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Current Perspectives on Teaching the Four Skills
Author(s) -
HINKEL ELI
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/40264513
Subject(s) - active listening , discipline , affect (linguistics) , reading (process) , mathematics education , pedagogy , teaching english , teaching method , emphasis (telecommunications) , sociology , psychology , engineering ethics , computer science , linguistics , social science , engineering , communication , telecommunications , philosophy
This article presents an overview of recent developments in second language (L2) teaching and highlights the trends that began in the 1990s and the 2000s and are likely to continue to affect instruction in L2 skills at least in the immediate future. Also highlighted are recent developments in instruction as they pertain specifically to the teaching of L2 speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the past 15 years or so, several crucial factors have combined to affect current perspectives on the teaching of English worldwide: (a) the decline of methods, (b) a growing emphasis on both bottom‐up and top‐down skills, (c) the creation of new knowledge about English, and (d) integrated and contextualized teaching of multiple language skills. In part because of its comparatively short history as a discipline, TESOL has been and continues to be a dynamic field, one in which new venues and perspectives are still unfolding. The growth of new knowledge about the how and the what of L2 teaching and learning is certain to continue and will probably remain the hallmark of TESOL's disciplinary maturation.