Introduction

This e-book is a guide intended to educate learners of English, or any language with a written system, in the connection between the four skills in the language.

The skills are reading, writing, speaking and listening, but how are they connected to each other? It might be better to understand how each skill can support each other whenever you are learning the language.

The four skills are accompanied in language by four systems, which are grammar, lexis (which is vocabulary, or vocabulary in groups, compounds or collocations), pronunciation and discourse. The four skills contain these other four elements, so having good ability in the skills is important to mastering important language elements like grammar or pronunciation, or supporting a learner who wants to master these systems. 

The Interconnectedness of Skills

In our introduction, we talked about how skills support each other as well as supporting and connecting to language systems. Therefore, we should consider how these skills are interconnected. Reading and writing are obviously linked, as are speaking and listening, but are all four connected to each other?

They are connected in that all of the language systems run through the skills, with both similar and differing patterns. Learners can take advantage of cross-referencing what they read or hear, and put them into both oral and written practice, and compare or contrast this practice with their fellow language learners.