Do skills lessons often lead to lazy teaching and students not progressing in their language learning?

Is lazy teaching a simple outer expression of an extremely phlegmatic temper in the personality of a teacher; or is it the result of an irresponsible and unconcerned attitude of someone who doesn"t strive hard to turn a mechanical and lifeless teaching into a never – ending experiment for both teacher and student intensively interested in the outcome? The objectives of this essay are to characterize skills lessons, to appraise under what conditions skills lessons may lead to lazy teaching and hinder the students" progress in language learning as well as to substantiate, on the bases of consulted literature, the points of view here assumed on this matter.

"Real success in English teaching and learning is when the learners can actually communicate in English inside and outside the classroom" stated Davies and Pearse (2000:99, in Jing, 2006a). All along the history of language teaching, different approaches and methods replaced one another in an attempt to create and apply the ones that best suited the concrete aim and need of helping learners to communicate in English.

Further in the article Jing (2006: 1b) explains that "teachers have been studying the ways of enabling learners to use English freely, effectively, and as far as possible accurately, in realistic communication, which has become not only the major goal of all English language teaching, but also the students" main concern when they make their efforts to study English". Among the approaches it is worth mentioning the structural approach which so deeply influenced foreign language teaching all over the non native English speaking world; and the audiolingual method as one of the most widely spread in different educational subsystems.

Language is a means of communication among people. Therefore, developing communicative competence must be the main objective in language teaching. Moreover, due to globalization communication among different countries is increasingly becoming a necessity, and communication occurs through foreign languages.

Hymes (1972, in Acosta,1996) states that communicative competence involves grammatical (or linguistic), sociolinguistic, strategic, discourse and socio-cultural competences. In other studies; Yule (1996:197a) assumes that "communicative competence can be defined, in terms of three components, as the ability to use the L2 accurately, appropriately, and flexibly". According to the same author, these components are: grammatical competence related to the words and structures in the L2; the sociolinguistic competence associated with the skilfulness for interpreting or producing language suitably and the strategic component related to the organization of the message in an effective way and the establishment of strategies for solving problems during the learning process. These competences involve the four language skills and they are, in essence, what learners must develop to say they master the language. "…language production means that students should use all and any language at their disposal to achieve a communicative purpose rather than be restricted to specific practice points" Harmer (2001:249a).

Ur (1996:19a) stated that "language learning has much in common with learning other skills". It is evident from her statement that developing skills is of relevance importance in language teaching and learning. In keeping with the objective of this essay, it is convenient at this point to clarify what is understood by skills lessons. To do so, it has been considered necessary to precise the meaning of the terms skills and lessons as approached in the present work.

The literature on the subject identifies the learning of a skill as a process that goes through different stages. Ur (1996b) and Rivers (1968a) have referred to three stages, which begins with getting the skill by first perceiving the units, notions and functions of the language and understanding how they work for communicating messages, second by internalizing the mechanisms of the language and then practicing the chunks of language intensively so as to automatize the skill; the skill-getting activities of a pseudo-communicative character lead to the interactive use of the language , as learners understand or produce messages.

Taking as reference Richards (1994a) and Ur (1996c) a lesson is an organized social and logically sequenced speech event, aiming at achieving a given learning goal. It involves the transaction of meanings and the interaction among the participants- learners and teachers.

According to Wong-Fillmore (1985, cited in Richards, 1994b) how lessons are organized and structured determine to a large extend the nature of the language students hear and use in the classroom. Richards (1994:114c) suggests four dimensions to structure a lesson:

• Opening. How a lessons begins.

• Sequencing. How a lesson is divided into segments and how the segments relate to each other.

• Pacing. How a sense of movement is achieved within a lesson.

• Closure. How a lesson is brought to an end.

Enríquez,I.(Personal communication, December 22, 2009a) considers that language lessons are essentially skills lessons, defined as those in which learners engage actively in the construction of knowledge through a learning cycle that enhances understanding, perception, practicing and using the language for communicative purposes, making this event an enjoyable experience.

The purpose of skills lessons, in terms of learners" acquisition, is to understand the language as it is spoken, to express orally and in writing the meaning intended by the learner, and understand written information; in other words, to achieve communicative competence when listening, speaking, reading and writing. This purpose has better been achieved since the communicative approach was introduced in language teaching in the late 1960s, and creatively applied by well prepared and enthusiastic teachers.

The author of the present essay questions whether students" progress in the study of a foreign language must "always" be a matter of mastery, a word that contains the strong meaning included hereafter: "expert skill: expert knowledge or outstanding ability" (Microsoft Encarta, 2008).Good language teachers always go after competence and perfection, mostly when they themselves did not learn the language they teach in an authentic English speaking environment. This fact may affect the effectiveness of the model, but it does not either justify the inability of a teacher to skip skills lessons and leave out the teaching learning process in the pseudo communicative practice or guided production, causing the inability of the learners to reach real communication.

There is a number of foreign language teachers who are unable to take their students further than simulating oral communication. In such cases, the learners are not given the opportunity to appraise the language as a means to solve real communication problems. The communicative situations chosen by the teachers usually coincide with the learners" real needs.

According to Cottrell (2008:25), "to be skilled is to be able to perform a learned activity well and at will". In skills lessons, knowledge must flow according to students needs. The more input teachers provide students with, the more intake students will have. When planning language skills lessons, they must be oriented to fulfil students" communicative needs. Communication is the aim of the teaching and learning of every foreign language. Ur (1996 d) states that "In teaching the so-called "four skills" — listening, speaking, reading and writing —the emphasis will usually be firmly on fluency". It is the teacher"s task to determine what students need to know and select the activities that will be directed to achieve this objective.

For example, "when training students to be better readers we can encourage them not to worry about the meaning of every single word when they are reading for gist. When training students in speaking, we can give them exponents for turn -taking; for listening we can show them how to recognise the meaning of various intonation patterns. When training students in writing skills we may want to train them in effective note – taking or composition planning. However, we need to be cautious about the way we do this. Rather than attempting to impose our own habits on students, we might instead offer them three alternatives as a stimulus for discussion and as prompts for their own future note taking methods" Harmer (2001:337b).

Another significant aspect to analyze in regards to the issue under discussion is the integration of skills. Some teachers tend to teach the main language skills in separate lessons. "Undoubtedly, a separate focus on individual skills can play a useful role in accelerating students" language learning if it is well taught. However, since integrated skills use coincides with the way we communicate in real life, and integrating the skills can bring plenty of benefits to English teaching" (Jing, 2006: 1c), from my viewpoint, this is not always helpful to enhance language learning. Besides, teaching and learning do not take place in that way. During the teaching learning process, all skills are present, the oral ones (speaking and listening) which are said to be more used because they are more linked to the communicative aim but reading and writing play also a fundamental role in this process. The simple fact of listening to and reading instructions, coping notes down and answering question or reflecting in the class with the member of the group propitiate a natural and integrative process that can not be avoided.

For Oxford (2001) the integration of language skills has a number of advantages such as:

• The opportunity to expose English language learners to authentic language and challenge them to interact naturally in the language.

• Offering learners a true picture of the richness and complexity of the English language as used for communication.

• Stressing that English is not just an object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination; but a real means of interaction and sharing among people.

• Allowing teachers to track students' progress in multiple skills at the same time.

• Promotes the learning of real content, not just language forms.

According to Jing (2006d) the integration of the four skills as a favouring element to develop communicative competence has been accepted because it focuses on realistic communication, which is the main pursuit of teaching and learning today. The author also added that in comparison with the traditional English teaching an integrative approach requires greater effort on the part of the teacher in choosing materials and designing activities.

According to Krashen"s Input Hypothesis (1985) cited in Ellis(1997:101) "human acquire language in only one way -by receiving messages, or by receiving input". Students can progress in the language when they receive the appropriate input they need. Students are expected to acquire a wide knowledge during the language learning. It is unpredictable for teachers to know in advance what students will learn in a class with an x topic. That is why; teachers" role must be to provide the necessary input that can make their psychological conditions responsible in the acquisition. Learners can get to an answer through different routes and this variety of routes may be linked to different skills.

According to Byrne (1986) integrated skills activities are important because they offer opportunities for a natural use of language. Students" learning arises under activities that engage various skills. Pair and groupwork demand activities with varied skills which can be done simultaneously with the purpose of involving all learners. Consequently, the integration of skills can consider activities where students might work individually, in pairs or in groups. Examples provide by literature covers: Questionnaires, quizzes, Describe and note which comes from the game of describe and draw. Draw the picture. How much can you remember? Stories and the project work.

For the author of this essay, the lessons that can typify skills lessons are those closing a system of lessons after the presentation, controlled and semi-controlled practice of a certain language content in which different skills are integrated. These are the ones handled by language teachers in the free practice stage , which is also known as application lessons; the stage when the fulfilment of communicative objectives is measured before starting over a new learning cycle through the communicative production of the learners.

Skills lessons demand effort from teachers. When defining effort, the author refers just to the daily routine of any professional in the teaching area that implies not only lesson planning, the selection of adequate activities according to the objectives proposed but also paying attention to individual differences in the classroom. The term also refers to teachers" competence in the performance of their work. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the orientations given by the system of education and make a good use of the syllabus, the curriculum and coursebooks and other available materials.

Students" development and progression in the language is a goal to be fulfilled at long and short term. If this goal is appropriately planned students can go smoothly through each stage of the teaching-learning cycle and grow as expected. Students must have a "conscious control over the skill of using language" Leech (2006:13). Teachers must develop study skills in the students to make them part of their learning. In occasions, students" progress is not the result of bad teaching performance, but of their lack of responsibility in their own learning. Students must be aware of their role in their learning. In occasions, psychological factors like motivation affect students" progress.

Lack of motivation might be due to teachers" lack of creativity and originality when planning their lesson. "There are several factors which combine in a profile of the successful L2 learner. Obviously, the motivation to learn is important. However, it has been noted that those who experience some success are among the most motivated to learn. Thus, motivation may be as much a result of success as a cause. A language-learning situation that encourages success and accomplishment must consequently be more helpful than one that dwells on errors and corrections. Indeed, the learner who is willing to guess, risks making mistakes, and tries to communicate in the L2 will tend, given the opportunity, to be more successful. An important part of that opportunity is the availability of "input."" Yule (1996:195b).

Skills lessons have a number of positive elements that favour its practice in language learning. They lead to an appropriate instructed learning. They can train students in terms of the analysis of their constant progress in the language. Students might find and apply successful strategies of learning by themselves.

Nevertheless, "…skill training is not always communicative in itself, since teaching people to take turns or use correct punctuation, for example, is often fairly controlled – and may involve quite a lot of teacher intervention" Harmer (2001:249c). It is the teacher"s task to design lessons that involve learners as active subjects in the learning process, by means of the teaching strategies created by teachers in which they can negotiate their learning and development. Besides, it is important to use appropriate error correction techniques at the moment needed, since the fossilisation of errors can bring about lack of progression.

Additionally to what has been expressed so far, there are a number of disadvantages that can interfere in the good results of skills lessons:

• The number of students per group. Teachers and educational institutions know that in a classroom of around 30 students, attention can not be given to individual differences as it must be done; because sometimes time is not enough. On the other hand, in a listening class, for example, the results will be affected because applying appropriate repetition procedures could be limited.

• The length of the lesson. If a lesson takes too long it can cause students´ boredom.

• Classroom conditions in terms of illumination, painting, equipments can also affect the students´ learning.

• Inappropriate teaching techniques,

• The syllabus and curriculum design. The syllabus, national curriculum and the course might lead to problems in the teaching learning process if the content is not in keeping with students" characteristics, interests and needs.

Planning and mostly running skills lessons require a great deal of proficiency, creativity and commitment of the teacher. The selection and creation of a great number of activities and exercises, appropriately sequenced, are needed to offer diverse opportunities to go from skill-getting to skill-using as described by Rivers (1968b) and Ur (1996e).

From my perspective, the syllabus, the course book and diverse materials are essential to enhance language learning. As declared by Nunan (1988), the syllabus concerns the selection of items to be learnt and the grading of those items into an appropriate sequence. The course book is a source of materials because when planning lessons or conceiving to teach any piece of material, teachers are not supposed to teach the content as it appears in the coursebook, if it is not appropriate for students. So, they need to search in other materials to select what learners need.

Harmer (2001:309d) asserts that" it is the teachers" responsibility to make the plan of how students will work with the skills and the sub- skills that will be practiced."

It is evident from what has been discussed earlier that the teacher and the teaching strategies he /she uses play a very important role in achieving the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus, and also expected and needed by the students.

According to Richards (1994d) teaching is a very personal activity to which teachers bring their individual beliefs about what constitutes effective teaching. Johnson (1992:101) cited by Richards (1994:37e) supports that "ESL teachers teach in accordance with their theoretical beliefs and that differences in theoretical beliefs may result in differences in the nature of literacy instruction. Therefore, it is at this point when some considerations about lazy teaching will be presented, starting by what the author of this essay has understood by lazy teaching.

Lazy teaching is used in this essay to refer to the kind of teaching that does not reflect the teacher"s effort to plan and deliver a lesson, which would provide plenty of opportunities for the learners to manipulate and use the language forms, notions and functions that will lead to communicative competence as stated by Enríquez,I. ( 2009b) .

Lazy teaching can take place when teachers:

• do not perform their professional role,

• are not motivated for teaching,

• do not have the pedagogical skills needed to contribute to the education of the learners,

• do not use the teaching strategies needed to enhance learning,

(Enríquez,I. 2009c),

• do not choose instructional materials, textbooks, and technologies that promote the integration of listening, reading, speaking, and writing, as well as the associated skills of syntax, vocabulary, and so on (Oxford, 2001),

• do not reflect on their teaching strategies and evaluate the extent to which the learning outcomes have been achieved, (Enríquez, 2009),

• do not take risks and challenge themselves to innovate. (Enríquez,I., 2009),

• do not find strategies to help learners learn to learn. (Enríquez,I, 2009).

The learning of a foreign language is a complex process that becomes more difficult when the target language is not learned in the real context. So lazy teaching is not what is wanted and needed. Teachers must create environments in their classrooms which allow students" imagination to be placed in nearly real contexts and feel the need to express themselves. "When students write or speak in lessons they have a chance to rehearse language production in safety, experimenting with different languages in different genres that they will use on some future occasion away from the classroom" Harmer (2001:249e).

In this context, skills lessons are safety when teachers take into consideration requirements such as: the formulation of well determined objectives; teachers" readiness in regard to linguistic, cultural and methodological knowledge; the organisation of student-centred lessons; the selection of interesting topics (in accordance to the age of the learners) which will guarantee their motivation towards learning and the provision of previous knowledge and skills to be put into practice by the students in their written and oral production.

Lessons must be accurately planned and delivered in order to fulfil the teaching-learning objectives. It is also important to add that teachers must take into account that in some cases students" lack of progression is due to teachers" lack of desire of approaching the teaching in a correct way. Richards (1994f) states that different factors may influence how teachers approach their work, which particular strategies they use to achieve the intended goals and which roles they may play, in different teaching contexts and situations. The author of this essay beliefs that teachers must be organizers, facilitators, monitors, and counsellors in the teaching learning process, so as to contribute to the active participation of the students in the comprehension, systematization, consolidation and production of language, that is, to contribute to language learning. In this author"s opinion if the requirements described so far are not met skills lessons may certainly lead to lazy teaching and students not progressing in their language learning.

In spite of the strengths of skills lessons outlined before, some might still hold the view that suggests that skills lessons are not conducive to effective teaching and learning. But the issues examined in the present essay support the conclusion that skills lessons not necessarily lead to lazy teaching and lack of progression in language learning. They are essential in the teaching learning process of foreign languages. Planning and delivering skills lessons demand a great deal of work by teachers in the selection and creation of the activities, exercises and materials to use. Well planned and sequenced skills lessons provide learners with the tools to express themselves freely in the target language in real life situations.

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Autor:

MA Lissette Rubio Mederos

DrC Isora Enríquez O?Farrill

"Enrique José Varona" Pedagogical University

2011