Implementation of Integrated Language Skills in English Teaching Process

Ummi Kalsum¹, Andi Tenri Ampa², Radiah Hamid³

¹ Makassar Muhammadiyah University, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Makassar, Indonesia

^2,3 Makassar Muhammadiyah University, Postgraduate Program, Makassar, Indonesia

ABSTRACT: Integrated Language Skills (ILS) is an approach considered to integrate the four language skills into teaching learning activities in order to develop students’ communicative competence. This research aimed to investigate teachers’ implementation of ILS and the challenges in implementing ILS in teaching learning process. The participants were four English teachers and chosen by using purposive sampling technique. The research findings revealed that all of the teachers only integrated two and three language skills in English teaching process, except for one teacher implemented the four language skills in a meeting.  Whereas, the challenges faced by the teachers in implementing ILS in teaching process were: students’ less interest and motivation in learning English, teachers were lack of competence and creativity in allocating time of teaching duration, school’s facilities were not maximally adequate. Therefore, teachers were expected to attend teaching training to develop their competences in terms of preparing materials and equipment, strategies or techniques in conveying teaching material such as giving them short video or games to motivate them before learning started. These things can be forwarded by school capacity to inadequate attention language skills integration.

KEYWORDS: Implementation, challenges, ILS.  EFL teachers

1. INTRODUCTION

English learning aims at developing students’ language skills in communicating. Nevertheless, students should know the rules of communication to be applied in culture and surrounding community. Jing (2006) found that literature on language learning supports the integration of the language skills and asserts its significance in developing language learners’ communicative competence and enhancing their language proficiency level. The implementation of ILS is necessary because it helps learners to develop their ability to use the four language skills within real context and also in their real life. Brown (2001) states that ILS is a perspective that views the four language skills as a unit and not separately. The application of integrated skills has several advantages, namely providing real language experience for students by interacting naturally using English. Consequently, the learners know the target language elements and rules but could not use them to communicate. The integration of the four skills is concerned with realistic communication.According to Wagner (1985) states that ILS means providing natural learning situations in which listening, speaking, reading, and writing that can be developed together for real purposes and real audiences. It means that teachers are teaching at the discourse level, not just at the level of sentences or individual words and phrases. Meanwhile, Oxford (2001) describes English instruction as a process that comprises the four skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which when intertwining well through the integrated-skill approach during instruction, learners can use English effectively for communication. In other word, the term integrated teaching can be interpreted as learning activity where all four skills occur at the same time facilitated by the instructor, the learners, and learning circumstances. According to Cunningsworth ¹ (1984),  Selma et al ² ( 2010) describes in the actual language use, one skill is rarely used in isolation. Numerous communicative situations in real life involve integrating two or more skills. Skills integration is commonly used in everyday life. For instance, a person reads a letter and replies it by writing after reading, and may possibly talk about it after writing it. Two or more language skills are generally integrated in everyday language use. In fact, many English teachers, especially in the English Foreign Language (EFL) context do not implement an integrated learning instead they teach students separately where it does not combined four skills to be unit but they teach by sub-topic such as grammar, writing. Language skills in the classroom should also be integrated in language teaching process as it is in real life. In order to provide more purposeful and meaningful learning environment, teachers should integrate the language skills -reading, speaking, listening and writing- while teaching and practicing the language. The ideal teaching and learning activities, teachers and students should involve reading, speaking, listening, and writing on their activities. Generally people use a language particularly speaking to interact with other but it does not mean that other three language skills (writing, reading and listening) are not engaged in our conversation. In addition, Atta-Alla, (2012) found that to enable the learners to use English to communicate, English language skills        should be taught in integration in order to arrive at ease in communication.

Integrated Language Skills (ILS) is the teaching approach that incorporates the four language skills to develop students’ communicative competence. Therefore, it is urgency to describe the extent to which ILS is implemented and challenges faced by the teachers in teaching English. A lot of research shows that ILS can give good results if teachers are able to implement the integrated language skills with involving a good preparation. Richards, et al. (2002) state that integrated approach in language teaching is the teaching of the language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, in conjunction with each other, as when a lesson involves activities that relate listening and speaking to reading and writing. Nizamova et al. (2019) states that integrating the four language skills can be demanding of the teacher. It involves a challenge in implementing integrated language skills such as teachers need to have a good understanding of discourse, and to be able to use textbooks flexibly, the challenging of designing suitable materials that take account of students’ different skill levels.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW
2. Integrated Language Skills (ILS)

An integration is defined as the process of combining two or more things into one. Integrated skills focuses on the four main English skills reading, writing, speaking and listening through a Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology. According to Oxford et al. (1994)  explains that it involves linking the four language skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing with the intent of emphasizing real, meaningful communication. According to Wagner ¹ (1985), Atta-Alla ² (2012) states that integrating the language skills means providing natural learning situations in which listening, speaking, reading, and writing can be developed together for real purposes and real audiences.

The ideal teaching and learning activities, teachers and students should involve reading, speaking, listening, and writing on their activities. Generally, people use a language particularly speaking to interact with other but it does not mean that other three language skills (writing, reading and listening) are not engaged in our conversation. Harmer (2007) mentions that four basic skills of language cannot be isolated to each other by teaching these skills for our students separately since they are integrated each other when using a language.

1. Modes of ILS

Pardede (2019) states that ILS teaching is differentiated into two types: content-based language teaching (CBLT) or Content Based Instruction (CBI) and task-based language teaching (TBLT). CBLT includes three major models of language teaching, i.e., theme-based language teaching model, adjunct language teaching model, and the sheltered model. In the theme-based model, language skills are interconnected to the study of a theme or a topic (which was carefully selected to ensure it very interesting to students and offers a wide variety of language skills to be practiced, particularly in communicating about the topic), which serves as the context for language use.

In TBLT, students participate in communicative tasks in the target language. Nunan (1989); Pardede  (2019)  state that communicative tasks are activities which can stand alone as fundamental units and require comprehending, producing, manipulating, or interacting in authentic language while attention is principally paid to meaning rather than form.

III.  METHOD

The research used descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected by observation checklist and structured interview. The participants are four teachers from the same senior high school in Makassar, Indonesia. The data obtained from observation and interview were analyzed into three steps: data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusion or verification (Sugiono, 2015).

1. RESULTS
2. The Implementation of ILS in English Teaching and Learning Process

During the research process, researcher found five forms of ILS in teaching learning process shown in the table below:

Table 1. The forms of Implementation ILS

The observation results of 4 teachers during 2 meetings showed that only 1 teacher (T2) implemented the four language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing (LSRW) simultaneously. The teacher starts by asking the students listening to English sentences orally which can practice their listening comprehension, if the students don’t understand then the teacher spells the word. This is one way to train listening to students who are beginners learning English. With this material it is also used to train students’ speaking by asking students to answer questions from the teacher and from classmates. Thus, students are trained in their speaking skills. Furthermore, with this material students are also trained to reread the statements that have been listened, then students are also trained to rewrite with correct spelling, sentences that are coherent and cohesive. thus, all four language skills are implemented in one meeting.Another teacher (T3) only integrated 3 language skills in teaching English, namely Reading, Speaking, and Writing (RSW).   The learning process carried out by the teacher emphasizes students’ reading comprehension. The students are trained to read the text and to understand the contents of the text that has been read by conducting questions and answers about the contents of the text. Thus, students are trained in reading and speaking comprehension, then when it is integrated with writing, students are asked to practice rewriting a paragraph related to the text that has been listened to and discussed. This way is the application of Reading, Speaking dan Writing (RSW).

The others (T1 & T4) only integrated 2 language skills, namely Listening and Writing (LW) and listening and speaking (LS) in teaching English. In general, teachers only integrate the two language skills in teaching English. This condition shows that teachers still face challenges in integrating the four language skills simultaneously in teaching English.

2. The Challenges Faced by the Teachers in Integrating Language Skills in English Learning Process

The challenges are classified into three factors, those are related to the school, teachers and students. School is one of the supporting factors in implementing ILS in teaching English. Inadequate school facilities impede ILS implementation, for example providing language laboratory may support the integrated teaching and learning process.  Teachers also described that the other facilities provided by the school are categorized as quite complete, however, teacher expected to have language lab. because it is very supportive for learning process so that the teacher should be more independent in expressing their creativity in teaching English. Example of interview:

Q: Are there any obstacles with school facilities?

A: School facilities are quite complete, there are LCD, TV, etc. it’s just that we need a language lab to complement the ILS learning process

Another factor is the teacher himself. Most of the

teachers teach English by integrating only two skills, for example listening and speaking skills or reading and writing skills. The challenge faced is the lack of time available to integrate the four language skills simultaneously.

Q: What’s about the time allocation to implement the four ILS?

A:  we cannot integrate the four language skills in one meeting, because  there are 4 skills that should be integrated, while the time provided is not enough unless there are additional time.The last factor is from the students. Teachers face difficulties to teach English, especially if they want to uses ILS, many students have low motivation in learning English so they are not active in the classroom interaction. Q: how is the students’ motivation in learning English using ILS learning?A: there are students who are less active so the teacher must work hard to control students, to make them active. We have to give a lot of feedback.

1. DISCUSSION
   1. The Implementation of ILS in Teaching and Learning Process

English teachers apply more integrated 2 language skills when they teach English. They sometimes apply three skills but it was not optimal. Richards et al (2002) state that an integrated approach to language teaching is teaching the language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking, in relation to one another, such as when the lesson involves activities related to listening and speaking or reading. and write. However, observation showed that teachers also do not fully comply with the principles of integrated teaching.

Hungyo and Kijai (2009) explains that the term integrated means language learning integrated the four language skills that take place at the same time. Actually, the teachers implement ILS every time they teach, but only two language skills. There are only a few teachers who can implement 3 or 4 language skills in an integrated way. This is due to the limited time available. Meanwhile, in designing activities, teachers must consider all language skills simultaneously, the tasks or exercises should involve more than one language skill (Nunan, 1989; Oxford, 2001).

1. The Challenges in ILS

Teachers mostly face problems in the teaching and learning process, especially by applying the four language skills. This problem is related to students who have lack motivation in learning. So that it affects their learning behavior in the classroom because they have low interest and motivation to learn English. Richard et al. (2001) states that students with low motivation, very poor language skills, and negative attitudes towards teachers and their peers. In addition, they find it difficult to express themselves especially in speaking classes or become introverted personalities.

Another factor that poses a challenge in the implementation of the ILS is the teacher’s own perception, this is related to the teacher’s ability to apply the ILS in an integrated manner. the observation results show that out of four teachers, only one teacher can implement the four language skills. Three English teachers revealed that the time available is not enough to implement the four language skills. Similar findings were also made by Atta-Alla, (2012) who found that the application of integrated skills in classroom learning faced several obstacles. The first obstacle is the very limited number of hours of compulsory English lessons, only two hours of lessons a week. These limited hours make it difficult for teachers to design comprehensive and creative learning activities with limited learning media.

Furthermore, Pardede (2019) states that schools have the potential to hinder the implementation of the ILS related to climate, policies, and equipment. To achieve success or successful implementation of ILS learning, schools should provide a facilitative learning atmosphere as a symbol of strong institutional support. In this case the researcher found that the facilities provided by the school were quite complete but the teacher was expected to have a language laboratory due to several considerations but the facilities provided by the school were very supportive of the learning process, so the teacher had to be more independent in expressing his opinion, creativity in the teaching process. So, from the overall answers given by the teacher, researchers realized that students’ abilities were determined by how the teacher taught, because students’ capacities varied. Student progress will be seen when the teachers’ ability to control the class, besides that the use of school facilities in teaching is very influential.

1. CONCLUSION

During this process, it can be concluded that, mostly teachers do not integrate four language skills in teaching learning process. There are five models of teachers’ implementation of ILS. Those are LSRW, RSW, LSW, LW, and LS. One of four teachers implemented four skills well along with time allocation. The challenges faced by the teachers are related to the students low motivation in learning English, limited time, and the school facilities.

VII. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research received a grant from Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Research and Technology, Indonesia.

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