Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sangeeth]

Hi everyone....!!!!!!

There are four main skills that a student should bear in his/her mind when they want to learn English i.e.reading, writing,speaking and listening.Which are the skills that have more significant in order to learn English??Is it reading,writing,speaking or listening???? Or is it we have to give equal importance for each skill????......Hope to hear more replies from those of you��

Regards.

[Philo Kevetch]

Hello Sangeeth - The answer to your question depends on your reasons for learning English. Which of the skills are you most interested in (or would most useful)?

I think all four skills are important. However, I would change the order in which you listed them. Reading comes before writing and listening comes before speaking (remember how you learned Basa Malay?).

Although the four skills are inter-related, they may be seperated into two distinct parts. For example, some native English speakers can speak well enough, but never learned to read or write (they are illiterate).

EFL students often learn to read and write, but can't speak (or understand when spoken to). The same is often true for students of foreign languages in English speaking countries.

Back to "All four skills are important"....... Reading will (esp. dialog(ue))
help in practicing word order, sentence structure, etc. and will help you form your own thoughts (word order, etc.) when you speak.

So........ What do you think? Which do you think are most important?
Let me know what you think.........Philo

[kelly wang]

The four skills are important to learn English.But I think speaking is the most important skill. As a beginner to learn English, I must speak something from my mouth,then talk about something with somebody.Do you agree with me?
Thank you!

[sangeeth]

Hi Philo......!!!!!!!

I think we must give equal importance for each skill...In my opinion, I think it`s better to have integrative skills, no matter in teaching or learning English.Most of the time,we can say one or two skills involved in one task.Let`s say, for instance,a group of students are required to write an essay.Of course,first of all, they will be having discussion with their teacher.So,in this case,speaking skill is involved other than writing...A student should be good in all those four skills in order to master English Language.........