teacher on italki

italki is hands down my favourite tool for language learning, as it’s a quick, easy and affordable way to find people to chat with in your target language.

There are plenty of language teachers at all kinds of levels available on italki. Don’t be afraid to try a few, until you find one that’s perfect for you.

2. Find a Conversation Partner Online

If you’re just looking for someone to have a conversation with, rather than paid lessons, then try looking for a language partner instead. Italki is brimming with language learners like you who are looking for conversation partners to chat with.

Your conversation partner could be a native speaker of your target language, an advanced learner, or even someone who is at the same level of learning as you.

3. Go to Meetups in Your Area

Most cities have a community of language learners – and chances are you can find one online.

I’ve used Meetup in the past to find and connect with likeminded language learners in my city. This is an excellent way to find a potential language partner, or just make some new friends!

How to Improve Your Listening Skills

To have a conversation with someone it’s useful if you can understand what they’re saying.

I think listening is the hardest skill for language learners. I’m not just speaking from my own experience here, but also from what other language learners have told me.

One of the reasons for this is that it’s easy to fall into the pattern of passive learning . People seem to think that you can just watch a foreign film, or listen to some music and you’ll instantly be on your way towards mastering that language. They then get frustrated when they find they’re actually making little to no progress.

This is because you can’t just let the words flow in and out of your ears – your brain is part of the process too. You need to study what you’re listening to.

There are endless listening resources available – audiobooks, music, movies and podcasts . What we’re going to examine is how best to make these work for you… without falling into the trap of passive listening.

1. Short Bursts Are Often More Effective

There’s no rule saying you have to spend an hour a day practising your listening comprehension skills. In fact, I’d advise against it!

It’s far more effective to give yourself short five or ten minute bursts of study. That way you’ll be more likely to actually get on and do something, rather than feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of an intense language session.

2. Give the Audio Your Full Attention

You can play foreign music in the background while you’re cooking dinner or cleaning the bathroom, but it’s unlikely to improve your listening skills.

It’s much better to sit down and give the audio your full attention. Treat it like a study session, and you’ll get much more out of it.

3. Write Down Words You Don’t Recognise

When I’m studying audio, I tend to write down words I don’t recognise. After I’m done listening, I can look these up in my dictionary and add them to my vocab list for further study.

4. Listen to the Same Audio Multiple Times

Don’t just listen to the same piece of audio once. Learn it inside out, until you can recite it back to front. Once you’re completely sure of what’s being said, you can move onto the next thing.

Don’t be afraid to mix it up either. Study every resource you can get your hands on. This way you’ll keep the experience both fresh and fun.

5. Follow an Audio Course

An audio-based language course is one of the best ways I’ve found to improve my listening skills. My favourite courses the podcasts by Innovative Language. You can read more of my thoughts about them here .

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time globe trotter and international bestselling author. Benny believes the best approach to language learning is to speak from day one .

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

Have a 15-minute conversation in your new language after 90 days

The 4 Language Skills

When we learn a language, there are four skills that we need for complete communication. When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak , then to read , and finally to write . These are called the four "language skills":

• Skill #1: Listening
• Skill #2: Speaking
• Skill #3: Reading
• Skill #4: Writing

The 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)

Note that these four language skills are sometimes called the "macro-skills". This is in contrast to the "micro-skills", which are things like grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

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Benefits of testing the four skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking).

Evelina D. Galaczi, Head of Research Strategy, Research and Thought Leadership Group, Cambridge English

When we say that someone ’speaks‘ a language fluently, we usually mean that they have a high level in all four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. But, as any teacher knows, learners often have strengths or weaknesses in particular skills, and in some cases can achieve high levels in, for example, reading and writing, while not being able to speak or listen at a comparable level.

For some purposes – highly specialised jobs, for example – these uneven skills may not matter very much. However, English is such an important skill in the global world, and needed in so many different contexts, that someone without a good ability in all four skills will greatly reduce the opportunities open to them in education and professional life.

Ability to use English in a variety of contexts involves multiple language skills and therefore testing the four skills enhances the accuracy of a test

If we want to assess someone’s speaking ability, we must get them to speak. The same applies to all the other skills. We can’t infer ability in one skill (e.g. speaking) from performance in another (e.g. listening), or from using tests of language knowledge, e.g. grammar, vocabulary, as proxies for communicative language ability. Therefore if we want to accurately assess communicative language ability, we need to include tasks which elicit a wide range of skills related to communicative language.

The Common European Framework of Reference (2001) extends the definition of communicative language ability into five skills, and divides speaking into two skills: spoken production and spoken interaction. This is based on the evidence that these two skills are different, since one involves only monologue-type speech and the other involves being both a speaker and a listener at the same time. A test of communicative language, therefore, needs to include both spoken production and spoken interaction. 

Learners’ development in the four skills is often unbalanced and testing only some language skills may give an inaccurate picture

It is common for language abilities across the four skills to be interrelated. However, such relationships are not strong enough to allow measurement of one skill to substitute for another.

Learners’ development of the four skills can be unbalanced, e.g. a learner could be strong in reading, but weak in listening or writing or speaking. Research has suggested that the ability to speak is distinct from the ability to read/listen/write (Powers 2010, Sawaki et al 2009). Therefore, a proficient reader/writer/listener may not necessarily be a proficient speaker.

For example, the data below, based on over 465,000 test takers who took Cambridge English Qualifications in 2015, show only moderate relationships among the different skills. If we take speaking, for example, the relationship between speaking and reading is 0.60, which means that a candidate who scores high in the speaking test only tends to score high in the reading test or vice versa.

Testing all four skills has a positive impact on learning

By testing all four skills, Cambridge English exams encourage teachers and learners to take a balanced approach to language learning, ensuring that the learners develop the ability to use the language effectively in the real world.

Cambridge English research suggests that one of the main reasons ministries and school groups introduce Cambridge English exams is because they test all four skills and as a result increase the focus on speaking and listening. This helps learners to develop competence to communicate in English (Ashton, Salamoura and Diaz 2012, Khalifa and Docherty 2016).

A test based solely on the ‘passive’ skills of Listening and Reading does not give employers what they need

If an employment context only involves listening and reading, then a test focusing solely on listening and reading may be enough. However, most work contexts involve speaking and writing skills, and the use of English in both formal and informal situations, such as giving presentations, participating in a discussion, writing reports, participating in meetings and writing e-mails (Fitzpatrick & O’Dowd 2012, Kassim & Ali 2010, Stevens 2005,). Having staff who cannot use the language to communicate greatly limits an employer’s flexibility.

Research carried out by Cambridge English shows in detail the importance which employers attach to the four skills: englishatwork.cambridgeenglish.org/  

Of course, some employers and other organisations wish to focus on particular skills to meet the requirements of specific roles. For these situations, Cambridge English provides a number of modular tests such as BULATS and Linguaskill which can be used to focus on individual skills.

For further information

Further information in the academic literature about the communicative approach to assessment can also be found in:

• Bachman, L., & Palmer, A. (1996). Language testing in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47.
• Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Fitzpatrick, A., & O'Dowd, R. (2012). English at Work: The International Research Foundation for English Language Education report.
• Kassim, H & Ali, F (2010) English communicative events and skills needed at the workplace: Feedback from the industry. English for Specific Purposes, 29(3), 168-182.
• Powers, D. E. (2010) The case for a comprehensive, four-skills assessment of English Language Proficiency. TOEIC Compendium Study. ETS Publications.
• Sawaki, Y, Stricker, L. J and Oranje, A. H (2009) Factor structure of the TOEFL Internet-based test, Language Testing, 26 (1) 5-30.
• Stevens, B. (2005). What communication skills do employers want? Silicon Valley recruiters respond. Journal of Employment Counseling, 42, 2-9.
• Weir, C J, Vidakovic, I and Galaczi, E D (2013) Measured constructs: A history of the constructs underlying Cambridge English examinations 1913–2012 (Studies in Language Testing, volume 37), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

These articles focus on the impact of Cambridge English exams in a range of educational contexts, and provide evidence for the benefits of including the four skills in assessment:

• Ashton, K, Salamoura, A and Diaz, E (2012) The BEDA impact project: A preliminary investigation of a bilingual programme in Spain, Research Notes 50, 34–42.
• Chambers, L, Elliott, M and Jianguo, H (2012) The Hebei Impact Project: A study into the impact of Cambridge English exams in the state sector in Hebei province, China, Research Notes 50, 20–23.
• Gu, X, Khalifa, H, Yan, Q and Tian, J (2012) A small-scale pilot study investigating the impact of Cambridge English: Young Learners in China, Research Notes 50, 42–48.
• Gu, X and Saville, N (2012) Impact of Cambridge English: Key for Schools and Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools – parents’ perspectives in China, Research Notes 50, 48–56.
• Hawkey, R and Ellis, S (2016) Impacts of international language assessments on multilingualism: Evidence from an iterative impact study of Progetto Lingue 2000, in Docherty, C and Barker, F (Eds) Language Assessment For Multilingualism: Proceedings of the ALTE Paris Conference, April 2014, (Studies in Language Testing, volume 44), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 182–208.
• Khalifa, H, and Docherty, C (2016) Investigating the impact of international assessment: A convergent parallel mixed methods approach, in Moeller, A, Creswell, J and Saville, N (Eds) Second Language Assessment and Mixed Methods Research (Studies in Language Testing, volume 43), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 269-295).
• Khalifa, H, Nguyen, T and Walker, C (2012) An investigation into the effect of intensive language provision and external assessment in primary education in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, Research Notes 50, 8–19.
• Salamoura, A, Hamilton, M and Octor, V (2012) An initial investigation of the introduction of Cambridge English examinations in Mission laïque francaise schools, Research Notes 50, 24–33.

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Four Key Language Skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing

Discover how these skills interconnect and contribute to language proficiency, communication, and personal development., introduction.

Language is a multifaceted tool that serves as a means of communication, expression, and understanding. Within the realm of language acquisition, four primary skills play a central role: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Each of these skills contributes uniquely to one's language proficiency and plays a vital role in different aspects of life. In this post, we will delve into the relative importance of these four key language skills and how they complement each other.

Speaking is often considered the most critical language skill, as it directly enables human communication. It facilitates interaction with others, both socially and professionally, allowing individuals to express their thoughts, ideas, and emotions effectively. The ability to speak fluently is especially crucial in situations like business negotiations, job interviews, and everyday conversations. Effective speaking enhances one's confidence, builds relationships, and fosters cultural understanding.

Listening is the counterpart to speaking, and it is equally essential in effective communication. Without strong listening skills, misunderstandings can arise, leading to breakdowns in communication. Active listening involves not only hearing words but also comprehending their meaning, tone, and context. Proficient listening enhances language learners' ability to engage in meaningful conversations, understand cultural nuances, and respond appropriately. In educational settings, strong listening skills are crucial for learning and comprehension.

Reading expands one's knowledge and understanding of language. It allows individuals to access a vast wealth of information, literature, and culture. Through reading, individuals can explore diverse perspectives, historical accounts, and contemporary issues. Reading also plays a significant role in academic and professional contexts, where individuals are required to process, analyze, and synthesize written information. Strong reading skills lead to improved vocabulary, comprehension, and critical thinking.

Writing is the skill that allows individuals to express their thoughts and ideas in a structured and organized manner. It serves as a means of documentation, creativity, and self-expression. In academic and professional settings, effective writing is essential for creating reports, essays, emails, and other forms of communication. It also plays a crucial role in preserving knowledge, culture, and history through the written word. Strong writing skills enable individuals to convey their thoughts with clarity and precision.

The Interplay of Skills

While each of these four language skills holds significance on its own, their importance is interconnected. They complement and reinforce each other, creating a holistic language proficiency. For instance, strong listening skills aid in developing accurate pronunciation when speaking. Reading enhances vocabulary, which in turn improves writing. Writing practice can lead to a deeper understanding of grammatical structures, benefiting both speaking and listening.

Moreover, in the modern world, technology has blurred the lines between these skills. Communication platforms, such as social media and instant messaging, require a combination of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Multimedia content, including videos and podcasts, encourages learners to engage in both listening and speaking activities.

In conclusion, the four key language skills—speaking, listening, reading, and writing—each hold a unique and essential place in language acquisition and proficiency. Their relative importance depends on the context, goals, and individual preferences. However, it is the interplay of these skills that results in a well-rounded and effective communicator. Language learners benefit most when they strive for balance and competence in all four skills, enabling them to navigate the complexities of language in diverse personal, educational, and professional settings.

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Basic Language Skills – Listening, Speaking, Reading & Writing

James Humes, Presidential speech writer who authored the text written on the Apollo 11 lunar plaque, said, “The art of…

James Humes, Presidential speech writer who authored the text written on the Apollo 11 lunar plaque, said, “The art of communication is the language of leadership.”

Language skills are just as important in the 21st century as they were when Apollo 11 orbited the moon. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are critical language skills you need to navigate a changing professional landscape. The understanding may have changed but the fundamentals remain the same.

Read on to discover how these four language skills are relevant today and how you can develop your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.

What Are Language Skills?

What are the four language skills, what are the advantages of building language skills, the habit of communicating impactfully.

Every activity from reading this blog and writing an email to listening to a podcast and speaking in a meeting constitutes communication. Whether you’re with friends or at work, you have to communicate every day, all the time.

Language skills are communication skills that help you convey your ideas with clarity and precision. Not only do you learn to speak well but also listen attentively. Writing clearly with brevity is another skill that’s considered crucial in a professional setting. Reading helps you make sense of vast amounts of data and information.

Developing your linguistic skills will help you become a proficient communicator who knows how to get from point A to B effectively.

Basic language skills that you need today are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Regardless of whether you’re a student or professional,  your years of experience or goals, linguistic skills will always come in handy.

Let’s explore each of these language skills in detail.

Active Listening

Listening is a lot more than simply hearing what someone is saying. There’s a big difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is when you don’t really register the words, instead, you nod and smile while your mind is drifting off to neverland. Listening is an activity where you’re fully engaged. Not only are you registering their words but also getting curious to learn more. Listening successfully will usually end with you asking follow-up questions about the speaker’s intent, drive and purpose. Here are some of the traits of active listening:

You want to actively understand what they’re trying to convey

You give them your complete attention

You ask more questions than giving answers

You listen first, speak or interject later

You make the speaker feel welcome so they can open up to you

Reading Well

When you read, you take your time to understand what the author’s trying to convey with their words. Whether it’s a novel, online article or even a business report, it’s important to take your time with it and make sense of the original intent. Reading well and deeply requires complete attention but also efficiency so you don’t end up going over the same sentence multiple times. You can make notes, add comments or summarize the contents of a text to get a deeper insight. Here are some of the characteristics of deep reading:

You’re able to understand what the author wants to convey the first time

You manage your time well without spending hours with a text

You can draw conclusions, write summaries and analyze the content without a problem

You make notes and memos so it’s easier to identify parts of a text

You’re not afraid to tackle 100-page reports because you know how to approach a large body of text

Speaking Impactfully

If there’s one communication skill everyone needs, but many fear, it’s speaking effectively. The fear is in terms of speaking in front of an audience—presentations, meetings and speeches. It may even be communicating with an interviewer if you’ve applied for a job. Speaking well helps you in many areas of life. Talking to friends, coworkers or clients requires some skill, attention and concentration. Here are some characteristics of speaking with impact:

You speak clearly and concisely to draw your audience’s attention

You’re able to convey your ideas, thoughts and opinions with impact

You articulate things well into words with a strong verbal delivery

You have the capacity to overcome a fear of public speaking with practice

You’re more likely to ace your interviews or client meetings by speaking impactfully

Proficient Writing

Linguistic skills are incomplete without proficient writing abilities. Writing well means you’re able to succinctly present your ideas. You don’t have to write long, complex sentences stuffed with heavy vocabulary to write well. What you do need is the ability to convey your thoughts in short, crisp sentences. Writing well will help you with business communication or if you’re in a creative field that involves copywriting, blogs or social media posts. Here are some aspects of proficient writing:

You know how to structure your writing to generate interest

You can tell a story with your words to make your communication all the more interesting

Your writing is succinct, clear and precise without wasting words

You’re able to put your thoughts into words

You can summarize long reports and texts for easier understanding

These four language skills form the pillars of effective, impactful and strong communication. Building, refining and perfecting these skills will help you make progress in your career. Let’s explore how developing language skills can help you succeed.

Communication pervades each and every aspect of our personal and professional lives. You may have a job interview lined up at your dream organization or you could be writing an email to your manager requesting leave. You need to have the right skills to perform well in each of these tasks.

Here are the advantages of developing your language skills:

Make An Impact At Work

In a professional setting, the advantages of communication are infinite. Giving presentations, attending meetings or setting up a feedback channel–each requires compelling communication. You need to leave a lasting impression on your peers and seniors. For this, you can use your words or the ability to listen well. A good communicator makes an effective leader. Your colleagues will likely trust you over someone who’s vague and unconfident.

Become A Storyteller

Storytelling is an art form where you not only convey your ideas and thoughts but weave a story that others can relate to. Effective communication helps you build a strong case for yourself. For instance, you may be giving a speech in your college festival. If you can appeal to your audience, they’ll be more intent on listening to you.

Excellent communication skills distinguish you from the crowd. If you’re able to articulate well, you can easily keep your audience engaged. It’s the ability to move mountains with your words that are unique. Many excellent orators, like Barack Obama, appeal to their audience’s emotions, which is why they’re hard to forget.

Present Ideas With Precision

No matter where you work and what you do, communication skills will help you put your ideas into words. Say you’re starting your own business. You need to appeal to investors so they’ll willingly put their money into your business. If you can present your action plan in detail without leaving things out, they’re more likely to trust you. Communication helps you build relationships by creating room for trust.

Understand Both Verbal and Non-verbal Communication

An important aspect of communication is nonverbal communication . This comprises body language, gestures and facial expressions. Building your language skills will help you understand these elements that help you build rapport. In an interview, for instance, you can read your interviewer’s stance by decoding their body language. Making eye contact, sitting up straight with your hands confidently placed on your lap are all signs of non-verbal communication. Communication is a lot more than just words.

In life, you’ll encounter countless situations that require effective communication skills. Building these skills will encourage you to pursue your goals with confidence. You can enroll in online courses , practice on your own or with a friend or gain these skills over time with experience. The most important thing is to be mindful and aware of the reasons you need these language skills.

Harappa offers four unique and comprehensive courses to help you build your communication skills. These are Speaking Effectively , Writing Proficiently , Reading Deeply and Listening Actively . Designed to teach you how to communicate with impact, each course constitutes important frameworks like the PAM (Purpose-Audience-Message) , the EAR (Empathy-Authenticity-Respect) of Listening , the Four Ps (Preview-Predict-Prior Knowledge-Purpose) of Reading and the Pyramid Principle .

These core concepts are targeted at improving specific skill sets, taught by experts. Our stellar faculty will guide you with their own expertise and tips on how to ace communication. Structure your thoughts, weave stories and learn to read people to tackle workplace challenges. Compelling communication paves the way for career progression. You’ll overcome your fears of public speaking and introducing yourself in front of a crowd. You don’t have to think twice before drafting a succinct email and you’re bound to make meaningful relationships at work by developing your listening skills.

Start building your skills today and communicate your way to success!

Explore Harappa Diaries to learn more about topics such as  Principles of Communication ,  How To Improve Communication Skills , The Significance Of Different  Writing Styles , Tips For  Active Listening  & The  Importance of Reading  to communicate with impact.

• Language Learning Secrets

Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening in Language Learning

By Jonty Yamisha • 11 minute read

As you get your feet wet learning a new language, you’ll see that there are four areas of learning: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. 

Your goals will direct your initial focus, but you can’t go too far without all four. Just like you can’t go too far in the gym without doing some cardio, some stretching, and some strengthening.

As you would at the gym, you’ll be drawn to some elements of language learning more than others.

If a language course doesn’t provide adequate input through reading and listening at an appropriate level, the learner will miss out on crucial learning opportunities.

According to research on young foreign language learners, increasing the amount of interesting and understandable written input without increasing class time resulted in nearly double the language proficiency gains compared to a program with the same amount of class time but less input.

Similarly, if learners don’t use bilingual flashcards and instead do passive-vocabulary-related exercises , they will likely learn vocabulary at a rate that is less than half of what they could otherwise achieve.

If the chosen course doesn’t include fluency development activities such as timed reading, then taking a timed reading course will increase reading speed by at least 50% , if not more.

Balance the 4 Areas of Learning to Meet Specific Goals

Balanced learning is the most important criterion. Guided Immersion’s Five Factor Framework is designed to promote a balanced language course. 

Ideally, a learner should spend equal time on comprehensible input, grammatically correct output, meaningful interactions, formal instruction (study), and practice and repetition. We’ll look at each of those later.

Based on their objectives, each learner can adjust the balance of these elements. 

If the language they’re learning has a sound system that is very different from that of their native language, it’s worthwhile for the student to deliberately learn about the sound system.

It’s important to find a teacher who can explain how the sounds are produced in the mouth, rather than just saying sounds to copy. 

Alternatively, the learner can conduct that research on their own. Some people can learn the sounds without any help or study, but if they’re having difficulty, it’s best to seek out a teacher .

If the learner’s only goal is to read the language , they can redirect the time spent on verbal output into more reading input. Similarly, if their goal is simply to speak the language (especially if the script is difficult), they may want to make all of their input spoken language.

Psst! Did you know we have a language learning app?

• It teaches you useful words and phrases.
• Presented in a natural, everyday context.
• Spaced out over time, so you absorb your new language organically.
• It’s kind of like learning the words to your new favorite song!

You’re only one click away!

Finding the Right Balance

You’ll find the right balance of these four elements for yourself. True comfort in a language requires command of the four domains of language learning: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. 

While it’s not necessary for every learner to be equally strong in all four domains, they should avoid the temptation to neglect a domain entirely.

Guided Immersion’s Five Factor Framework and the associated activities were designed to provide a broad range of options that empower the learner to take control of their language learning journey.

The Balance Between Listening and Reading (Input)

Listening to the way the language is spoken, even if you don’t understand the words, is useful in the early stages of learning a language. A good way to do this is to watch a movie with subtitles in that language . 

This type of form-focused listening gives students a feel for the language, which will be helpful when they begin speaking it on their own.

As language skills improve, a good way to get some listening practice is to find a movie with a downloadable script and study it before watching the film. 

The first step is to read the script, look up unfamiliar words, and figure out what the sentences mean. They can then watch the movie with subtitles again a few weeks later.

Similarly, many graded readers now come with an accompanying audio file that provides the spoken version of the text. Try both reading before listening and reading while listening.

The Balance Between Speaking and Writing (Output)

While listening and reading are referred to as “ receptive skills ” because they involve the receipt of input, speaking and writing are referred to as “productive skills” because they result in the creation of output.

In general, producing language is more difficult than receiving it because the speaker must make decisions about word choice and grammatical constructions when generating language.

Over one-quarter of the time in a balanced language learning program should be devoted to productive skill development, which includes gaining fluency in speaking and writing, according to the criteria of Guided Immersion, which we follow in this course.

Give Yourself Adequate Time and Balance for Language Learning

Regardless of how much they focus on each skill, language learners should spend as much time as they reasonably can engaging in their target language . 

Language learning is a process, not an event with an end goal. Additionally, language learning should be enjoyable, and a balanced journey will include equal effort across each of Guided Immersion’s Five Factor Framework.

Let’s delve into each of the four areas and how you can use them to further your goals.

Reading: How Can One Learn a Language Through Reading?

Research has demonstrated that one can learn a lot of a language through reading. To improve their language skills through reading, the learner should read texts at a suitable level. This is simple if the learner speaks English, but impossible for learners of many other languages.

This is because there are many courses in English called graded readers that are specially written with a controlled vocabulary for English learners. 

Graded readers are courses designed specifically for foreign language learners, allowing them to read courses at the appropriate level at almost any level of proficiency .

Learners can visit the Extensive Reading Foundation for more information on graded readers, as well as to see which ones have been voted the best. There are a few graded readers in Japanese and French.

If a person is learning a language other than English, it’s beneficial to obtain the courses that native speakers use in school when they learn to read. 

This is because these courses are designed for students with limited vocabularies and don’t introduce words that these first-language students are unlikely to know. 

Encyclopedias, particularly those written for young children, are another good source of reading.

Reading promotes language learning through repetition . 

That is, as they read, students come across words, word groups, and grammatical constructions. Students have a good chance of learning these patterns because they appear several times in a text. 

Additionally, reading can be enjoyable and create feelings of success, which encourage students to continue learning.

Is it a good idea for a learner to pick an interesting course and read it from beginning to end, learning all the new words they encounter? If the course isn’t written in a controlled vocabulary or isn’t on a topic about which the learner is already well-versed, probably not.

The main reason for this is that it will contain a large number of unknown words (possibly more than 1000), the majority of which will be well outside the learner’s current vocabulary. Approximately half of all words in a text appear only once.

However, it is worth struggling through a text if one or more of the following conditions apply:

• The text is a set requirement for a course.
• The course is an important text in the learner’s academic field, and it will help them learn the technical vocabulary of this field.
• The subject matter of the course is familiar to the learner, and the technical terms are similar to those in their L1.
• It’s a novel that they have already read in their first language, so they can easily guess or skip many of the unknown words.

Purchasing an electronic version of the text or scanning it to create an electronic version can be beneficial. (Don’t distribute the electronic version, as this will break the copyright.)

Dictionary access comes with using an electronic reader such as a Kindle. Narrow reading of various short texts on the same topic is a valuable alternative to reading a long text.

Is it better to re-read the same course or read a different one?

The advantages of re-reading a course are:

• It’ll be a lot easier than reading it the first time.
• It’ll guarantee the repetition of the vocabulary.
• It’ll provide an opportunity for recall of previously met vocabulary.
• It may help develop reading fluency.
• It’ll take much less time than reading a different course of the same length.

The advantages of reading a new course are:

• Some of the words met in the previous course will be met again in different contexts.
• There’ll be many new words to learn.

These lists suggest that re-reading is a good idea and that a language learning program should include a mix of re-reading and new reading. 

The goal in the early stages of language learning should be to spend at least 30 minutes to an hour per week doing meaningful listening and reading. Learners should extend this time as their proficiency grows.

Writing: How Can One Learn a Language Through Writing?

There should be three kinds of writing in any language course. The first kind of writing is done carefully, with the help of a dictionary when necessary, focusing on accuracy. 

Someone proficient in the language should correct the learner’s writing so that they can get feedback on its accuracy.

The second kind of writing should focus on fluency. The most useful activity for doing this is writing. 

The third kind of writing focuses on the quantity of writing under careful conditions and doesn’t require feedback on the language, although it’s always useful.

According to the time-on-task criterion, the more time an individual spends on an activity, the better they will be at it. Regular practice improves all four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).

Speaking: How Can One Learn a Language Through Speaking?

Memorizing useful phrases and sentences is the quickest way to start speaking another language. The first phrases and sentences should include:  

• Polite expressions
• Language for communicating
• Brief descriptions of oneself, one’s work, and reasons for being in a foreign country

As proficiency grows, it’s beneficial to form a group (hopefully including a native speaker or two) that meets regularly to practice conversation.

Learners can roleplay through a list of situations in which they’re likely to find themselves during these conversation sessions. They should practice each scenario two or three times in a session, followed by once or twice in increasingly spaced subsequent sessions.

A native speaker is unlikely to correct a foreign language learner in a normal conversation if their language is understandable but incorrect. As a result, locating someone capable of and willing to provide corrective feedback is particularly beneficial.

It’s also beneficial to choose a specific focus for correction, such as the pronunciation of a sound or the use of a grammatical feature, so that the corrections aren’t overwhelming and spread across multiple areas of language development.

Because of the lack of interaction with others when studying alone, speaking is the most difficult skill to develop. Learners must seek out these opportunities , including direct contact with native speakers, other learners, and electronic contact.

Listening: How Can One Learn a Language Through Listening?

Movies are typically under 10,000 words long (a novel is usually over 100,000 words long) and contain around 1,000 different word families . These words have a variety of frequency levels.

A learner must have a reasonably large vocabulary to follow most of the words in a movie without any preparation — at least 3,000 words, but preferably around 6,000. 

Preparing for a movie by reading the script and studying the vocabulary is manageable because the number of different words in a movie isn’t so large.

Because the amount of meaningful input has a strong influence on language learning, the learner should strive to get plenty of listening and reading input at an appropriate level of difficulty on a regular basis.

Jonty Yamisha

Husband, father, and accidental polyglot Jonty Yamisha founded OptiLingo after working to protect his native language, Circassian, from extinction. He has helped thousands finally achieve their dream of reaching fluency by promoting SPEAKING over typing languages with OptiLingo.

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The Four Skills of the English Language: 18 Tips

What’s the secret to improving your English language skills? 

In this post, I’ll discuss some tips, tricks and shortcuts that should help you read, write, speak and listen better in English .

Feel free to skip to the sections that apply most to you or read the entire post and make note of whatever advice you find useful.

Read on and start improving!

Improve Your English Language Skills: Getting Started

Speak better english right from home, 1. practice asking and answering questions, 2. find a study partner to speak with, 3. learn the most common expressions used in english conversations, 4. get perfect pronunciation with a voice-recognition app , write more accurately and correctly, 5. keep a diary, 6. use grammarly, 7. use the hemingway editor, 8. try writing your own stories, 9. use writing templates, listen with more ease and better comprehension, 10. solve listening comprehension exercises, 11. listen to podcasts and watch shows, 12. be aware of pauses and silences in conversations, 13. play memory games, 14. try your hand at transcribing, read faster and understand more, 15. read the newspaper every day, 16. read short stories or stories for children, 17. try speed reading, 18. solve comprehension exercises, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Learning a language takes a lot of courage and commitment, and the very fact that you’re reading this is proof that you have it in you. So, congratulations!

The four secrets to language learning are: speaking, writing, listening and reading. If you want to become fluent in English , you’ll need to work on all four skills:

• Reading will improve your grammar, expand your vocabulary and grow your knowledge.
• Writing will allow you to text or write to anyone in English, as well as send emails and prepare reports, which are essential in the workplace.
• Speaking with confidence will let you express your thoughts and communicate in conversations and presentations.
• Listening will help you better understand what’s going on around you.

The quickest way to learn a language is to focus on your weaknesses and build on your strengths. Before we move on to how to develop these skills, you need to do some basic “homework.” 

• Identify your weak and strong spots: Rank the four language skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) in order of how difficult you find them, from easiest to most challenging. The skill that you find the hardest is the one that you’ll need to work on the most.
• Identify your English level proficiency: You might already know some English or you may be still trying to learn the basics. Either way, it’s always a good idea to take a free level test and find out where your skills are.
• You need a basic understanding of grammar: Memorizing grammar rules isn’t a good or fun way to learn English, but having a basic idea of sentence structure is important. Once the foundation is built, everything else becomes easier.
• You need a basic vocabulary: Knowing the most-used words will help a lot in the beginning. Being familiar with the common phrases and knowing certain terms will also help you a long way. In fact, keep a dictionary or a thesaurus on hand for quick reference.

Speaking fluently is one of the most useful skills, and if you’re a beginner or just shy, it may seem like an impossible task. But it’s not impossible! And with some practice, anyone can become a good speaker.

• Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
• Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
• Integrated into courses for beginners

Having a personal tutor is a great idea if you’re really struggling (having trouble) but there are many other ways to improve your English speaking skills . Check out the tips below to get started!

Understanding how sentences are formed is important, and you can start with the very basics: the order of words in a sentence. And one easy way to practice basic sentence structure is by asking and answering questions.

As you may already know, questions in English usually begin with one of the 5 Ws: when, where, what, why, which (and sometimes, how). Questions also usually have part of the answer already in them.

For example, let’s say that you see this question:

“Who walks the dogs?”

To answer, you can just fill in the “who”:

• Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
• Slow down or loop the tricky parts
• Show or hide subtitles
• Review words with our powerful learning engine

“Leila walks the dog.”

Once you know how to form and answer questions , you can ask yourself questions and try answering them. Here are some ideas:

• What do I want for breakfast today? (“Today, I want… for breakfast.”)
• What are some of the things I am proud of? (“I am proud of…”)
• Where do I want to go on vacation? (“I want to go on vacation to…”)
• How will I finish this task? (“I will finish this task by…”)
• Where do I want to be in five years? (“In five years, I want to be…”)

Asking and answering questions can get you used to the correct order of words that sounds natural.

By memorizing the format of asking and answering questions , you’ll improve your grammar skills and help get more confident with your English speaking.

Finding an online study partner shouldn’t be difficult if you know where to look.

There are apps like HelloTalk or Tandem , where you can find native and other English speakers and practice speaking with them.

Many of the users are up for a language exchange so you can teach them your mother tongue in exchange for learning English.

• Learn words in the context of sentences
• Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
• Go beyond just a superficial understanding

You can also do a quick search on Facebook for groups about English language learning and study partners. Just remember to be polite and give timely replies. You’ll soon find a lot of eager learners like you who might be willing to get on an online call and practice speaking in a safe, judgment-free environment.

Here are two links to get you started:

• Grammar (English) Learning on Facebook
• Learn English with Friends

Memorizing some things when it comes to English will help you a lot when you’re just getting started.

Knowing how to greet friends and strangers , ask for help or any information—these are some conversational phrases that you can learn in one sitting just by watching a video. It will then help you to move on to more complicated stuff.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

Try FluentU for FREE!

Just watching isn’t enough, though! Make sure you repeat the words out loud. Speak in front of a mirror. Record yourself. Practice with your new language partner.

The more you practice, the easier it’ll be to speak English without worry!

• FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
• Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
• Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.

If you’re a non-native speaker, learning how to pronounce correctly using British or American English may not come naturally to you.

This is where an app like ELSA can be your best friend. ELSA uses AI and the very best voice recognition technology to give instant feedback on your pronunciation.

With over 1,200 lessons and an interactive dictionary, you can spend just 10 minutes a day on this app and see the results quickly.

From my own experience, I can confirm that writing is a skill that improves only with practice. The more you write, the better you’ll get.

But if writing as an activity doesn’t interest you much, maybe you can try one of the following approaches.

The surest way to build a writing habit is to keep a diary and write in it every day. Since a diary is personal, no one else will read it or judge you for your mistakes, so you can be completely free and write whatever you feel like.

• Images, examples, video examples, and tips
• Covering all the tricky edge cases, eg.: phrases, idioms, collocations, and separable verbs
• No reliance on volunteers or open source dictionaries
• 100,000+ hours spent by FluentU's team to create and maintain

You can write about what you did during the day, your favorite memories or something you’re looking forward to. And on days when you feel too tired to write, you can skip the paragraphs and make a list or two, instead.

If you’re still searching for ideas, check out some writing prompts .

No one has perfect grammar—not even native speakers—and it’s perfectly normal to make grammatical mistakes.

But there are ways to minimize the grammar mistakes you make while you write, and one of the best is the AI writing tool, Grammarly .

You can install Grammarly on your web browser or your laptop and get instant checks of your grammar and punctuation and even feedback about why you’re wrong.

In short, you’ll get two major benefits:

• You’ll learn English grammar from your own mistakes.
• You won’t have to worry about sending a grammatically incorrect email to your boss, ever again.

Good writing is more than just the absence of grammar mistakes. You need to make sure that your writing is clear, and easy to read and understand.

The Hemingway Editor helps you to do just that by telling you how “readable” something is. The tool highlights all the words and sentences you need to change or modify in order to clarify your writing.

For instance, a purple highlight means that you should try to use a shorter word (it even suggests synonyms!). Green and blue highlights mean you’re using passive voice and too many adverbs, respectively. A red highlight is a sign that your sentence is too complicated and you should edit it for clarity.

It’s a fun and educational experience, so give it a try.

Stories aren’t just entertainment—they help us make sense of the world. All of us have stories to tell, but we often don’t know how to express them. The easiest way to fix that is to read children’s books of fables and fairy tales and try writing your own.

You can use the same characters but change them in some way, or put them in a completely different situation. For example, what if Cinderella was a boy? Or what if another animal joined the race of the hare and tortoise?

Again, the goal is to improve your imagination and get you writing, so you don’t have to worry about how “correct” it all is. Besides, you won’t even be publishing them.

Eventually, you’ll be able to write your own stories and express your opinions and thoughts more clearly.

If you’ve joined a workplace, you may have to do a fair bit of professional writing, such as writing emails, memos, reports and the like. And it’s okay to be nervous if you don’t have experience.

You can get some help by looking up a template online for whatever you’re trying to write, and following the pattern to write your own.

For example, here’s a template for an email ! With enough practice, you’ll soon be able to start writing on your own without the templates.

Being a good listener is a valuable skill because, unless we learn to listen well, we’ll never be able to understand the person we’re conversing with.

The simplest method to test your listening skills is to listen to something, from a motivational talk to a catchy song, and then test how well you understood it.

There are a number of ways to do this. Here are some tips for learning to listen in English.

In a listening comprehension exercise , you listen to the passage and then have to answer questions about it. This means you need to listen closely and remember the important details.

You can try the listening comprehension exercises at the British Council to get you started. Or, any kind of English audio can help you improve your listening comprehension! How? Check out the next tip!

The more English content you listen to or watch, the better. You’ll improve your language skills and learn about the finer points of English culture that you won’t ever find in a grammar textbook. It’s both entertaining and informative.

However, here’s a twist to make that activity even more interesting: Listen or watch something for 15-20 minutes, and then spend about five minutes summarizing it, either out loud or in writing.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are lists of some podcasts , audiobooks and TV shows that you can look into.

While you’re listening, don’t just listen to the words—pay attention to the pauses and silences in a conversation, too.

Often, silence can have a lot of meaning. Also, body language and facial expressions are just as important in showing meaning, almost as much as the words themselves.

In short, try to be more observant, attentive and patient whenever you’re listening.

There’s a lot to remember when you’re learning a new language and playing games in English can help. Memory games in particular can help you remember important things by making the learning process fun!

For example, if you’re learning a list of words related to food, you can have a friend read out that list while you pay careful attention. Then, see how many items from the list you can remember—and gain a point for each correct item.

Alternatively, you (or you and a friend) can select a topic and come up with a word chain of related terms. For instance, if the topic is “clothes” and you begin with “dress,” you can follow it with “dress, jacket,” then “dress, jacket, gown” and so on.

Transcribing is where you listen to something and write it down , exactly as you heard it.

You can take any audio or video material and transcribe it. Or, you can even try taking notes while you’re listening to it—making you focus on both your writing and listening skills at the same time.

These exercises will also help you recognize the “keywords” or the main ideas, and that will help you understand the material better.

Getting into a regular habit of reading will help you for your entire life. You won’t only have a great vocabulary for any context, but you’ll also be a more knowledgeable and understanding human being.

Check out this video, which includes the 21 best novels for learning English.

And now let’s have a look at some ways to make reading a habit.

No, you don’t have to read the whole paper, although it’s amazing if you can do so! Do skim (quickly read and go over) the headlines and try to read at least one or two full articles.

As you read the articles, underline unknown words and look up their meanings online or in a dictionary.

By reading the newspaper , you’ll be learning some new words but you’ll also be learning about current events (things that are happening right now in the world), culture and the issues that English-speaking readers find important.

Reading an entire novel in English might seem scary, but you can always start with something small, like a short story.

Children’s stories or short stories in general are usually fun, teach a lesson or two and are written using simple vocabulary, so even beginners can find a story that they can understand.

In fact, one of the best children’s stories for learning English is the worldwide bestselling book series “Harry Potter.”

As shown by the above video, “Harry Potter” can be used to learn many different languages. “Harry Potter” was originally written in English, so you can use it to help you master the language.

The great thing about “Harry Potter” is that it’s available in many formats. For reading practice, simply pick up a copy of “Harry Potter” in English from your local bookstore or online.

If you want listening practice, “Harry Potter” also has audiobooks. What about watching “Harry Potter?” Well, you can watch all eight movies with English subtitles or subtitles in your native language!

This tip is especially for advanced learners who already have a good grasp of the English language but are keen to improve further. Once you’re comfortable with reading at your regular speed, you can challenge yourself to read faster.

There are many techniques for this. The simplest is to set a timer and skim over the text. You can also use your finger or a pointer (like a pen) to drag over the text as you read. Or, you can focus on the headings, the beginning and the ending of a body of text, since those areas cover the main points.

Here’s a quick hint: Try to silence the voice in your head that reads along with you and you’ll find yourself reading a lot faster!

To get an introduction to the topic as well as some links to the techniques I’ve mentioned, this article is a good place to start . 

Finally, to check if your reading and understanding skills have improved, try solving a few reading comprehension exercises online. Just choose the difficulty level and get going.

Solving a short comprehension exercise or two each week is a great way to watch your skills improve.

The secret is out! You now know the four major English language skills you should be targeting in your studies and plenty of tips to help you do so.

Mastering English opens up a whole new way of thinking, as well as connects you to over two billion people who also speak the same language.

And isn’t that a wonderful feeling?

Happy learning!

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.

For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.

The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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English EFL

Four core skills of english language learning.

Methodology

The purpose of language learning is to improve the speakers' four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, with the base of large vocabulary and good grammar, but this is not the final purpose. The final purpose is to let speakers be able to use the language. For instance, why do people study English? If a man is only good at listening and speaking, can people say that he is good at English? No. If a woman is only good at reading and writing, can people say that she is good at the language? No. In addition, most of the speakers do better in reading and writing than in listening and speaking. They can read and write, but they can hardly communicate. They can hardly express themselves with their own words. We are not able to change the examination system, but we can improve our learning method. So when speakers want to use a language well, do not forget to know all the abilities of the four skills.

Listening, one of the means of language communication is used most widely in people's daily lives. In addition, teaching the learners a lot of listening activities is a good way of enlargening their vocabulary. On the other hand, it also helps the learners improve their listening comprehension. For instance, people know that the largest difference between mother language learning and foreign language learning is the environment. For a foreign language, we can meet it only in formal places and classes. Training and practicing the oral reading is not a day's work. Practice is important. Only through the practice can the learners improve their listening comprehension.

Next, Speaking is often connected with listening. For example, the two-way communication makes up for the defect in communicative ability in the traditional learning. Two-way means the relationship of the communication between the teacher and the students at school. This relationship is connected with the communicative activities between two people. It can create a fresh environment for speaking language. The two-way communication can lengthen the dialogue limitlessly. This is its advantage. At the same time, if the speakers want to give the correct response, he has to think hard, the sentence is not easily forgotten which is created by themselves through thinking, sometimes with the teacher's hint. They can talk freely and express themselves as well as they can.

Next, Reading is an important way of gaining information in language learning and it is a basic skill for a language learner. There are a lot of reading exercises in an examination today. But all these readings must be done in limited time. So learners are asked to read them correctly and with a certain speed. For instance, someone reads word by word. Someone reads with his finger pointing to the words or with his head shaking. Those are all bad habits. They should read phrase by phrase. Do not blink eyes so often and shake head. Just move the eyeball. That is enough. If they want to get more word information, there must be a proper distance between their eyes and the reading material.

Finally, Writing is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures. It provides a learner with physical evidence of his achievements and he can measure his improvement. It helps to consolidate their grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills. Sentence is the base of an article. So he should begin his writing with sentences. For example, translation, sentence pattern exchanging, and text shortening and rewriting. It helps to understand the text and write compositions. It can foster the learner's ability to summarize and to use the language freely.

Generally these four skills cannot be separated. People often say "First listening and speaking, then reading and writing." But this way of saying is fit for the beginning stage. Before they are going to have a new lesson, do reading and writing first. So, training and practicing helps learners that raise their ability of language skills.

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How to Improve Your Language Skills Through Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking

Last Updated: March 3, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Language Academia . Language Academia is a private, online language school founded by Kordilia Foxstone. Kordilia and her team specialize in teaching foreign languages and accent reduction. Language Academia offers courses in several languages, including English, Spanish, and Mandarin. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 227,026 times.

Are you having trouble in reading, writing, listening or speaking? You can improve any and all of these skills through practice and repetition.

• Read out loud daily. You can read books, magazines, articles, comic books, and news on various topics. When you read out loud, you learn to pronounce the words correctly.

• Write a journal. It allows you to write without being judged by others.
• Practice writing essays. It teaches you to put your ideas in a proper text.

• Analyze the author's range of vocabulary. How does the author convey messages, moods, attitudes and feelings?

Community Q&A

• Look up a word and find a synonym (a word that has the same meaning as another word). If you don't like a word, look it up and look for a word you might like in the synonym side. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Before a speech, do some research about your topic and write detailed (but simplified) notes so you can branch out from them, creating a more decisive and clear piece of writing. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Read different types/genres of texts and references. Newspapers and fictional books differ greatly, therefore reading through each one will benefit you a lot. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-its-important-to-read/
• ↑ https://slc.berkeley.edu/writing-worksheets-and-other-writing-resources/nine-basic-ways-improve-your-style-academic-writing
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/effective-note-taking-in-class/
• ↑ https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/why-is-public-speaking-important/
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/learning-a-second-language/

About This Article

The easiest way to improve your language skills is by making a habit of reading, writing, and speaking every day! Set a goal of reading for a half hour every day, and practice your writing at the same time by taking notes on the passage, then writing a short paragraph summarizing what you read. You can also practice your speaking skills by reading the passage aloud, or by talking to your friends about what you’ve been reading recently. For some tips on how to sound confident and natural when speaking in front of any kind of audience, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Best Practices for Teaching ESL: Speaking, Reading, and Writing

These days, ESL instruction comes in all shapes and forms, from social media mini-lessons to individualized intensives. Effective teaching practices vary widely, depending upon the context of the teaching. In the classroom, however, certain configurations prevail, and certain methods qualify as best practices for ESL teachers.

ESL Program Models

General program models for teaching English language learners (ELLs) include content-based integrated, content-based self-contained, and dual-immersion approaches, leading to a variety of classroom configurations. The Clark County School District English Language Learner Program website outlines the typical configurations of ELL classrooms in public schools in the United States:

• Self-Contained ESL Classrooms : This approach is often used by districts and schools with large influxes of immigrants every year and with many beginning ELLs. Students first do academic work in their core subjects with other ESL students. Afterward, they are mainstreamed for non-academic subjects and noninstructional parts of the day, such as physical education, art, assemblies, study hall, library, computer lab, lunch, and recess. Classes usually contain students at mixed levels of English proficiency, meaning that the instructor must level instruction and plan small-group and whole-group lessons accordingly.
• Integrated 50/50 ESL Classrooms: Similar to the dual-immersion model’s emphasis on classrooms evenly split between use of home languages and English, the integrated ESL model contains 50 percent native English speakers and 50 percent ELLs, who might have a variety of home languages and varying levels of literacy in them. The instructor often combines native English speakers with ELLs in classroom activities, so that ELLs have the opportunity to work with fluent speakers.
• Integrated Group Classrooms: When schools have only a small number of ELLs, or if the number fluctuates from year to year, administrators sometimes integrate students into the general classroom. ELLs enter their grade levels, and instructors use specially designed academic instruction in English (SDAIE) techniques to ensure they have comprehensible input.
• Dual-Language Programs: The dual-immersion model has broader goals than simply helping students master English skills while learning core content. The highly structured program combines native English speakers and English Language Learners, sometimes in a 50/50 ratio. Students work in English for a designated percentage of the school day and in another target language (often Spanish) for a further percentage of the school day. The percentage of time devoted to each language shifts from year to year, with students ultimately spending half the day working in one language and half the day working in another language. Students typically have two teachers, who complement each other’s instruction without repeating content.
• Sheltered Content ESL Instruction: When ELLs enter the secondary classroom, they face many academic challenges. They must gain fluency in English while also learning grade-level content in several academic areas. For this reason, many schools offer a sheltered-content model that integrates core academic courses with SDAIE strategies and an intense focus on language development. Sheltered-content instructors must assess students frequently to determine gaps in knowledge and target language needs. Because of this diversity of needs, many teachers in this context use group activities, cooperative learning, graphic organizers, multimodal forms of input, and hands-on activities to offer ample opportunities for building vocabulary and increasing interaction.

Techniques for Teaching Speaking

In 1979, language acquisition theorist and professor Dr. Jim Cummins developed the terms BICS and CALP. These terms refer to Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. For beginning ELLs, the focus is on the first set of skills, or BICS. This entails ELLs developing enough fluency in English to comprehend what is being said so that they can respond. Comprehension comes before the ability to produce language, which is why ESL teachers of newcomers might pose a question only to see a complete lack of response among their students. Stephen Krashen referred to this time as “ the silent period .” Also known as pre-production, this silent period might last anywhere from several weeks to a year. During this time, instructors must immerse their students in diverse language experiences and provide many cues to support comprehension.

In Hayriye Kayi’s “Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language,” from the Internet TESL Journal , the author states that interaction, even at this beginning level, is the key to learning. The question is, how does interaction look in a classroom in which people are in their silent periods, unable to produce language?

Typical strategies include listening to fluent English, building receptive vocabulary through repetition and schema building, using gestures to show comprehension, and choral reading. Students might read structured dialogues or practice short phrases or sentences repeatedly for fluency. As they build listening comprehension and vocabulary, students can move onto lessons that demand slightly higher levels of interaction, centered on skills such as:

• using common social greetings
• engaging in community-building activities such as describing schedules and pastimes
• discussing current events or pop culture
• expressing an opinion
• explaining why they did something

Incorporating English Vocabulary in Speaking

ESL teachers can build the vocabulary of ELLs through motivating activities. Direct vocabulary instruction has its place – particularly when students must master grade-level content – but authentic instruction is more meaningful to students. Some best practices for building listening and speaking vocabulary include:

• having short, targeted discussions about interesting themes
• sharing images or objects that spark conversation
• watching short videos on art, music, dance, science or other relevant themes
• reciting rhymes, jokes, and poetry
• using music, rhythm, songs, tongue twisters, or a mnemonic device that reinforces the meanings of challenging words
• playing games such as charades that pair an action or gesture with a vocabulary word

Incorporating English Grammar in Speaking

The most powerful tool ESL teachers have for teaching correct grammar during speaking activities is their own English fluency. Modeling correct sentence structure and grammar gives students ample opportunity to hear and rehearse the target language. If more advanced speakers or native speakers are integrated into the classroom, instructors should use their language abilities as models as well.

An issue arises when ELLs and even fluent speakers have grammatical errors in their spoken language. Educators debate the value of corrective feedback in the context of speaking English, particularly for beginning ELLs. This issue has been discussed extensively by linguist Stephen Krashen , who opines, “Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.”

In essence, by over-correcting students’ pronunciation, vocabulary, or grammar during speaking, teachers increase students’ affective filters. Krashen uses this term to describe how students under pressure to produce correct language cannot fully engage in conversation.

One method ESL teachers employ in situations such as these is to note repeated errors and design mini-lessons around them after the discussion has ended. Rather than single out which student made what error, ESL instructors model and reinforce correct usage.

Incorporating English Pronunciation in Speaking

Listening to fluent English in a variety of contexts (teacher presentation, native English speaker presentation, recorded dialogues, songs, comprehensible video clips) is one of the best tools for teaching pronunciation. Kate Dobson, writing in TESOL Connections , points out that accent reduction is a separate issue from pronunciation. She argues that instructors and students should focus on intelligibility. Rather than isolating sounds, students need interaction and practice so that they can make themselves understood.

In writing for the TESOL Blog , bilingual educator Sandra Rogers outlines best practices for increasing intelligibility:

• Clap out syllables in longer words.
• Practice stressing the correct syllable when speaking.
• Use visual aids such as phonetic spelling, accents over stressed syllables, and color-coding of vowels sounds

Techniques for Teaching Reading

Reading takes many forms in the ESL program, which is why modeling how to read for different purposes is key. Beginning ELLs read words from the board, graphic organizers, simple instructions, and beginning or pattern books. More advanced ELLs read their own and other students’ writing, as well as textbooks, reference books, online information, and fiction and nonfiction of different genres.

The multiple uses of reading mean that ELLs should receive structured lessons that build their literacy skills while concurrently getting support for their English language development.

Building English Vocabulary Through Reading

Suzanne Irujo summarizes the findings of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority and Youth and determines that ESL teachers must target different vocabulary for ELLs than for native English speakers. Among the areas of focus are:

• words critical for comprehending the text
• terms students will see in other areas of the curriculum
• high-frequency words that feature common prefixes, suffixes, and root words
• multiple-meaning words
• figurative language
• abstract terms

Building English Grammar Through Reading

ELLs benefit from hearing and reading grammar in meaningful, comprehensible contexts. Teaching grammar without practicing or using it in context is too abstract a method for ELLs. Instead, use reading selections to highlight and practice correct English grammar.

Rod Ellis, author of “ Current Issues in the Teaching of Grammar: An SLA Perspective ,” describes in other articles an approach to teaching grammar in the context of reading by taking students through several levels:

• Listen to Comprehend: The instructor reads aloud a text containing a repeated grammatical structure, and students listen for it.
• Listen to Notice: The instructor reads aloud a text. Students listen for the grammatical structure and then do a gap-fill exercise in which they write down the grammatical form as they heard it read.
• Understand the Grammar Form: Students read sentences or excerpts from the text, all of which contain the target grammatical structure. They use the examples to determine the grammar rule that applies to them.
• Correct the Grammar Form: Teacher give ELLs a written passage with errors in grammar. Students must identify and correct the errors.
• Apply the Grammar Form: Students use what they have learned about a target grammatical structure to produce writing or oral examples that integrate it.

Developing Reading Fluency in ELLs

ELLs must first have speaking fluency before they can have reading fluency. Then, ESL teachers can employ a variety of methods to build students’ skills.

The Language Experience Approach calls for the student to dictate a story or observation. The teacher writes down the work in the student’s exact words. The teacher then reads the work aloud, and afterward gives it to the student to practice reading aloud. This technique is powerful because it puts the focus on the student’s experiences rather than on the teacher’s. The text relies purely on the schemas and vocabulary of the student.

The simple technique of Repeated Reading builds both fluency and comprehension. “Repeated Reading Works,” published in Language Magazine, describes this process with a few variations. The simplest involves a student selecting a text at his or her own reading level, or slightly above it. The student reads the text and times how long it takes. Repeating this exercise several times, the student notes how both the time and the reading improve.

In another version of Repeated Reading, a teacher reads a short text, typically selected by the student. Several stages follow:

• The teacher tracks the print with a finger while reading aloud.
• The teacher reads the text aloud, while the student follows along, tracking the print with a finger.
• Both read the text aloud together, while the teacher tracks the print.
• Both read the text aloud together again, and this time the student tracks the print.
• Finally, the student alone reads the text aloud and also tracks the print.

It is important to note that, while the text selected for repeated reading should be stimulating and challenging, it should not include more than five words that are unfamiliar. No amount of repeated reading will illuminate the meaning of unfamiliar words. Developing reading fluency is about the students increasing their reading speed and their smoothness of delivery.

Increasing Reading Comprehension in ELLs

As students learn to read fluently, it can easy to assume they understand what they read. However, ESL teachers must use specific strategies to build reading comprehension.

Background knowledge is the crux of listening and reading comprehension. For this reason, teachers of ELLs should devote extra time and materials to building students’ schemas. Nigel Stott, in “ Helping ESL Students Become Better Readers: Schema Theory Applications and Limitations ,” describes pre-reading strategies such as naming the genre, describing special features of that genre, noting the text’s structure, and examining any accompanying illustrations or graphics. If the text is nonfiction, particularly from a textbook, then further points for discussion arise, including textual cues such as subtitles, bullet points, photographs, captions, timelines, and charts.

In addition, veteran educator Dr. Monica Bomengen, in her article “ ESL Teaching Strategies: Improving Vocabulary Improves Reading Fluency ,” highlights the importance of using images, realia, diagrams, and graphic organizers to build background vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary specific to the text also builds students’ schemas.

General Strategies for ESL Reading Instruction

Some teaching strategies for ELLs address all the reading areas of vocabulary, grammar, fluency, and comprehension. Some best practices include repeated reading of words, sentences, and stories; using cognates and synonyms to explain unfamiliar words and concepts; and summarizing text.

Techniques for Teaching Writing

Just as ELLs read for multiple purposes, they also write for multiple purposes. Beginning ESL student might mostly copy text or fill in blanks with words from a word bank. However, they quickly build their skills enough to write definitions of vocabulary words, write examples that support a grammatical structure, create short passages, record information on graphic organizers, answer test questions, and compose text to read aloud to the class.

Building English Vocabulary Through Writing

Several writing activities promote the development of English vocabulary. Firstly, there is the act of copying a list of words learned in a lesson, or of unfamiliar words for which to find meanings. Students can slowly compile lists of words that they organize alphabetically and keep in a personal dictionary. Beginning ELLs might add pictures, color-coding or other cues to remind them of the meaning of vocabulary words.

ESL Teacher and coach Raeann Pugliano suggests that ESL teachers:

• expand students’ verbal vocabulary
• choose writing themes with vocabulary and concepts that reflect their students’ diverse backgrounds
• give students the opportunity to copy a genre they have read
• use teacher-made and student-made word banks for their writing

Teaching English Grammar Through Writing

Because context aids in the learning and reinforcement of new grammatical structures, writing projects provide an ideal avenue for practicing grammar. Students can write sentences or whole passages that incorporate assigned grammatical structures. However, ESL instructors should confirm that students have a solid understanding of each form.

One way to keep grammar instruction varied and challenging is to vary students’ purposes for writing and the genres of their writing projects. Poetry assignments might require certain patterns of words, syllabication, or sounds. A lesson involving the writing of a narrative might include a focus on how to write in the past tense or how to create and punctuate dialogue. An assignment to compose a brief nonfiction piece can incorporate academic terms and structures.

Integrating Speaking, Reading, Writing in the ESL Classroom

Language development is most profound when instruction combines the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students witness the possibilities of expression in language, and have the opportunity to practice new skills. The practices and projects listed in this section use an integrated method to impart ESL skills.

Readers Theater

Students practice receptive, written, and oral language skills in this simple series of lessons. First, the class reads a story, utilizing whatever comprehension techniques are necessary to master the content. Then, the teacher leads students in a cooperative activity in which they write a script based on the story. This process can happen as a whole group, in small groups with each group responsible for a section, or in two-member groups with partners. The class compiles one or more scripts and practices repeated reading of their lines. During the final presentation, students hold their scripts and read their lines to the rest of the class. More elaborate versions can feature sound effects, costumes, or other theatrical elements. In “ The Impact of Readers Theater (RT) in the EFL Classroom ,” Ng Chin Leong Patrick notes that this type of group storytelling gives ELLs practice with vocabulary, grammatical structure, pronunciation, and reading fluency.

The Writing Process

One of the more powerful language learning tools is to engage in all stages of the writing process , though not every piece of writing must go through this multi-step, multi-lesson process. For example, students might keep daily journals or do brief homework assignments that do not require intensive editing. Meanwhile, instructors can guide students in identifying written work that could benefit from further exploration or refinement. For a more directed approach, teachers may choose to guide students through every step.

The writing process has many forms and permutations. A solid approach for ESL students entails spending more time in the pre-writing stage. Students brainstorm ideas for writing, referring to their portfolios, journals, or teacher-provided prompts. During brainstorming, they might fill in graphic organizers such as K-W-L Charts, word webs, mind maps, or basic outlines. This process helps students organize their thinking and also gives teachers a chance to review gaps in schemas, vocabulary, or grammatical patterns the student might need to fill in to complete a first draft.

In writing a first draft, students use information from their graphic organizers, supplemented by their own experiences as well as by guided research done in class. Students then read through their work alone, with a partner, in a small group, and/or with the teacher in order to learn ways to revise their work. In revising, beginning writers can focus on smaller issues, such as writing complete sentences, varying sentence structure, or organizing ideas into paragraphs. More advanced writers can do additional research or work with more complex ideas and sentence forms.

Assessing the Progress of ELLs

In “ Assessing English Language Proficiency: Using Valid Results to Optimize Instruction ,” the authors point out that the notion of English proficiency is an abstract one. There is no single point at which a student can be deemed proficient in English, as skills come at different times, vary in complexity, and may peak and plateau. To stay current with students’ needs, instructors must employ a variety of assessments. In order for these assessments to effectively reflect student learning and competence, they should arise naturally from lessons taught in class. For this reason, standardized tests are not typically the most effective measure of skills mastery.

Teacher-made tests that integrate skills from lessons are a common assessment method. Many instructors complement these types of tests with forms of authentic assessment, such as creating student portfolios. In this approach, teachers guide students through assembling portfolios of their work, often having students choose examples of their best work to demonstrate their progress.

Instructors also perform quick assessments during lessons, independent practice, and group work. Among these types of assessments are:

• doing short interviews with students and jotting down their responses
• listening to students read aloud and noting their reading speed or common errors
• using rubrics for longer papers or projects
• maintaining observation logs

Employing best practices in teaching ESL means that students have the opportunity to interact, participate in authentic tasks, and have ample practice in the basic skills required to master verbal and written English. No single technique or approach works for every student, but ELLs tend to succeed when they are invested in the process and motivated to participate. They will make progress when lessons are interesting and varied, and when students are encouraged to learn more about each other and the world through the medium of a new language.

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Strategies for Supporting Students’ Speaking and Listening Skills

Many students struggle with these skills, which are tied to academic success. Here are a few ways to teach them explicitly.

Many students struggle with speaking and listening skills and the ability to work together in the classroom—vital social skills that are also important in academic learning .

In our district, we noticed a particular decline in speaking and listening skills in response to remote and hybrid learning and subsequently took an intentional, district-wide approach to supporting student discourse that has contributed to significant academic gains.

By facilitating professional development, inviting instructional coaches into our school, selecting curricula that centers student talk, and exploring teaching tools such as sentence starters (e.g., “I agree with you because…,” “Can you tell me more about that...,” and “I know a different way to solve that...”), we promote accountable, respectful dialogue in and outside of the classroom.

If you, too, are looking for specific, systematic steps to get the conversation going in your classroom, here are a few ideas to help get you started.

Create book clubs or literary circles

Pair students based on their interest in a topic, not by their reading levels, and get them talking to each other and the class about the books they enjoy. Provide supports like audio versions of a text if needed, to make the groupings more equitable.

You might ask students to offer a book review upon completing a book, but to do so verbally instead of in written form to boost speaking and listening skills. You can also encourage a question-and-answer session about the book, in which a student reader is considered an expert and is interviewed by their peers to keep the conversation going.

In a recent classroom visit, I saw students involved in literary circles based on student choice. Students chose a book that they found interesting after learning about books during a “book tasting”—an activity in which students walked around the classroom and surveyed information about books that were appropriate for their grade level, presented on different tables. 

I returned to the classroom after students dove into the books. The teacher and co-teacher took turns rotating between the groups and asked students open-ended questions about themes and content. The discussion was inspiring, and after teachers posed the initial question, students were able to lead, direct, and continue the conversation organically—an ability that we attribute to the students’ ability to choose the books that they found most compelling.

Get started with Socratic seminars in any subject

To make Socratic seminars dynamic and engaging, you can start by writing open-ended questions on a soccer ball. Then, simply start tossing the ball around the room. The student who catches the ball reads aloud the question that is facing them and responds.

This activity incorporates kinesthetic engagement into the curriculum and works well across subjects. You can find examples of open-ended questions to adapt to your particular unit or lesson topic and write them on the ball. For an added challenge, you might invite students to brainstorm open-ended questions for inclusion in this activity, too, facilitating discussion about what types of questions best support critical thinking and discourse.

Teach about Accountable Talk

Accountable talk is an approach to scaffolding responsible, responsive dialogue in the classroom; often, teachers need to model productive discourse explicitly at first, such as using and talking about insightful open-ended questions or sentence frames, but a gradual release of responsibility can then help students succeed in independent discourse.

Reward students with small incentives when you first roll out accountable talk in the classroom. One teacher in our district uses stickers when he hears students using the accountable talk sentence stems that he displays on his board. 

Students can then turn these stickers in for a homework pass when they reach a certain number, incorporating an element of gamification that makes speaking and listening an explicit and continuous consideration in the classroom.

Make it equitable

Even when promoting speaking and listening skills with students, it’s important to ensure that the loudest voices don‘t crowd out the others. Collaborative, group-based, or project-based learning are great ways to spark student conversations in an equitable way. 

One way to do this is to make sure that everyone has a role in the group and to explicitly teach kids how to work together. The more students are able to collaborate and practice speaking academically and respectfully with one another, the more natural it becomes for them to have productive discussions. 

Rearrange the furniture

Flexible furniture allows teachers to group students in different ways and create comfortable learning environments that lead to conversation. Our State Department of Education is funding classroom redesigns in several schools to support flexibility; some will get desks with built-in whiteboards, and others will have chairs with wheels to help students make small groups. Lego walls and STEM-related items will encourage students to work collaboratively. Search for similar grants or funding opportunities in your district to make flexible seating accessible to all, supporting students’ speaking and listening skills by extension.

Teaching the Four Language Skills: Themes and Issues

• First Online: 11 November 2017

Cite this chapter

• Anne Burns 5 &
• Joseph Siegel 6  

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on English Language Teaching ((INPELT))

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This introductory discussion prefaces the chapters in this volume by surveying some key theoretical and practical insights into the teaching of the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This chapter highlights the importance of contextually based teaching practices and innovations at the local level as well as the increasing incorporation of bottom-up and metacognitive abilities as they apply to the four skills.

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Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). The Longman grammar of spoken and written English . New York: Longman.

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Burns, A., Siegel, J. (2018). Teaching the Four Language Skills: Themes and Issues. In: Burns, A., Siegel, J. (eds) International Perspectives on Teaching the Four Skills in ELT. International Perspectives on English Language Teaching. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63444-9_1

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130 ESL Report Card Comments - Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening

Time to grade your ESL students? Leaving customized ESL report card comments is painful?

Don’t worry!

In this article, we have attached 130 ESL report card comments that you can use to grade with ease.

36 Speaking ESL Report Card Comments

21 esl speaking report card comments for beginner students.

• I am thrilled with {student name}’s performance this year. {his/her} English speaking abilities have improved significantly.
• {student name}’s performance this year has been adequate. To improve their English speaking skills, I would recommend practicing {add things to recommend here}.
• {student name}’s English speaking skills are significantly lagging behind the rest of the class. I would recommend practicing {add things to recommend here}.
• {student name} is a very enthusiastic student. {he/she} joined recently, yet, {he/she} is one of the first ones to respond to questions.
• {student name} is doing exceptionally well with similar sounding words.
• {student name} struggles with similar sounding words.
• {student name} should practice similarly sound words to improve. {he/she} gets confused between words like {add example similarly sounding words here}.
• {student name} feels uncomfortable participating in classroom discussions. Practicing at home alone can help them overcome this.
• {student name} can confidently answer common English questions.
• {student name} feels uncomfortable speaking in front of the class when asked common questions.
• {student name} lacks the confidence to answer common English questions in class.
• {student name} is unable to answer common English questions asked during the class.
• {student name} has good English writing and listening skills, but {he/she} feels shy when it comes to speaking. To be able to confidently speak English in a group, {student name} needs to practice speaking at home.
• {student name} correctly uses verbal phrases and verbal expressions in his English class.
• {student name} correctly uses verbal phrases, but needs to improve their usage of verbal expressions in his English class.
• {student name} struggles with the correct usage of verbal phrases and verbal expressions in his English class.
• {student name}’s English speaking skills are excellent for a beginner.
• {student name}’s English speaking skills are sufficient for a beginner.
• {student name}’s English speaking skills are lacking for a beginner.
• {student name} can easily describe objects.
• {student name} faces difficulty in describing objects while speaking English.

10 ESL Speaking Report Card Comments for Intermediate Level Students

• {student name}needs to practice speaking English at home to perform well in front of the class.
• {student name} has intermediate English speaking skills.
• To improve and excel as an intermediate-level English student, I would like {student name} to participate more in {his/her} English class.
• {student name} often uses {native language} over English in class - which is preventing {him/her} from improving English speaking skills as an intermediate learner.
• {student name} is doing great in his Intermediate English class. {he/she}learns new words, how to phrase them, and is able to pronounce them quite well.
• {student name} is underperforming in his Intermediate English class. {he/she} is facing issues with how to phrase words and how to pronounce them. I would recommend placing more emphasis on {his/her}usage of phrases to improve.
• {student name} is a quick learner and can learn how to speak new English words faster than the rest of {his/her} classmates.
• {student name} can speak beginner-level English words well, but {he/she} is struggling with learning intermediate-level English words. I would encourage {student name} to practice {excrise} at home.
• {student name} struggles with speaking in front of a group of {his/her} peers.
• {student name} has impressively improved their English speaking skills and can now speak like an intermediate level student.

5 ESL Speaking Report Card Comments for Advanced Students

• {student name} has advanced level English speaking skills and can speak with confidence in front of a group of peers.
• {student name} is struggling with their English speaking skills and is performing at the intermediate level. I would recommend practicing speaking at home and focusing on the following {add your topics to focus on here}.
• {student nane} when asked questions answers in a yes or a no. Adding more details is required to reach an advanced level in English speaking. We recommend {he/she} practice more comprehensive answers to the questions provided as homework at home.
• {student name} has gone from using some English to using a significant amount of English in {his/her} daily conversation. It has tremendously improved their spoken English.
• {student name} only practices speaking English during {his/her} class. To advance {his/her} English speaking proficiency, I would advise practicing English speaking outside of the classroom. Using English in day-to-day conversations would be helpful.

34 Writing ESL Report Card Comments

12 esl writing report card comments for beginner students.

• {student name} can write short sentences and the basics of English writing are covered well.
• {student name} understands the basics of English writing, but is unable to write short sentences.
• {student name} can perform better in English writing if {he/she} maintains a daily journal.
• {student name} understands the subject well, but is unable to write around the subject.
• {student name}’s writing involves a lot of grammar mistakes.
• {student name}’s writing is free of grammar mistakes.
• Sentences written by {student name} have unclear meaning.
• Sentences written by {student name} have clear meaning and convey information accurately.
• While {student name} understands the subject well enough, {he/she} uses incorrect word order.
• {student name}’s English writing has no incorrect word order.
• {student name}’s writing is cohesive, coherent, stays on the topic, with consistent voice, and addresses all parts of the given assignment.
• {student name}’s writing is incoherent, not cohesive and strays away from the topic. To advance to the next level of English writing, I recommend that the student practice writing at home.

12 ESL Writing Report Card Comments for Intermediate Level Students

• {student name}’s has scored {55}% on mechanics of writing, {70}% on completeness of the answers, {37}% on consistency, and {29}% on cohesiveness. My recommendations to improve {his/her} writing scores are {add your recommendations here}.
• {student name}’s English writing has no spelling errors. {he/she} writes with clarity, using the correct word order, and sentence structure.
• While {student name}’s English writing has no spelling errors, {his/her} sentence structure needs improvement to reach an intermediate level of ESL learner.
• {student name}’s writing has no punctuation errors.
• {student name}’s writing has punctuation errors.
• {student name} has improve their English writing skill significantly, but {he/she} still need help in {list areas where the student needs improvement}.
• {student name} is able to express {his/her} ideas in English.
• {student name} is only able to express {his/her} ideas in written English with common topics. {he/she} feels uncomfortable when asked to write on unfamiliar topics.
• {student name} can write simple sentences well, but struggles while writing complex sentences. {student name} must practice writing complex sentences that have a verb and a subject. Writing complete complex sentences would improve {student name}’s English skills.
• {student name} has significant spelling errors in {his/her} writing.
• {student name}’s English writing is free of spelling errors.
• {student name}’s writing isn’t very descriptive. {he/she} should consider using more adjectives.

10 ESL Writing Report Card Comments for Advanced Students

• {student name} has performed very well in his advanced ESL class and is ready to take his English proficiency test.
• {student name} needs to practice exercises given during the class at home to reach advanced level English writing proficiency.
• {student name} has sufficient grammar, vocabulary, and sentence formation skills to write on complex topics and share deep opinions thoughtfully.
• {student name} has sufficient grammar knowledge and vocabulary, but {his/her} sentence formation skills prevent them to write on complex topics and share deep opinions.
• {student name} lacks sufficient grammar knowledge, vocabulary and sentence formation skills to write on complex topics and share deep opinions.
• {student name} can write native-level English.
• {student name} leverages {his/her} native level vocabulary to write.
• {student name} has mastered advanced level English writing skills.
• {student name} still uses features from {his/her} native language while writing in English. This prevents {him/her} from reaching advanced English writing levels.
• {student name} often uses the same words. This decreases the quality of {his/her} English writing. I would suggest that {student name} improve their vocabulary and sentence formation.

31 Listening ESL Report Card Comments

10 esl listening report card comments for beginner students.

• {student name} is able to understand basic conversations during class and is able to understand the core subject well.
• {student name} is struggling with understanding the core subject of conversations in the English listening class.
• {student name} has to listen to common words a number of times before they can understand audio with clarity.
• {student name} is struggling as {he/she} is lacking in common vocabulary of English. Practicing common vocabulary words will enable {student name} to overcome this challenge.
• {student name} is facing issues in following the classroom audio. I recommend that {he/she} should listen to audio provided with audio text to help {him/her} better cope with it.
• {student name} initially required audio text to help {him/her} follow the classroom audio. But {student name} picked up pretty quickly and no longer depends on audio text while listening to classroom audio.
• {student name} relies on visual cues, slow listening speeds, and guesters to fully understand basic English conversations. {he/she} needs to practice more at home to level up {his/her} listening skills with her ESL batchmates.
• {student name} frequently requests clarification as {he/she} finds it difficult to understand basic English conversations.
• {student name} is performing well. {he/she} rarely requires any assistance or clarification.
• {student name}’s listening skills qualify for someone who is at a beginner level. {he/she} can understand the speaker’s purpose and analyze reasoning.

11 ESL Listening Report Card Comments for Intermediate Level Students

• During the listening exercises, {student name} has performed well enough when it comes to the main idea of summarizing, audio, vocabulary, and inference.
• {student name} performs well when it comes to summarizing, audio, and inference. But, {student name} faces difficulty during listening when it comes to vocabulary. I would recommend {he/she} practice {excerise} at home.
• {student name} struggles with differentiating between certain common phrases in English.
• {student name} can easily listen and differentiate between common phrases in English.
• {student name} can understand the subject while listening, but faces difficulties when {he/she} hears a new word.
• {student name} is doing great with {his/her} listening exercises. {he/she} can listen and understand well enough to extract correct information without any errors.
• {student name} often requires help to understand the English words and phrases during {his/her} listening exercises.
• {student name} should practice listening exercises daily at home to reach an intermediate ESL listening level.
• {student name} has improved their English listening skills significantly. {he/she} previously had to re-listen 3-4 times before {he/she} was able to understand the audio. Now, {student name} can only occasionally listens to the same audio again.
• {student name} has improved their listening skills a lot, however {he/she} is still facing difficulties while listening when people talk faster. Practicing audio exercises at home will greatly improve {his/her} ability to listen to fast speech.
• {student name} will greatly improve {his/her} listening skills by watching English shows and listening to English podcasts.

10 ESL Listening Report Card Comments for Advanced Students

• {student name} has reached advanced listening skills when it comes to extracting subject, literal, summarizing, inferencing, fact-finding, reasoning, and vocabulary.
• {student name} has reached advanced listening skills when it comes to {extracting subject, literal, summarizing, inferencing, fact-finding, reasoning, vocabulary}, but struggles with {extracting subject, literal, summarizing, inferencing, fact-finding, reasoning, vocabulary}. I recommend practicing {exercise} to improve.
• {student name} requires no additional help in understanding listening exercises.
• {student name} is able to listen and comprehend formal and informal conversations with perfection.
• {student name} finds it easy to listen to audio when common words are used. {he/she} finds it difficult to follow listening exercises when complex vocabulary is involved.
• {student name} would find it easy to integrate into an English-speaking environment.
• {student name} has performed well when it comes to literal listening. However, {he/she} faces difficulty in understanding the speaker’s point of view and finding evidence.
• {student name} is struggling with identifying the core topic from listening exercises. I would suggest {him/her} to practice listening exercises at home to reach advanced level English listening skills.
• To help {student name} reach advanced level English listening skills, I would suggest practicing our listening exercises around intonation and phonemes.
• {student name} has done quite well this year. To further improve their English listening skills, I would recommend encouraging {him/her} to complete all bonus listening exercises.

29 Reading ESL Report Card Comments

12 esl reading report card comments for beginner students.

• {student name} is doing great. {he/she} can read short sentences with zero errors.
• {student name} often tries to read faster, which leads to multiple mistakes. I would recommend encouraging {him/her} to read with focus.
• {student name} is capable of reading common individual words, but struggles with reading entire sentences.
• {student name} can read short poems and stories by {himself/herself}.
• {student name} can now read commonly used words, signages, labels, logos, and simple instructions.
• {student name} has successfully achieved beginner-level comprehension skills.
• {student name} can perfectly read and identify the following information: names of people, names of places, events, and dates mentioned.
• {student name} is struggling to identify the following from his ESL reading exercises: names of people, names of places, events, and dates mentioned.
• {student name} can understand the meaning of sentences.
• {student name} struggles with understanding the meaning of sentences.
• {student name} can accurately identify affix, base word, prefix, root, and suffix from their reading exercises.
• {student name} is able to identity {affix/base word/prefix/root/suffix}, but makes mistake while identifying {affix/base word/prefix/root/suffix}.

7 ESL Reading Report Card Comments for Intermediate Level Students

• {student name} can read English text and was able to answer all questions based on the text.
• {student name} was able to answer {x}% of the questions after reading English text.
• {student name} can read short passages and stories and is able to identify the main subject or the theme from it.
• {student name} should change the language on their phone and laptop to English. That will help them improve their English writing skills.
• {student name} can read short sentences and short paragraphs well. But, when asked to read longer sentences and long essays {student name} struggles.
• {student name} can easily read common English words that they are familiar with, but struggle with lesser-used words in English.
• {student name} can easily read both sentences with common English words and sentences with less-used words.

10 ESL Reading Report Card Comments for Advanced Students

• {student name} can read English text and interpret it with native English level proficiency.
• {student name} has reached intermediate reading levels. To advance to native English level reading proficiency {student name} should practice the following {exercise/book/etc} at least for {e.g. 3} hours per {day/week}.
• {student name} struggles to understand the main subject and theme of long passages.
• {student name} can read an English book and summarize it in {his/her} own words very well.
• {student name} struggles with reading an English book and summarizing it.
• {student name} faces challenges with {his/her} vocabulary, but {his/her} reading skills allow {student name} to understand the unknown word by understanding the context around it.
• {student name} gets stuck on unfamiliar words. I would recommend {he/she} practice reading at home and focusing on extrapolating the meaning of unfamiliar words using the context.
• {studnet name} can read well and understand the context. {his/her} reading speed is quite slow. To perform in an advanced-level English test. {he/she} would need to speed up {his/her} reading capabilities. I recommend completing all bonus reading exercises.
• {student name} can read at an intermediate level. Based on {his/her} ESL class performance, I would recommend {student name} should use {Dictionary/Encyclopedia/etc} to improve {his/her} reading skills further.
• {student name} is doing well. I would recommend that {he/she} reads English newspapers to further improve their reading skills.

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Score High In PTE Exam – Section-by-Section Guide for Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening

Many universities and institutions worldwide accept PTE Exam scores, making it a popular choice for international students and migrants. However, achieving a high PTE score requires targeted preparation and a solid understanding of the different sections. This blog serves as your comprehensive guide to conquer each section of the PTE exam – Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening – with effective strategies to maximize your score.

Understanding the PTE Exam

The PTE exam is a single, integrated test lasting approximately three hours. Each section focuses on a specific skill but may integrate other skills to assess your overall English proficiency. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Speaking (45-50 minutes) : Assesses your spoken English fluency, pronunciation, and ability to express yourself clearly in different situations.
• Writing (54-67 minutes) : Evaluate your writing skills across various tasks, such as summarizing information, writing essays, and filling out forms.
• Reading (29-30 minutes): Tests your understanding of different types of written texts, including academic passages, emails, and online content.
• Listening (30-43 minutes) : Measures your comprehension of spoken English through lectures, conversations, and academic talks.

Speaking Section:

• Speak in English Daily: Consistent practice is your secret weapon. Immerse yourself in English daily to build fluency and confidence. Find a speaking partner, join online forums, or even have conversations with yourself.
• Self-Evaluate : Record yourself tackling various speaking tasks using a voice recorder or smartphone app. Listen back to your recordings—are there areas begging for improvement? This self-assessment will be your guide to targeted practice.
• Check Punctuations: Learn the art of correct pronunciation and intonation. Practice enunciating clearly and speaking with an understandable rhythm.
• Listen & Summarize : Improve your listening comprehension by immersing yourself in English audio—lectures, podcasts, and even news reports. Train yourself to summarize key points effectively, a skill crucial for retelling information tasks.
• Develop Image Description Skills : Practice describing various types of images in detail – sceneries, graphs, charts – the more diverse, the better.

Understand in detail PTE Exam Format 2024

Writing Section:

• Write Clear & Simple : Keep your sentences short and easy to understand when writing your PTE essay. Avoid using complex words or phrases that might confuse the reader. The clearer your writing, the easier it is for the graders to understand your points.
• Organize Your Writing :  Stay focused on the topic and present your ideas in a well-organized order. Start with a strong introduction that introduces your main point. Then, use clear paragraphs to develop your main points.
• Use Formal Language : Maintain a formal tone throughout your essay. Avoid using slang, abbreviations, or informal expressions.
• Build Strong Vocabulary : The wider your vocabulary, the better you can express yourself in your essay. Regularly read books, articles, or other materials in English to encounter new words. Actively try to understand their meaning and practice using them in your writing.
• Keep A Check On Grammar: Solid grammar is the foundation of clear and effective writing. Ensure you use correct grammar, sentence structures, and verb tenses throughout your essay. Proofread your work carefully.
• Keep Sentences in Flow : Transition words and phrases connect your ideas smoothly. These words help your essay flow naturally and guide the reader from one point to the next.

Reading Section:

• Understand the Question: This is the golden rule! Before diving into answer mode, take a moment to read the question carefully. Reread it if necessary. A clear understanding of the question is the foundation for a correct answer.
• Sharpen Your Skimming Skills: When you encounter a passage on a test, don’t get involved in every detail. Instead, develop the ability to quickly scan through the text to grasp the central idea and identify the main points.
• Focus On Keyword: Highlight key terms in the question: facts, figures, names, locations. These are your golden nuggets, guiding you towards the answer.
• Deep Dive Analysis: After understanding the overall meaning, do a close reading. Analyze the passage to find the answer that perfectly aligns with the question’s information.
• Eliminate the Confusion: Stuck on a multiple-choice question? Use the elimination strategy! Rule out options that seem irrelevant. This increases your chances of picking the right answer.
• Time Management: Learn to manage your time effectively. Many students struggle to finish on time. Allocate more time to complex questions that demand more focus.
• Double-Check for Success : Always double-check your answers. This habit minimizes errors and prevents point deductions for silly mistakes.

Listening Section:

• Actively Listen: The first thing you need to do is listen actively. Start by watching movies without subtitles. This forces you to focus on the spoken words and develop your comprehension. Make note-taking a habit while listening to audio or watching videos. This strengthens your comprehension and prepares you for the task demands.
• Start Taking Notes: Since the PTE exam integrates listening with writing, practicing digital note-taking is crucial. Throughout your preparation, incorporate digital note-taking while listening to audio. This simulates the exam environment and hones your skills.
• Get Expertise In Managing Time: After selecting an answer, dedicate a few seconds to review. This allows you to catch any errors and make necessary corrections. During the allotted response time, divide your focus between listening to questions, understanding them, answering, and reviewing your answers.
• Focus on Details: Don’t underestimate the importance of details in the audio recordings. While keywords are crucial, focus on details like pronouns and tenses in the recording. These seemingly minor details can significantly impact your answer accuracy.

Practice On Multiple PTE Exam Mock Tests:

Mock tests mimic the actual exam environment, including question format, time constraints, and even the number of sections. Taking practice tests helps you get comfortable with the pressure and adjust your approach accordingly.

Gurully’s online platform is your personal training ground for exam success. We offer a complete suite of practice tools, including full-length mock tests with AI-powered scoring that mimics the real exam experience. This way, you’ll get a crystal-clear picture of your strengths, weaknesses, and how far you’ve come in your studies.

Following these strategies and practicing diligently can significantly improve your score and achieve the desired results. Remember, the key lies in understanding the question formats, managing your time effectively, and practicing with mock tests to simulate the real exam environment. Break a leg on your PTE exam.

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Master Your TOEFL Exam with The 2024 Syllabus: Reading, Listening, Speaking & Writing

• Updated on  
• Jun 24, 2024

TOEFL Exam Syllabus: Individuals who wish to take the TOEFL iBT Exam in 2024 should carefully examine the TOEFL Syllabus to create an effective study plan. The TOEFL iBT exam is designed for those seeking admission to undergraduate or graduate programs at English-medium universities. Unlike the IELTS which offers separate tests for academic and general purposes, the TOEFL iBT assesses all four language skills through integrated tasks that reflect academic situations.

The TOEFL iBT 2024 syllabus, similar to previous years, comprises four sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. Each section poses unique challenges, so familiarizing yourself with the syllabus is essential for success on the TOEFL iBT.

This Blog Includes:

Toefl syllabus 2024, what are the types of questions asked in the toefl ibt exam , toefl exam pattern 2024.

TOEFL Exam Syllabus: The TOEFL, or Test of English as a Foreign Language, measures your English proficiency for academic success. It evaluates your abilities in four key areas: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. 

Each section focuses on university-level materials, mimicking the communication you’ll encounter in your studies. By understanding the specific skills tested in each section (outlined in the table below), you can effectively prepare and demonstrate your readiness for thriving in an English-speaking academic environment.

TOEFL Exam Syllabus: The TOEFL iBT assesses your English proficiency in academic settings through four distinct sections: Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing. Each section employs a variety of question types designed to gauge your ability to comprehend, analyse, and synthesise information presented in academic contexts. Understanding these question types is crucial for effective TOEFL preparation, allowing you to develop targeted strategies and demonstrate your academic English skills effectively.

Here’s a breakdown of the question types encountered in each TOEFL iBT section:

By familiarizing yourself with these question types, you can develop targeted strategies for approaching each section of the TOEFL iBT. Practice exercises and official sample questions from ETS will further enhance your understanding of these formats and equip you to confidently demonstrate your academic English proficiency.

TOEFL iBT Exam Pattern: Individuals who wish to take the online TOEFL2024  exam, i.e., TOEFL iBT, must keep abreast of the standardised exam format. ETS, the conducting body of the TOEFL iBT test, made certain alterations to the TOEFL iBT exam format in 2023. Going by the revised TOEFL ibT exam pattern, students will now see the following changes in the TOEFL exam format (iBT): 

• Students are now given less than two hours to complete the TOEFL iBT exam. 
• Test takers can now take the help of the dedicated instructions to give their test. 
• Certain portions of the TOEFL iBT Reading section pattern have been omitted.
• The unscored TOEFL iBT question segment has been removed from the online test. 

So that was all about TOEFL Syllabus. Hope the blog has answered your queries regarding the topic. 

Ans. The TOEFL iBT syllabus focuses on academic English so that you won’t encounter specific subject areas like science or history. Instead, the reading passages and listening lectures will cover a broad range of topics typically found in university coursework. These might include social sciences, humanities, or natural sciences. 

The core structure of the TOEFL iBT syllabus, including the four sections (Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing) and the tested skills, remains relatively stable year-to-year. However, the specific topics covered in the reading passages and listening lectures may vary. 

Ans. While ETS doesn’t publish a traditional syllabus document, they offer a wealth of resources to understand the test format and what skills are assessed. You can find official practice questions, test descriptions, and other helpful materials on the Educational Testing Service’s TOEFL website: https://www.ets.org/toefl.html .

Visit the Leverage Live page of Leverage edu or contact our study abroad experts at 1800-57-2000 to strengthen your scores and application to secure your spot in your dream college. 

Shubham Das

Shubham Das has been working as an educational content writer for the past two years and has a background in filmmaking & screenplay/ teleplay writing. He is fascinated by the human psyche, literature and cinema.

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