What Are the Four Language Skills?

The four skills of language (also known as the four skills of language learning) are a set of four
capabilities that allow an individual to comprehend and produce spoken language for proper and effective
interpersonal communication.
These skills are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. In the context of first-language acquisition,
the four skills are most often acquired in the order of listening first, then speaking, then possibly reading
and writing. For this reason, these capabilities are often called LSRW skills.

What is Listening?
Listening is the first language skill we acquire in our native language. It is what is known as a receptive
skill, or a passive skill, as it requires us to use our ears and our brains to comprehend language as it is
being spoken to us. It is the first of two natural language skills, which are required by all natural spoken
languages.

What is Speaking?
Speaking is the second language skill we acquire in our native language. It is what is known as a
productive skill, or an active skill, as it requires us to use our vocal tract and our brains to correctly
produce language through sound. It is the second of two natural language skills.

What is Reading?
Reading is the third language skill we may acquire in our native language. As with listening, it is a
receptive, or passive skill, as it requires us to use our eyes and our brains to comprehend the written
equivalent of spoken language. It is one of the two artificial language skills, as not all natural spoken
languages have a writing system.

What is Writing?
Writing is the fourth language skill we may acquire in our native language. As with speaking, it is a
productive, or active skill, as it requires us to use our hands and our brains to produce the written symbols
that represent our spoken language. Along with reading, it is one of the two artificial language skills, as
not all natural spoken languages have a writing system.

Do Language Learners Need All Four Skills?

Up to this point, we’ve referred to the four skills in the sequence they are acquired for first language
learners. That is to say, if you’re an educated native speaker of a language that also has a writing system,
then you already possess all of these skills, and likely developed them in the above order.
But what about foreign language learners?
If you want to learn a foreign language, do you need to master all four skills?
Well—yes and no.

When You Should Learn All Four Skills

You should learn all four skills if you want to have full access to the language as native speakers do.

 Knowing how to listen will help you:

 Comprehend natives when they speak
 Watch and understand movies, television, and online video
  Listen to the radio and podcasts
 Knowing how to speak will help you:
 Engage natives in conversation
 Address audiences
 Knowing how to read will help you:
 Read newspapers, books, and magazines
 Interpret in-country signs, alerts, and notices
 Knowing how to write will help you:
 Compose personal emails, letters, and text messages
 Write articles, essays, books, or other long-form texts.

When You Should Not Learn All Four Skills

There are two scenarios in which you may not want to develop all four major language skills:

 Your target language doesn’t allow for use of the four skills
 Your goals do not require all four skills

Your Target Language Doesn’t Allow All Four Skills

Due to historical circumstances, certain languages are lacking the necessary conditions that allow learners
to effectively develop all four major language skills:
If you are learning a language without a writing system, for example, then you will be unable to learn
to read or write that language. According to Ethnologue, out of 7,099 languages alive today, only 3,866
have an equivalent writing system.
If you are learning an extinct or dead language (like Latin or Ancient Greek), you cannot learn to truly
speak or listen to them as they were originally spoken, as there are no native speakers alive today.

Your Goals Do Not Require All Four Skills

Depending on what you wish to accomplish with your target language, you may need to learn one or two
of the skills, rather than all four.
For example:

 Those who wish to listen and understand spoken language can learn through books, courses, and
lots and lots of both intensive and extensive listening to native audio. This is common amongst
conference interpreters.
 Those who wish to speak languages with complex writing systems can sidestep the need to read
and write by relying solely on romanization.
 Those who wish to read literature of a specific language can practice solely through books and
vocabulary lists, without ever needing to speak to a native.
 Those who wish to write in a foreign language can just practice making and imitating the
symbols. This is especially common amongst calligraphers.
If you want the full experience of learning a language, then we at LinguaCore recommend that you aim to
develop all four major language skills. However, depending on your ultimate goals, any combination of
the four will do.

Why are the four skills useful?

In-order to become a well-rounded communicator one needs to be proficient in each of the four
language skills. These four skills give learners opportunities to create contexts in which to use the
language for exchange of real information, evidence of their own ability (proof of learning) and, most
important, confidence. Listening and reading are the receptive skills because learners do not need to
produce language, they receive and understand it. These skills are sometimes known as passive skills.
The productive skills are speaking and writing because learners are applying these skills in a need to
produce language. They are also known as active skills.

Listening

Listening is a receptive language skill which learners usually find the most difficult. This often is because
they feel under unnecessary pressure to understand every word. The listener has to get oriented to the
listening portion and be all ears. The listener is also required to be attentive. Anticipation is a skill to be
nurtured in Listening. In everyday life, the situation, the speaker, and visual clues all help us to decode
oral messages. In due course of listening, be in a lookout for the sign post words. Thirdly one should be
able to concentrate on understanding the message thoroughly. Listening Skills could be enhanced by
focusing on making the students listen to the sounds of that particular language. This would help them
with the right pronunciation of words. To equip students with training in listening, one can think about
comprehending speeches of people of different backgrounds and regions. This intensive listening will
ultimately help a student to understand more on the accents to be used and the exact pronunciation of
words.

Speaking

Language is a tool for communication. We communicate with others, to express our ideas, and to know
others’ ideas as well. We must take into account that the level of language input (listening) must be
higher than the level of language production. In primary schools elocution and recitation are main
sources to master the sounds, rhythms, and intonation of the English language through simple
reproduction. The manifestations of the language in games and pair work activities are encouraging
source to learn to speak the language. This assists the learners to begin to manipulate the language by
presenting them with a certain amount of choice, albeit within a fairly controlled situation. This skill
could be improved by understanding para-linguistic attributes such as voice quality, volume and tone,
voice modulation, articulation, pronunciation etc. This could also be further enhanced with the help of
debates and discussions.

Reading

Reading is a learning skill. It helps you improve all parts of the English language – vocabulary, spelling,
grammar, and writing. It helps to develop language intuition in the corrected form. Then the brain
imitates them, producing similar sentences to express the desired meaning. Using skimming or scanning
technique to read quickly is highly effective. While reading underlining of key words is a must. Reading
Skills help the students grasp the content and draw conclusions. The students should also make it a point
to familiarize themselves with the jargons and new words by making reading a habit be it reading
newspapers, articles, books, magazines etc

Writing

Writing provides a learner with physical evidence of his achievements and he can measure his
improvement. It helps to consolidate their grasp of vocabulary and structure, and complements the
other language skills. It helps to understand the text and write compositions. It can foster the learner’s
ability to summarize and to use the language freely. To write flawless language one should excel in the
Writing Skills with the help of various methods. Importance should be given to composition and creative
writing. One should also focus on coherence and cohesiveness when it comes to writing a language.

With these four skills addressed equally while learning English, the learners can be assured of having
good communication skills, a great necessity in today’s competitive world.