Among 4 skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) which one you should focus the most?

Yes! There is the best ratio among 4 skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking) for the maximum & most balanced language learning.

Read on to find out how you can upgrade your language skills efficiently depending on which level you are in.

The dilemma of typical adult learners (Don’t make this mistake!)

When you learn English in non-English speaking countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, your education tends to focus on reading and writing because these skills are easier to teach for the teachers and you just can’t get enough speaking time in your environment.

And when you finally come to English-speaking countries you might be thinking “I’m so ready to practice speaking!” “I wanna speak as many hours as possible while I’m in Canada, Australia, America, etc. “ “Oh yeah, I’m signing up for the speaking class! Speaking, speaking, and speaking!”

Many students and language schools put a lot of emphasis on speaking. Some students might even believe their English level = speaking level.

On the surface, it appears that way too. When you see someone speaking the language fast, it looks like their language level is very high.

They feel that they were improving a lot while they were in English-speaking countries because they did speak English every day, and a lot of students feel that it was worth spending a lot of money on tuition and quitting the job for two months.

However, sadly, I saw many students showing very little or virtually no improvements in English exams such as IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC after finishing the program in language schools. It’s rather common to see students with a TOEIC score of 600 enroll in a language school for 2 months. Finish the program, come back to their own country, and get 620 in TOEIC. As soon as they get back home, they lose the chance to speak English, and after a few months, they find themselves struggling to make simple sentences they used to make so easily while they were in English speaking countries. After spending the time, money, and effort they have nothing to show but some pictures they took while there were in language schools.

In this article, I would like to explain why this happens and how to avoid this mistake with findings from the study of SLA (second language acquisition).

You should spend 2.5 times more time on input than output for the best learning efficiency.

The first thing I would like you to understand is that 4 skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) can be divided into two types; Input (reading & listening) & output (writing & speaking).

• Input: Reading & Listening

• Output: Writing & Speaking

As in the story above, many students focus on speaking, but findings from SLA reveals that your English actually grows while you are having language input. It is said that you should split your learning time into 70% input and 30% output for advanced learners. For intermediate learners, the ratio for input should be even higher at input 80% and 20% output.

Below is the ratio you should follow depending on your language level.

• Advanced level: input 70%, output 30%

• Intermediate level: input 80%, output 20%

• Beginner level: input 90%, output 10%

What this means is that you should have 2 or 3 reading and listening classes for 1 speaking class! Or you need to cover the lack of input by self-studying. For 1 hour of speaking class, you should prepare 2-3 hours at home to study topics and vocabulary you would like to perform in the class.

Focus on reading and listening in order to grow your speaking proficiency fast

In fact, some researchers even claimed that the only time you learn languages is when you are having input!! (Input hypothesis)

Input makes the foundation of your language ability. Input skills (reading and listening) grow when you expand passive knowledge of the language. Passive knowledge is something you know, but you might not be able to use it actively. On the other hand, the knowledge you can use in speaking and writing are called active knowledge. This happens in all aspects of language ability. For example, in your native language, there are many words you understand in reading but cannot spell out or use them perfectly in writing or speaking. Another example is pronunciation. You might be able to understand different dialects in your native language, but you might not be able to speak in different dialects and sound natural among the speakers of that particular dialect.

When it comes to vocabulary, It is said that your passive vocabulary is usually more than 2 times bigger than active vocabulary. Average native speakers of English have a passive vocabulary size of 25,000 words. However, Their active vocabulary size is roughly 10,000 - 15,000 words.

Your growth in speaking is limited to the amount of your passive knowledge. Naturally, it is impossible to speak or write the words you don’t know, and no matter how many speaking classes you take, your speaking ability won’t grow beyond your passive vocabulary level.

For instance, if you only know 5,000 words at the moment, all you can do in the speaking class is to grow your active vocabulary from 1,000 to 5,000 words. However, if you already know 10,000 words in your bank, you can learn to withdraw 6,000 words very easily.

It sounds counterintuitive, but if you want to grow your speaking, the fastest route is focusing on reading and listening to accumulate passive knowledge of the language. Once you reach high-intermediate or advanced vocabulary size (roughly 8,000 - 12,000 words), you will be able to grow your speaking and writing skills exponentially in a matter of a few months.

Thank you for reading till the end. You might also be interested in "What is Quality Input? How to choose the best material!". The article talks about the efficient way to grow your reading and listening ability by having “quality input”.