ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a discussion of issues common across the four skills before looking at each skill in turn. As Gatbonton and Segalowitz argue, ELT practitioners in the communicative language teaching (CLT) paradigm have largely failed to effectively integrate practice into communicative teaching. The TAP model provides one explanation for why form-focused drills are not adequate preparation for communicative performance, a point that DeKeyser argues persuasively. Cauldwell describes the kind of comprehension approach advocated by Krashen and prevalent in many published textbooks as an over-reliance on osmosis; that is, it works on the maxim listen a lot and your listening skills will improve automatically. De Jong and Perfetti carried out an empirical study into the effects of the 432 activity on spoken fluency. As the term indicates, computer-mediated communication (CMC) also offers learners opportunities to develop their productive language skills through communicating online in modalities unhindered by time or space.
