Chapter Three: Developing language skills

Listening, reading, speaking, and writing -- these are the four basic language skills. Your needs assessment will show you which of these skills should be emphasized in your ESP class. Emphasis will vary from situation to situation, but in many post secondary institutions, students typically need ESP to understand English and will therefore expect priority help in developing their listening and reading skills. However, no skill should be taught in isolation. This section of the Manual describes the language skills, lists objectives for the development of each skill, and gives guidelines and suggestions for classroom activities to give students practice.