Each of the four language skills--reading, writing, speaking, and listening--plays an important role in language learning, and successful teaching can benefit from including a combination of these skills in the classroom. This article shares strategies for integrating speaking into a writing-focused course, with the goal of improving students'…

This article describes an activity that will allow students to practice using greetings by creating a brief skit. The goals of this activity are to practice common greetings; to use appropriate greetings with different community members; and to understand when to use informal and formal greetings

Integration of the four language skills can be enhanced by focusing on back translating--translating an English text into the students' first language and then back into English. This article describes a three-step process for using back translation in reading classes as a way to help students identify gaps in their English competence.

In this article, the authors endorse a model that uses themes as springboards for language improvement, accompanied by the added benefit of content learning, though to differing degrees depending on the instructional setting. The themes that teachers choose to integrate into their language classrooms may reflect serious issues (e.g., elections,…

For many university teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL), the study of literature is indispensable because it exposes students to meaningful contexts that are replete with descriptive language and interesting characters. Structuring lessons around the reading of literature introduces a profound range of vocabulary, dialogues, and prose.…