Language is using words with people. The simple ideas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking are OUT. A new conceptualization is IN. Language use is a dynamic, flexible, and complex competencies.  

The Common European Framework of References (CEFR) has redefined language skills into language competencies for langauge teachers and learners. The CEFR Companion Volume includes more details about how languages are assessed in terms of competencies.

https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages

We used to conceptualize language skills as the “four skills” of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Then we added grammar and vocabulary as necessarily integrated into the other skills. However, rarely do we just “write;” we write for an audience. Rarely do we just “talk” without also listening to our interlocutor. When we listen, we respond and participate in the conversation.

CEFR has paired the skills as we naturally use them and reconceptualized language skills into four differently defined competencies to better mirror how languages are used in real life. CEFR’s categories of langauge competencies define language use (languaging) into slightly different groups in order to reflect language skills more fully.

We now conceptualize language skills as:

1.     Receptive skills: Reading and listening. When we read or listen, we are receiving language.

2.     Productive skills: Speaking and writing When we speak or write, we are producing new language.

3.     Interaction skills: Interactional competency includes interpersonal interactions, evaluative interactions (formal meetings, goal-oriented collaboration), and transactional interactions (information exchange, interviews etc.).  

4.     Mediation skills: Mediation views a person as a “social agent” who bridges gaps between texts and people to convey meaning. The texts that are mediated can be cross-lingual, for example, from L1 to L2, or cross-modal, for example, from essay to blog or from graphic to video.  

In today’s world, the skills of interaction and mediation are just as important as the skills of reading and writing. Interaction helps us to negotiate with people. Our multilingual world requires us to mediate texts in a wide variety of contexts.

English teachers are already teaching with these “new” four skills in mind. Language teaching is an ever dynamic and multilayered profession. Join us for the exciting world of languaging!  

Author: Robin Gingerich, Ph.D., MA TESOL Program Director at LCC International University.