MACRO SKILLS

OF LANGUAGE
SHELLA MAE C. CALICDAN
■MACRO SKILLS OF LANGUAGE
Macro skills refer to the primary, key, main, and
largest skill set relative to a particular contest. It is
commonly referred to in English language. Macro-
skills are the primary ability that involves the
process of developing our knowledge and
competency. Each of our macro-skills works on
improving certain ability to comprehend components
of language that includes the vocabulary, grammar
and literature. The fluency and accuracy within
these components boils down on how we improve
and develop our macro-skills.
1. LISTENING
This basic skill is about having and perceiving
other people's opinions, and absorbing facts
and emotional intelligence derived from the
spoken word.Listening is the most important
skill in communication. It is a mental
operation involving processing sound waves,
interpreting their meaning, and storing them
in memory. It is a communication technique
that requires the listeners to understand, ink,
and evaluate what they heat. It paves the
way for other skills to see the others because
of its significance in terms of speech,
■Elements needed in reading skills:
1. Active Engagement
2. Understanding Context
3. Decoding Sounds
4. Vocabulary Knowledge
5. Listening Strategies
6. Identifying Main Ideas and Supporting
Details
7. Critical Listening
8. Coping with Accents and Varieties
2. SPEAKING
Speech is a vital form of self-expression. Speaking is
the delivery of language through the mouth. To
speak, we create sounds using many parts of our
body, including the lungs, vocal tract, vocal chords,
tongue , teeth and lips.
■Speaking depends on the context wherein
communication will talks place and it can be
formal or informal.
1. Informal speaking is typically used with normal
interaction with your family and friends, or people
you know well.
■Main aspects needed for speaking skills:
1. Fluency
2. Pronunciation
3. Vocabulary
4. Grammar
5. Cultural Awareness
6. Purpose and Audience Awareness
3. READING
Reading is a fundamental skill for learners,
not just for learners but for life (Traves 1994)
with reading being defined as the ability to
draw meaning from the printed page and
interpret this information appropriately
(Grabe & Stoller, 2002, p). Process involving
word recognition, comprehension, fluency and
motivation. Reading is the way a person gets
information from written letters and words. It
is another skill of language that is vital in
under this enhance communication and
language among groups of people.
■Some key elements needed for reading
skills:
1. Decoding Skills
2. Vocabulary Knowledge
3. Comprehension Strategies
4. Critical Thinking
5. Fluency
6. Text Structure Awareness
7. Skimming and Scanning
4. WRITING
Writing skills are the ability to communicate
effectively through the written word. It is a skill
that needs to practice at all times for a reason
that writing means much more than using
orthographic symbols. It is a thinking process
which is characterized by a purposeful selection
and organization of experience. It is an act of
discovery, of communication, of joy, It connects
us to work, to culture, to society, to existing
knowledge, and to the meanings of our lives. It is
the act of putting sentences together in
connected discourse, but the main focus is in
■Key elements needed for effective writing:
1. Structure/ Organization
2. Clarity and Coherence
3. Vocabulary and Word Choice
4. Grammar and Syntax
5. Audience Awareness
6. Purpose
7. Editing and Revising
8. Research and Evidence
9. Creativity
5. VIEWING
Viewing as a language skill is defined as the
process of understanding visual texts that come
in various format, such as TV shows,
advertisements, films, videos, and images. In
short, viewing is the s of wading visual cues. So
it's like reading a book while looking at pictures,
animations, and listening to accompanying
sounds. It is the fifth macro skill today, referring
to the act of perceiving. examining, interpreting,
and construction meaning from visual images
and is crucial to improving comprehension of
print and non-print materials. This is the skill to
■Skills and strategies are needed for effective
viewing:
1. Observation Skills
2. Critical Thinking
3. Context Understanding
4. Interpretation
5. Integration
6. Summarization
7. Emotional Response
8. Technical Skills
9. Collaboration
■INPUT OR RECEPTIVE SKILLS –
( Listening, Reading Viewing)
It is the ability to understand words and
language and the act of receiving some
knowledge and information we don't know yet.
These skills are listening, reading, and
viewing, because learners do not need to
produce language to do these, they receive
and understand it. These skills are sometimes
known as passive skills. They can he
contrasted with the productive or active skills
of speaking and writing.
■OUTPUT OR PRODUCTIVE SKILLS –
(Speaking Writing)
It is the use of word sentences, gems, and
writing to create message or convey a
meaning. It is frequently associated with
identifying objects describing events, and how
to do actions, create sentence, and use correct
grammar.
The productive skills an speaking and writing
for a rose that learners doing these need to
produce language. They are also known as
active skills and they can be compared with
the receptive skills listening, reading, and
 KACHRU’S
CONCENTRIC
CIRCLES
Shella Mae C. Calicdan
■'World English' refers to the fact that the
English language has been used as a global
means of communication in numerous dialects
worldwide. It also refers to the movement
towards an 'international standard' of the English
language.
■Linguist Braj B. Kachru constructed a model
of the different uses of English around the world.
■The Three Concentric Circles
1. Inner Circle
2. Outer Circle
3. Expanding Circle
1) Inner Circle is comprised of those
countries who are considered the
'traditional bases' of English, such as the
U.K., U.S.A, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland
and Canada. English in these countries are
classed as a 'first' language. Kachru labels
the inner circle countries as 'norm-
providing' - the norms of the English
language are produced there.
2) Outer Circle is comprised of countries
where English is not spoken natively but is still
maintained as an important language for
communication (e.g. as an official 'second'
language or as the nation's official language for
business and commerce) largely due to
historical reasons. These countries include:
India, Nigeria, the Phillippines, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-
anglophone South Africa. Kachru labels these
countries as 'norm-developing' - the norms
prodcued by the inner circle are further
developed and reproduced in the outer circle.
3) Expanding Circle includes much of the
rest of the world's population - countries that
do not hold historical or governmental
importance towards English, but class it as a
foreign language or lingua franca. Main
examples of such countries include: most of
Europe, China, Russia, Japan, Korea, Egypt and
Indonesia. These countries are 'norm-
dependent' - they fully depend on the norms
originally produced by the native speakers of
the inner circle. They generally do not develop
or reproduce 'Englishes'.
According to Pope (1976, as cited in Kachru &
Nelson, 2006), in the case of syntactic features,
question-answering systems differ between Inner
and Outer-Expanding Circles.
Question Types:
■Inner Circle (ENL): Uses a "positive-negative"
system.
The answer follows the polarity of the question
(yes for positive questions, no for negative
questions) to confirm or deny the questioner's
assumption.
■Outer & Expanding Circles (ESL/EFL): Uses an
"agreement-disagreement" system.
■The answer might be simply "yes" or "no"
without indicating confirmation or denial. This
can be confusing for Inner Circle speakers who
rely on polarity to interpret the answer.

■Challenge: Speakers from different circles

might misunderstand each other's "yes" or "no"
responses.
Outer & Expanding Circle speakers might need to
add clarification (e.g., "Yes, I agree" or "No, I
disagree") to avoid confusion.
PRONUNCIATION
■Noun/Verb Distinction: Outer and
Expanding Circles might not differentiate
pronunciation between noun and verb pairs
(e.g. , "import" vs. "im'port").
■Initial Consonants: Outer and Expanding
Circles might not aspirate voiceless plosives
(p, t, k) at the beginning of words, leading to
misinterpretations by Inner Circle speakers
(e.g., "p" sounding like "b").
■R/L Sounds: Some Expanding Circle speakers
(e.g., Japanese) might not distinguish between
THANKYOU!!!