How to Study English: Four Core English Skills

Hello, everyone. I'm Robin and welcome to this video.

In this video I'm going to talk about the four language skills

Whenever we study a language, there are four

very important skills, we need to know and practice.

So that's what I'm going to talk about in this video.

I'm going to talk about the four skills.

And I'm going to teach you how to use these for skills

to improve your English language ability.

Ahh, this is an introduction video, so I'm not going to go into too much detail.

But I still think it's a very important video to help you improve your English.

So the four language skills.

We also call them the Four Core English skills.

'Core' means center. Very important.

Ok these are very important skills.

And I.. I think you already know these skills.

The first two: speaking and writing.

Now speaking and writing... these are called productive skills or output.

Ok, so you have an idea or some information...

and you want to give that to another person.

You have to create language. Okay.

You have to create English. So you're speaking in English.

Or you're writing a letter or an email.

We have to create and give that information to someone.

So we call that productive skills.

The last two: listening and reading.

We call these receptive skills or input.

Ok. So you're listening to someone speak English

And you have to understand.

Or you're reading a book or newspaper article

and you have to understand what the information is.

These are the four skills.

They're called skills because with practice, we can get better.

And I'm going to show you how to practice using these four skills.

Now I'm going to teach you how to use the Integrated Skills Approach.

'Approach' means it's a method. Ok. And it's a good method.

'Skills' - we're talking about the four skills.

And the keyword 'integrated' - now what this means is

we're taking the four skills - And when we study English,

we're studying all four skills together at the same time.

Alright, let me explain more.

So you should study a topic - practicing all four core English skills.

Let me give an example of a classroom.

Now a good teacher will want to use the Integrated Skills Approach.

So the teacher will bring the class a topic...

So let's say the topic today is Canadian culture.

So what the teacher will want to do is practice the receptive skills.

So, the students might read about Canadian culture.

They might watch a video and practice there listening about Canadian culture.

So they're receiving information in English.

And then the teacher will want to practice the productive skills.

So, here she will ask the students to write about Canadian culture.

...what they thought about Canadian culture...

And...they... the teacher will also ask the students to practice speaking about

Canadian culture with... with the teacher or with a classmate.

So in this class, a good teacher was able to pick a topic - one topic.

And practice all four core English skills

This is a really good class. This is a really good way to study English.

Why?

Well with the receptive...ah... practicing the receptive skills,

You might learn some new English expressions or vocabulary.

And then when you're we're practicing the productive skills,

you're able to practice writing these new expressions....

and you practice speaking these new expressions...

Alright this will really really help you improve your English.

Ahh... so in the class, a good teacher will do this.

Let's talk about self study - outside the class.

How can you do this?

Well it's not easy... ok... you know that.

So, the...ah... receptive skills: the reading and listening -

That's easy.

You're practicing your receptive skills now. You're listening to me.

You can watch videos...uh...or listen to the radio.

And reading - you can read articles and books.

So you can practice that alone.

But the productive skills...uh...Writing...

Uh...a lot of my students don't practice that, but you should. Alright.

Now you can keep a diary.

Whatever you watch, you can make some comments in your diary or about your day.

You're writing. You're practicing.

Uhh...and for speaking... well... you need a partner.

Ok. You need a partner to practice speaking.

That's not easy. I know.

But you really need to find a club or a friend

you can practice speaking English about some topics.

Ok?

Now I'm going to help you a little bit.

Uh...I'm going to talk about Voice of America

Now... and this website.

Now this is a really good website to practice your...uh...listening and reading. Ok.

If you go to this website, they have different levels.

So if you're a beginner, intermediate, advanced - they have different videos...

and different articles.

So this will really help you to find your level

and practice your listening - when you're watching a video.

And you're reading. Alright.

Right now I'm going to show you how to access this site and use this site.

Let's take a look.

First open your browser.

Search for Voice of America.

You can see their English learning site here.

Ok this is the main page.

You can see up here many things to explore.

They have English lessons. And three levels of news articles.

Let's click level 1. And the first article.

You can practice listening with the audio.

And it matches the article below.

Let's check level 3.

Again, you can play the audio to practice listening.

Or read the article first, and listen later.

Let's click the video.

They have some good videos for studying English.

And they have audio broadcasts, too.

Voice of America. A great website to help you improve your English.

Alright there's one more thing I want to talk about.

That is Balanced the Skills.

Now we have the four skills here.

And one problem I see with my students is they are focusing

or they're st...or they're practicing only one or two of these skills.

And they're not...they're ignoring... they're not practicing other skills

So for example: speaking. A lot of my students they're only practicing speaking...

but they're not practicing writing. Alright.

Don't do this. If you are studying English,

you have to practice all of these.

Ok. And if possible, integrate it at the same time ...about a topic.

This will really help you improve your English.

Uh, another example...uh.. some of my students....

they...they're only worried about taking a test.

Like TOEFL or TOEIC or IELTS.

Uh...so they're more focused on listening and reading or maybe writing.

And they don't spend any time on speaking.

Alright? Oh this is terrible too.

Again to really improve your English...

balance the skills. Study them all, alright?

Now I hope this video helped you.

See you next time!

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Uh...I really want to hear what you thought of my video. Ok.

Thank you.