Integrated-skills based syllabus for primary schools

2.2. Materials for developing integrated skills
It is widely known that learning English as a foreign language is complex and involves many different variables. It has aided in the growth of a variety of theories regarding the optimum methods for language acquisition.
According to Oxford, a tapestry is a useful metaphor for teaching English as a second or foreign language. It is further demonstrated that teaching the four fundamental abilities of hearing, speaking, reading, and writing is one of the most important threads in the tapestry. Knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, meaning, and usage are also included in this component. When the skills are interwoven throughout instruction, or what is known as an integrated skill approach, the skill stand of the tapestry results in the best possible ESL/EFL communication. Task-based instruction, in which students engage in communicative English tasks, is one type of integrated skill instruction. Tasks are defined as actions that are capable of standing alone as fundamental units and that call for understanding, generating, manipulating, or engaging in real language with a focus more on meaning than form. In this kind of training, pair-work and group work are frequently used. Activities in the classroom might vary in complexity from one level to another. At higher proficiency levels, the complexity of the tasks increases. For example, newcomers might be asked to introduce themselves and share one fact about themselves.[ 9]
Advanced students may complete more complex and difficult assignments, such as expressing their thoughts on national issues in a role-playing presidential campaign. The idea of four strands of language course by Paul Nation suggests another model of task presentation extending presentation of integrated abilities (2007). Four elements are said to be included in a well-balanced language course: meaning-focused input, language focus, meaning-focused output, and fluency practice. First, activities that are meaning-focused offer practice for receptive abilities like reading and listening where the focus is on the messages. Activities involving language concentration involve paying specific attention to and practicing the linguistic features of the language samples used in the previous activity. Then speaking and writing activities where emphasis is placed on the message and ideas expressed fall under meaning focused output. The final element fosters fluent application of the linguistic features on the four language abilities. Useful Design The foundation for developing the materials was based on the aforementioned principles of second language acquisition, which included the integrated teaching of four language skills and the elaboration of the skills as language input and language output.
The matriculation program's third level was selected as the focus of this study's pilot project. ICE and the other levels of ELT in the university, or English for specialized purposes, are connected at this level. This level is meant to be the final stepping stone before the students are introduced to English instruction that is tailored to their professional demands. English teachers who are teaching level three collaborated to create the study's curriculum. First, recommendations and comments that primarily related with selecting themes that were more intriguing and engaging for teachers and students were evaluated. Additionally, they claimed that it was usually difficult to match the module's language activities and texts with the overall learning objectives of the sessions. They acknowledged changing the tasks or the texts in this instance.
As shown from classroom observations and conversations in teacher meetings, the program administration did not fully grasp the notion of integrated teaching, which was reflected in their instruction. Second, the text and task selections that the course designer had suggested were examined with the help of a small team composed of level three teachers. Twenty-four units, or twelve week meetings, comprise each level's semester, as was previously mentioned. One language function was elaborated over the course of three meetings using a combination of a functional and topic-based syllabus.