Technology and the four skills

Robert Blake, University of California, Davis

Most L2 instructors implement their curriculum with an eye to improving the four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Absent in this vision of language are notions of pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and multicultural competencies. Although current linguistic theories posit a more complex, interactive, and integrated model of language, this review article points out where computer-assisted language learning (CALL) can contribute to L2 language growth in terms of these four skills, especially if carefully situated within a task-based language teaching (TBLT) framework. New technologies coupled with a TBLT goal-oriented approach ultimately push learners to combine speaking, listening, reading, and writing in ways that resemble more closely how they normally engage with the digital facets of their own lives.

Keywords: Task-based Instruction, Computer-mediated Communication
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304045490_Technology_and_the_four_skills [accessed Nov 24 2019].