Where to Start When Teaching Language Learning

A house model to teaching language learning.

Which language skill is the skill you need to begin with when teaching students a second language?

That was the first question asked in my interview when I applied for the position of an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher.

My response to this question in the end did not help me gain the position, but it did teach me something about teaching language learning and how it connects to second language acquisition.

I applied for the position before beginning my master’s degree in education, and so as I progressed through my program I understood why my answer wasn’t what the interviewers were looking for.

A Foundational Beginning

Back in 2016, I began my master’s degree in education with the focus on second language acquisition in culture and society.

To find supplementary income, I applied to my university’s ESL training center where they welcomed foreign students who were accepted into the university but looking to better their English language skills before joining their program at the university.

I was granted an interview based on my previous educational teaching experience. The interview came in two parts. It started with a traditional question and answer period, followed by having me create an impromptu lesson on teaching a particular language skill using the manipulatives provided by the center.

Now this is quite a while ago, so I don’t remember what I did for the impromptu lesson, but I can never forget my response to the opening question of the interview.

My response changed my perception of the four language skills students use to acquire a new language and which skill is the foundation on which all other language skills are built.

This change in my perception towards language building has allowed me to teach in a way that brings my ESL students to new levels of understanding as to how to use their language skills to better understand their second language.

I have come to view the stages of language development as akin to the stages of building a house.

The Blueprints of Language Development

The stages of language development work towards building the four skills attached to language learning: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

But before we can begin to build, we need to acknowledge the main blueprints of skills’ building which are our passive and active skills.

Passive skills require individuals to take in what is being said or read to them.

Active skills require individuals to communicate in a way to show that they understood what was said or read to them.

In life, and in school, this is equivalent to learning when to speak and when to listen.

Students who understand how to use their passive skills to help improve their on active skills are the ones who tend to do better in school.

Passive Skills vs. Active Skills

Listening and reading are known as passive skills which are the skills we use to absorb information without relaying back what information we are gathering.

How then can we demonstrate we understand the information we gain from listening and reading?

The active skills of speaking and writing help us understand the information we gain from listening and reading.

These skills help us to communicate what we have learned through spoken words or those we write down for others to read.

When I began to relate to students the stages of language learning through the stages of building a house, students began to appreciate the benefits each skill brought towards helping them become better at learning their second language.

How To Construct a House of Language Learning

The stages to language development begin as we learn to master the passive skill of listening.

Listening is the foundation upon which all other skills are built. If you compare it to building a house — it is the foundation upon which all other parts of the house are built. In order to have a secure structure we must begin with solid foundation.

From there we go on to the active skill of speaking. We relate the sounds into words, then sentences that allow for greater communication.

We can compare our speaking skills to that of the walls we use to build our house. Just as our words must do, the walls we build for our house must secure our protection in knowing whether to build many or few.

The way we build our walls also continue to help lay the support for what will be the culminating factor in building our house.

The next stage is reading. We go back to this passive skill of hearing sounds as they relate to letters being formed into and read as words followed by sentences and finally evolving into stories that keep us wanting more.

In comparing our reading skills to that of house building, we can see them as the windows and doors of our house that let light in along with when it is time to keep them open or closed.

The final stages of language development are shown through our writing skills. We communicate using our writing skills for the benefit of others and how we choose to put words down in writing can leave lasting impacts on those who choose to read what we write.

This is akin to the roof we decide to put on our house as it not only serves to protect us, but those who chose to visit our house. This is the real attraction home buyers look at when purchasing a home because of what the roof represents to the house — the final culmination of what has been built all along.

When I have discussed this approach to language learning with older students, it really resonates into how they can connect what they are learning with what they see in their everyday lives.

Our language skills are interconnected, so when we talk about promoting a particular skill in students, we should highlight this with students as they look to strength either one skill at a time or look to test multiple skills at the same time.

This can be seen as looking to which part of the house needs a little more attention as we move forward in making improvements.

Promoting Language Skills in Students

In getting students to recognize their focus and comfort towards a particular skill, it can help support their motivation towards improving each skill.

I often remind students about which skill needs their particular attention when engaging in a particular activity.

Let’s now take a closer look at how we can promote the four language skills in students.

I. How to Promote Listening Skills in Students

How well we listen directly impacts on all other skills in how we speak, read, and write, and is perhaps the skill we work on the longest to master since we start from the moment we are born.

Simple techniques teachers can use to help students with improving their listening skills is to have students demonstrate what was said. It can be as simple as “line up in a straight line” to more complex directions to finishing a task in class.

Another technique would be to have more advanced students respond to questions about a short converstation they heard, detailing the most important points in the conversation.

II. How to Promote Speaking Skills in Students

The active skill of speaking demonstrates that we understand how to communicate all we have heard up until we decide to begin communicating.

Simple techniques teachers can use to help students with improving their speaking skills is to have students repeat what was said when it comes to receiving directions from the teacher or fellow classmates.

Easy speaking activities include having students recall information given in a presentation by fellow students or summarizing what was the main message from the last educational podcast they heard.

In having students master how to listen for context clues in speech (rhythm and intonation), students can then become better speakers as they learn the language.

They begin to learn the difference between speaking for the purpose of communicating or just simply reading out loud.

For more advanced students, creating simple converstations that they can memorize will help them focus more on improving their rhythm and intonation while speaking.

III. How to Promote Reading Skills in Students

In learning to read, students need to have a full grasp on recognizing sounds through listening, and being able to replicate the sounds through speech.

From there, students can associate sounds with words and so they learn to read through reliance on previous knowledge gained from listening and speaking.

Reading is a passive skill so teachers may use the active skills of either speaking or writing to have students demonstrate their understanding of what they read.

Simple activities for this skill would be to ask students to summarize through speaking what the main idea that the reading is try to show.

IV. How to Promote Writing Skills in Students

The writing skills are the final skills in the language development stage that students need to master on their own.

Students may say that this is the hardest skill to master since it requires such creativity and accuracy in showing what they know or understand to be true.

Simple activities for this skill would be to ask students to get creative with story writing adventures or giving written instructions on how to make a pizza!

The Emotional Connection to Second Language Acquisition

As one final piece of construction with language learning, it is important to factor in the emotional connection.

We can equate that to the landscape surrounding the house we build.

If students are finding one particular stage of language learning to be difficult, their negative emotions may begin to stand in their way of learning.

They may begin to neglect the landscape surrounding their house.

Students who are learning English as a second language need more time to improve on their listening skills as they make connections to words they hear back to their first language.

And that my friends brings me back to how I responded when asked that interview question I opened this article with.

I responded that reading is the first skill students should look to master as without reading we may find it hard to understand our surroundings.

I see now that without listening to our surroundings it may be hard to read people’s oral or body language in communicating to you that it is time to move on to someone or something else.

If you enjoyed this reading article, please consider viewing the information I shared in this article through my youtube video on the stages of language development.

And please consider reading my other articles relating to language and emotional development in students.