preview

Essay On Four Language Skills

Good Essays
Open Document

English is widely known as an international language. One of its functions is as a means of communication among people from different countries. By learning English, people can communicate with people whose different native language from themselves. In order to master English, people need to learn four language skills, they are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
The first language skill human acquired is listening. People learn to listen by listening to their surroundings. Through listening, they recognize sounds and differentiate their meanings. After people are able to listen, they start to learn to speak. They learn to speak by imitating the sounds they have heard. The next skill human acquired is reading. People start to learn …show more content…

(2) to grow the awareness of nature and the importance of English in order to improve our nation competitive ability in a global society.
(3) to develop students' comprehension of the language and culture interrelation (p.126).
One of the purposes above asks the students to develop their competency in communication both in the oral and written form. The communication skill is obtained through the development of the four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. These four language skills need to be practiced frequently in order to attain the purpose of the curriculum. However, as stated by Harrys and Valette (2003) "Of the four language skills, writing may be considered the most sophisticated". In line with Harrys and Valette, Richards and Renandya (2002) stated that:
There is no doubt that writing is the most difficult skill for L2 learners to master. The difficulty lies not only in generating and organizing ideas but also in translating these ideas into readable text. The skills involved in writing are highly complex. L2 writers have to pay attention to higher level skills of planning and organizing as well as lower level skills of spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on. (p.

Get Access