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【Abstract】As the communicative purpose of language is taken into consideration， the focus of the listening classroom changes from developing comprehension to communicative competence. The whole paper investigates this issue from the view of integrating speaking and reading skills in a listening class. Language is an integration of diverse aspects. Thus， in some literature， speaking/reading is claimed to benefit listening in various ways when applying in the classroon. On the other hand， they are also in support of improving communicative competence.
【Key words】integration of listening； one-way listening； two-way listening
1. Introduction
The importance of listening was neglected for a long time in the English foreign language teaching field since listening takes place unconsciously and naturally in L1 acquisition. A child begins to listen much earlier than learning to speak. Morley （1972， 7） also mentions， ‘listening is a reflex， a little like breathing，listening seldom receives overt teaching attention in one’s native language has masked the importance and complexity of listening with understanding in a non-native language.’ Nowadays， listening as one of the four skills （listening， reading， writing and speaking） plays a more central role in English. Both teachers and learners struggle for listening improvement. Listening competence has turned into a significant issue in EFL teaching. An increasing number of linguists devote themselves to investigating an effective approach to facilitate listening. However， language itself comprises different linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. To improve listening competence does not simply involve training comprehension skills. It also requires an overall development in diverse skills such as pronunciation and intonation.
I am going to investigate how to improve listening comprehension by an integrated-skills approach which combines listening with speaking/reading. This paper is divided into six parts. In the first part， there will be an introduction to the integration of listening which discusses the reasons for integrating listening with reading/speaking. Then， I am going to investigate the relationship between listening and speaking/reading in the third and fourth parts. Two examples will be given to demonstrate the integration of skills in the listening class in the fifth part. In the end， a conclusion will be provided to summarise the main idea of the paper.
2. Awareness of the Integration of Listening Traditionally， listening， along with reading， speaking and writing， is regarded as one aspect of English in curriculum and syllabus. It is an essential way of knowing a language. As Krashen （1983， 23） states in his input theory， after people receiving comprehensible input， languages are acquired. Listening， which is one of the main sources of comprehensible input， inevitably contributes to second language acquisition. However， before the 1970s， listening was recognized as a receptive language skill in which listeners were viewed as passively accepting the messages which speakers present （Morely， 1984）. Nunan （1999， 15） has also described it as ‘the Cinderella skill … which is overshadowed by its big sister， speaking.’ People always ignore the importance of listening in English teaching since it is an accessory which serves for the productive skills such as speaking and writing.
When the communicative goal of EFL learning is taken into consideration， the value of listening becomes noticeable in daily communication. More and more linguists， such as Murphy （1991）， suggest that ‘listening comprehension is an interactive， interpretive process in which listeners engage in a dynamic construction of meaning’. It indicates that listeners’ performance considerably affects the messages that aural input provides. Listeners are supposed to respond to the aural texts actively so as to achieve comprehension. The level （skills， strategies， proficiency etc.） of listeners also produces varying interpretation of input. Thus， the listener is encouraged to apply the skills at which they are proficient to help with understanding. On the other hand， when the listener is engaged in a listening task， he/she is supposed to predict topic development， activate the schemata， and ‘creatively react to what speakers say’ （Murphy， 1989）. These actions are raised to activate the background knowledge， relate the schemata of listeners， and then turn out responses to the input. Consequently， listening is not a skill which simply occurs to transfer spoken language passively； it contains interaction between listener and input. In the classroom， after understanding the aural message， learners are supposed to produce some responses to it so as to check whether the understanding is appropriate or not， and then modify the comprehension. As a result， listening curricula are not lessons which only involve listening behavior. Other skills （such as speaking and reading） which construct interactions are also inevitably included in a listening class. Language rarely occurs with the application of only one skill. Eli Hinkel （2006， 5） mentions that， ‘in meaningful communication， people employ incremental language skills not in isolation， but in tandem’. What we listen to and read greatly affect what we say and write. For instance， if you attend a lecture in college which is over an extended period and contains plentiful information， you need to construct meaningful groups with the help of noting key words by writing. It is a practical example which happens normally in real-life communication. This kind of activity effectively enhances listening comprehension by integrating writing in a task. Also， people cannot speak to others without listening to the speaker in a conversation. Thus， if skills are applied depending on each other in this way， it is useless to teach them respectively （Harmer， 2008）. In fact， we can rarely teach listening without incorporating reading and speaking， even writing in the classroom. During the listening process， learners are always required to predict the content by discussing with classmates， to read the script of audio material， and then to approach a comprehensive goal after listening. Otherwise， learners are demanded to discuss the information in listening material so as to check or modify their understanding.
In addition， ‘it is very difficult to test listening without bringing other skills into play’ when assessing listening （Wilson， 2008， 136）. If the test requires students to give comments on a topic， or to report the main idea， what the final grade reflects will include not only listening competence， but speaking competence. Or， the result of this listening test will be invalid if students are asked to write an essay after listening to a passage， but the score is used to test only listening competence. The unfairness will occur if the teacher scores them in listening but the student’s problem lies in a different skill. Language competence is a composition of interacting abilities that cannot be tested in isolation （Oller， 1979， 24）.
As a result， the four skills， especially listening， need to be integrated in an EFL class. In terms of listening， Lynch （2009， 108） also defines listening as ‘a prime example of integration’ since it incorporates a number of sub-skills. Effective listening requires not only linguistic skill， but non-linguistic skills. Apparently， listening occurs in combination with the other three conventional language skills. In brief， there is a need to integrate listening with a variety of skills which contain both sub-skills and conventional skills in order to reach mutual development. 3. The Relationship between Listening and Speaking
3.1 One-way listening and two-way listening
In an EFL listening classroom， learners are assumed to listen to a relatively longer recording， and then figure out the main idea. It places a strong emphasis on comprehension work during listening. This kind of listening task improves comprehension competence effectively so as to deal with common listening activities such as listening to the radio or a lecture in the real world. One-way listening enables learners to engage in the comprehension process of a longer input without replying to it. Nevertheless， people listen more often to a speaker who is involved in a conversation with them. This kind of two-way listening happens more frequently in daily communication. Reciprocal listening is needed in an interaction situation （Lynch， 1995， Buck， 2001）. The main difference between one-way and two-way listening lies in whether the response is needed to process the interaction. Two-way listening involves an interval where there is a demand for the listener to produce an appropriate response to what is heard in a short time. Besides， listener and speaker exchange their roles automatically during the conversation. Lynch （1988） also points out that if the L2 learner intends to become a proficient partner， he/she should be proficient in both speaking and listening. In a word， listening and speaking are two crucial skills which are tightly interrelated in communication. As the importance of interactive listening is noted， the integration of listening and speaking is given priority in listening class. Listening and speaking are mutually interdependent and beneficial during their process （Lynch， 1996， 110）.
For EFL learners in Chinese universities， teachers still focus on one-way listening. The whole lesson concentrates on comprehension with both top-down and bottom-up process. Activities are designed to help understand listening material which contains various types of recording， such as conversations， news reports and passages. Learners are placed in such a situation where L2 conversation rarely takes place in the classroom， and they seldom talk with L2 speakers outside the classroom either. The accessible L2 resources are from television， newspapers， magazines and the Internet. Thus， EFL teachers intend to equip learners with efficient comprehension competence which is helpful to deal with messages from the resources above. This point of view gives an extra weight to one-way listening and leads to the neglect of communication， especially speaking in listening teaching. Even if one-way listening draws most attention from EFL teachers in China， combining listening with speaking is useful for students as well. Integrating listening with speaking is more than a balanced improvement of these two skills. What is more， the integration contributes a lot to listening comprehension. The discussion during a listening activity provides an effective way to check understanding of aural texts. Nevertheless， the L2 environment outside the classroom should be taken into consideration. As Lynch （1995） mentions， two-way listening relies on the ‘interaction situation’. The chance of interacting in English for EFL learners in UK is not equal to that of the EFL learners in China. Therefore， tasks and approaches of integrating the two skills should be carefully designed， rather than put together randomly. 3.2 The sub-skills in both listening and speaking
There is a claim that a target can be divided into a number of small actions which could be completed respectively so as to fulfill the big task （Field， 2008， 98）. It is convincing to apply this perspective to language teaching. Listening， along with speaking， is a complex skill which embodies diverse components. It claims that listening comprises both linguistic characteristics like grammar and vocabulary， and non-linguistic ones such as schemata and contextual knowledge. Thus， sub-skills are indispensable to serve these components. Some linguists such as Field （2008， 98） suggest that the teacher adopts a sub-skill approach to practise single skills before exposing learners to the completed input. Richard （1983， 100） has identified some sub-skills such as ‘ability to recognize the vocabulary used in core conversational topics’ and ‘ability to recognize the rhythmic structure of utterances’. Since these micro skills focus on spoken language， they are also included in speaking practice where learners are supposed to produce a native-like outcome. That is to say， learners need to apply components of listening such as the vocabulary in core conversational topics or the rhythmic structure of utterances which they acquire in listening when practising speaking. One of the sub-skills which draws attention from some linguists is pronunciation. It is an overlapped feature shared by both listening and speaking. Growing numbers of linguists hold the opinion that pronunciation should be taught within both speaking and listening activities （Gilbert， 1984
【Key words】integration of listening； one-way listening； two-way listening
1. Introduction
The importance of listening was neglected for a long time in the English foreign language teaching field since listening takes place unconsciously and naturally in L1 acquisition. A child begins to listen much earlier than learning to speak. Morley （1972， 7） also mentions， ‘listening is a reflex， a little like breathing，listening seldom receives overt teaching attention in one’s native language has masked the importance and complexity of listening with understanding in a non-native language.’ Nowadays， listening as one of the four skills （listening， reading， writing and speaking） plays a more central role in English. Both teachers and learners struggle for listening improvement. Listening competence has turned into a significant issue in EFL teaching. An increasing number of linguists devote themselves to investigating an effective approach to facilitate listening. However， language itself comprises different linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. To improve listening competence does not simply involve training comprehension skills. It also requires an overall development in diverse skills such as pronunciation and intonation.
I am going to investigate how to improve listening comprehension by an integrated-skills approach which combines listening with speaking/reading. This paper is divided into six parts. In the first part， there will be an introduction to the integration of listening which discusses the reasons for integrating listening with reading/speaking. Then， I am going to investigate the relationship between listening and speaking/reading in the third and fourth parts. Two examples will be given to demonstrate the integration of skills in the listening class in the fifth part. In the end， a conclusion will be provided to summarise the main idea of the paper.
2. Awareness of the Integration of Listening Traditionally， listening， along with reading， speaking and writing， is regarded as one aspect of English in curriculum and syllabus. It is an essential way of knowing a language. As Krashen （1983， 23） states in his input theory， after people receiving comprehensible input， languages are acquired. Listening， which is one of the main sources of comprehensible input， inevitably contributes to second language acquisition. However， before the 1970s， listening was recognized as a receptive language skill in which listeners were viewed as passively accepting the messages which speakers present （Morely， 1984）. Nunan （1999， 15） has also described it as ‘the Cinderella skill … which is overshadowed by its big sister， speaking.’ People always ignore the importance of listening in English teaching since it is an accessory which serves for the productive skills such as speaking and writing.
When the communicative goal of EFL learning is taken into consideration， the value of listening becomes noticeable in daily communication. More and more linguists， such as Murphy （1991）， suggest that ‘listening comprehension is an interactive， interpretive process in which listeners engage in a dynamic construction of meaning’. It indicates that listeners’ performance considerably affects the messages that aural input provides. Listeners are supposed to respond to the aural texts actively so as to achieve comprehension. The level （skills， strategies， proficiency etc.） of listeners also produces varying interpretation of input. Thus， the listener is encouraged to apply the skills at which they are proficient to help with understanding. On the other hand， when the listener is engaged in a listening task， he/she is supposed to predict topic development， activate the schemata， and ‘creatively react to what speakers say’ （Murphy， 1989）. These actions are raised to activate the background knowledge， relate the schemata of listeners， and then turn out responses to the input. Consequently， listening is not a skill which simply occurs to transfer spoken language passively； it contains interaction between listener and input. In the classroom， after understanding the aural message， learners are supposed to produce some responses to it so as to check whether the understanding is appropriate or not， and then modify the comprehension. As a result， listening curricula are not lessons which only involve listening behavior. Other skills （such as speaking and reading） which construct interactions are also inevitably included in a listening class. Language rarely occurs with the application of only one skill. Eli Hinkel （2006， 5） mentions that， ‘in meaningful communication， people employ incremental language skills not in isolation， but in tandem’. What we listen to and read greatly affect what we say and write. For instance， if you attend a lecture in college which is over an extended period and contains plentiful information， you need to construct meaningful groups with the help of noting key words by writing. It is a practical example which happens normally in real-life communication. This kind of activity effectively enhances listening comprehension by integrating writing in a task. Also， people cannot speak to others without listening to the speaker in a conversation. Thus， if skills are applied depending on each other in this way， it is useless to teach them respectively （Harmer， 2008）. In fact， we can rarely teach listening without incorporating reading and speaking， even writing in the classroom. During the listening process， learners are always required to predict the content by discussing with classmates， to read the script of audio material， and then to approach a comprehensive goal after listening. Otherwise， learners are demanded to discuss the information in listening material so as to check or modify their understanding.
In addition， ‘it is very difficult to test listening without bringing other skills into play’ when assessing listening （Wilson， 2008， 136）. If the test requires students to give comments on a topic， or to report the main idea， what the final grade reflects will include not only listening competence， but speaking competence. Or， the result of this listening test will be invalid if students are asked to write an essay after listening to a passage， but the score is used to test only listening competence. The unfairness will occur if the teacher scores them in listening but the student’s problem lies in a different skill. Language competence is a composition of interacting abilities that cannot be tested in isolation （Oller， 1979， 24）.
As a result， the four skills， especially listening， need to be integrated in an EFL class. In terms of listening， Lynch （2009， 108） also defines listening as ‘a prime example of integration’ since it incorporates a number of sub-skills. Effective listening requires not only linguistic skill， but non-linguistic skills. Apparently， listening occurs in combination with the other three conventional language skills. In brief， there is a need to integrate listening with a variety of skills which contain both sub-skills and conventional skills in order to reach mutual development. 3. The Relationship between Listening and Speaking
3.1 One-way listening and two-way listening
In an EFL listening classroom， learners are assumed to listen to a relatively longer recording， and then figure out the main idea. It places a strong emphasis on comprehension work during listening. This kind of listening task improves comprehension competence effectively so as to deal with common listening activities such as listening to the radio or a lecture in the real world. One-way listening enables learners to engage in the comprehension process of a longer input without replying to it. Nevertheless， people listen more often to a speaker who is involved in a conversation with them. This kind of two-way listening happens more frequently in daily communication. Reciprocal listening is needed in an interaction situation （Lynch， 1995， Buck， 2001）. The main difference between one-way and two-way listening lies in whether the response is needed to process the interaction. Two-way listening involves an interval where there is a demand for the listener to produce an appropriate response to what is heard in a short time. Besides， listener and speaker exchange their roles automatically during the conversation. Lynch （1988） also points out that if the L2 learner intends to become a proficient partner， he/she should be proficient in both speaking and listening. In a word， listening and speaking are two crucial skills which are tightly interrelated in communication. As the importance of interactive listening is noted， the integration of listening and speaking is given priority in listening class. Listening and speaking are mutually interdependent and beneficial during their process （Lynch， 1996， 110）.
For EFL learners in Chinese universities， teachers still focus on one-way listening. The whole lesson concentrates on comprehension with both top-down and bottom-up process. Activities are designed to help understand listening material which contains various types of recording， such as conversations， news reports and passages. Learners are placed in such a situation where L2 conversation rarely takes place in the classroom， and they seldom talk with L2 speakers outside the classroom either. The accessible L2 resources are from television， newspapers， magazines and the Internet. Thus， EFL teachers intend to equip learners with efficient comprehension competence which is helpful to deal with messages from the resources above. This point of view gives an extra weight to one-way listening and leads to the neglect of communication， especially speaking in listening teaching. Even if one-way listening draws most attention from EFL teachers in China， combining listening with speaking is useful for students as well. Integrating listening with speaking is more than a balanced improvement of these two skills. What is more， the integration contributes a lot to listening comprehension. The discussion during a listening activity provides an effective way to check understanding of aural texts. Nevertheless， the L2 environment outside the classroom should be taken into consideration. As Lynch （1995） mentions， two-way listening relies on the ‘interaction situation’. The chance of interacting in English for EFL learners in UK is not equal to that of the EFL learners in China. Therefore， tasks and approaches of integrating the two skills should be carefully designed， rather than put together randomly. 3.2 The sub-skills in both listening and speaking
There is a claim that a target can be divided into a number of small actions which could be completed respectively so as to fulfill the big task （Field， 2008， 98）. It is convincing to apply this perspective to language teaching. Listening， along with speaking， is a complex skill which embodies diverse components. It claims that listening comprises both linguistic characteristics like grammar and vocabulary， and non-linguistic ones such as schemata and contextual knowledge. Thus， sub-skills are indispensable to serve these components. Some linguists such as Field （2008， 98） suggest that the teacher adopts a sub-skill approach to practise single skills before exposing learners to the completed input. Richard （1983， 100） has identified some sub-skills such as ‘ability to recognize the vocabulary used in core conversational topics’ and ‘ability to recognize the rhythmic structure of utterances’. Since these micro skills focus on spoken language， they are also included in speaking practice where learners are supposed to produce a native-like outcome. That is to say， learners need to apply components of listening such as the vocabulary in core conversational topics or the rhythmic structure of utterances which they acquire in listening when practising speaking. One of the sub-skills which draws attention from some linguists is pronunciation. It is an overlapped feature shared by both listening and speaking. Growing numbers of linguists hold the opinion that pronunciation should be taught within both speaking and listening activities （Gilbert， 1984