The ‘Four Strands’ of a

Well-Balanced Language Course

Based on the book Teaching ESL/EFL: Listening & Speaking

By L. S. P. Nation and Jonathan Newton

2009, Routledge Publishing

The Four Strands:an

OVERVIEW1. Learning through Meaning-Focused Input

2. Learning through Meaning-Focused Output

3. Learning through Deliberate Attention to Language Items and Language Features

4. Developing Fluency in the Use of Known Language Items and Features

1. Learning throughMeaning-Focused Input

Learning through listening and reading: Input

Learner’s attention on ideas and messages conveyed through the language: ‘taking in’

2. Learning through Meaning-Focused

Output Learning through speaking and writing:

Output

Learner’s attention is on conveying ideas and messages to another person: ‘putting out’

3. Language-Focused Learning

Learning through detailed focus on form, deliberate teaching, deliberate learning of language features

“The term language-focused learning is preferred because terms like focus on form and form-focused instruction are misleading” and are not always seen as connected to instruction but can be seen as “autonomous learning” (Nation and Newton, 2009).

4. Developing Fluency Involves the four skills: listening, speaking,

reading, and writing

Develops fluency with what is already known

Pros, Cons, & Applications Cons:

Assumed to substitute quantity for quality Assumed to prefer form over communicative

style teaching Pros:

Involves all four components: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing.

Distinguishes accuracy from fluency: the practical application of language learning

Applies Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development

1. Meaning Focused Input Main focus is understanding (alongside

gaining knowledge and enjoyment) Required conditions:

Most of information (listening and/or reading) is already known to student

Students are interested in information Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development Large quantities of Input (most of it familiar) Methods: assigned readings, in-class

readings, overhead presentations for listeningVygotsky's ZPD states that the best teaching/learning is done with a learner at the level of knowledge of the learner, where another (the instructor) pushes the learner just beyond the familiar.

Requirements & Results of Meaning Focused Input

Requires repetition* Slow progress, small gains, and consistent

building on existing knowledge of student Incidental Learning: e.g. incidental vocabulary

learning occurred during vocabulary work and during level-specific reading

* "[S]econd language learners need to read at least one graded reader every two weeks in order to . . . establish substantial vocabulary growth through incidental learning" (Nation and Wang, 1999).

2. Meaning Focused Output: Using Language Productively

Nation and Newton summarize the five main points of Meaning Focused Output:

1. Learners write and talk about familiar ideas.2. Learners’ main goal is to transfer their

message to another individual.3. The large majority of the language used is

familiar to the student.4. Learners are allowed to use outside sources as

aids.5. “There are plenty of opportunities to produce.”

Meaning Focused Output: Application

Being proactive in the classroom: “One person’s output can be another person’s input” (Nation and Newton, 2009).

This is an excellent use for group work.

Output is Qualitatively Different from Input

1. The ‘noticing/triggering’ function: Learners notice gaps and realize they do not know how to say what they want to say.

2. The hypothesis testing function: Learners try something, then confirm or modify it based on success and/or feedback.

3. The metalinguistic (reflective) function: Using output collaboratively to solve language problems.

4. Collaborative work can include, for example, ‘whiteboard or group composition to produce piece of written work.’ (Nation and Newton, 2009)

#1 - #3: Swain, 2005

3. Language-Focused Learning

Language-focused learning is more formal, where students use index/vocabulary cards, pronunciation software, textbooks, intensive reading with feedback, translation, etc.

Language-focused learning includes repetition. Language-focused learning – again – involves a

combination of mostly familiar language with new language.

What is learned in this strand must be included in the other three strands: It cannot be separate.

4. Becoming Fluent in Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing

Fluency is meaning-focused. According to Nation and Newton, four

conditions must be present:1. All material is largely familiar to learners.2. Learners focus is on input or output.3. Some pressure is applied by instructor

(Vygotsky).4. “There is a large amount of input or output.”

Fluency is not involved when introducing new vocabulary.

Fluency - continues

“The fluency strand should make up about one-quarter of the course time. It is time out from learning new items and is a time for getting good at using what is already known” (Nation and Newton, 2009). Fluency practice increases fluency. Fluency aided by a tutor/teacher increases

fluency even more.

Use all Four Strands All four strands should be balanced as equally

as possible. Consider “Time on Task” when planning

lessons. Remember: “How can you learn to do

something if you don’t do that during learning” (italics mine) (Nation & Newton, 2009)

Nation and Newton’s Pedagogical Principles

Below is a section of the book quoted word for word:1. Provide and organise large amounts of comprehensible

input through both listening and reading. This could involve providing an extensive reading programme, reading to the learners, getting learners to give talks for their classmates to listen to, arranging spoken communication activities, and interaction via the internet.

2. Boost learning through comprehensible input by adding a deliberate element. Note words on the board as they occur in listening, do consciousness-raising activities before communicative tasks, get learners to reflect on new items they meet while reading, explain problem items that come up in the context of communication activities.

Nation and Newton’s Pedagogical Principles, cont.

3. Support and push learners to produce spoken and written output in a variety of appropriate genres. Use communication activities in a range of situations, use role plays, match writing and speaking tasks to learner needs.

4. Provide opportunities for cooperative interaction. Do group work involving opinion gap and information gap tasks, get learners to work together on writing and reading.

Nation and Newton’s Pedagogical Principles, cont.

5. Help learners deliberately learn language items and patterns, including sounds, spelling, vocabulary, multi-word units, grammar, and discourse. Do teacher-led intensive reading, give feedback on writing, deliberately teach language items, arrange individual study of language items.

6. Train learners in strategies that will contribute to language learning. Work on guessing from context, dictionary use, word part analysis, and learning using word cards.

Nation and Newton’s Pedagogical Principles, cont.

7. Provide fluency development activities in each of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Include repeated reading, provide an extensive reading programme, organise a regular ten-minute writing programme, do listening to stories.

8. Provide a roughly equal balance of the four strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focus learning, and fluency development. Keep a record of the activities done in the course, the strand they fit into, and the amount of time spent on them.

Nation and Newton’s Pedagogical Principles, cont.

9. Plan for the repeated coverage of the most useful language items. Focus on high frequency items, use controlled and simplified material, provide plenty of input at the same level.

10.Use analysis, monitoring, and assessment to help address learners’ language and communication needs: What worked? What didn’t work? Why? How do you know?

Summary Please note that the items I highlighted in

bold, #8 and #10, are items that I will be asking you to reflect on for your own, self-assessment.

We will talk about self-assessment during the next staff meeting.

ReferencesChaiklin, S. (2003). The zone of proximal development in Vygotsky's analysis of learning and instruction. In A. Kozulin, B. Gindis, V. S. Ageyev, & S. M. Miller (Eds.), Vygotsky's Education Theory in Cultural Context (pp. 38-64). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nation, I., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New York: Routledge Press.