What's Available Now:
Language Skills (Reading & Writing, Speaking & Listening, Grammar)

“Listening looks easy, but it's not simple. Every head is a world."
Cuban Proverb

"When all other means of communication fail, try words."
Anonymous

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” 
Mortimer J. Adler, (1902-2001), American philosopher, educator, and popular author

“Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.” 
Anthony Hope Hawkins (1863-1933), English novelist & playwright

In the last decades of the 20th century, some language theorists, researchers, directors, and teachers began to favor a “skills-based approach” to language instruction for college-bound secondary students, adult immigrants, and/or international students. Especially in coordinated Intensive English Programs at University Extensions—or in “academies” formed to help non-native English speakers “mainstream” into certificate programs or college majors, catalog descriptions were incorporating terms like “Conversational English,” “Oral Skills,” “Listening/Speaking,” “Accent Improvement,” “Reading/Vocabulary,” “Writing /Grammar,” or “Composition” into their English/ESL course titles and outlines. (These replaced more generalized headings such as “English as a Second Language 1” or “Intermediate English Studies.”) Similarly, the individual volumes in coordinated “competency-based” or academic skills series by large publishers were adding (sub)titles naming language skills.

As explained on helpful websites for English language learners (such as http://www.englishclub.com), when we learn a language, there are four skills we need for complete communication.  When we learn our native language, we usually learn to listen first, then to speak, then to read, and finally to write.  These four ‘macro language skills” are related to each other in two ways: the direction of communication (in or out), and the method of communication (spoken or written). There are also ‘micro-skills’ like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling.”

Major Authors & Editors publications--such as Grammar Scenarios One-A, and One-B; (Before) Speaking: Oral Language-Skills for Real-Life Communication, What’s the Point? Beginning to Read for Meaning and Learning to Learn from Real Reading, and HandsOn Grammar, Listening/Speaking (the ETC Program), are organized around language skills.  The two “Everything to Know (Now) About . . . “ How-to Resource Books, Alphabet Answers and phonicSpelling, suggest pre-word or word-level oral skills techniques when they discuss phonics or decoding; written skills methodologies when talking about spelling or writing; and both in sections about vocabulary. The 26 Ideas in the comprehensive resources, Doing Without the Photocopier From A to Z and Still Doing Without the Photocopier From AA to ZZ  are categorized according to their language-skills focus: pronunciation/spelling, grammar, listening/speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary, content, and culture.  Also, “subsidiary products” like Card & Board Games, Tear-Off Pads, and reproducible Blackline Masters may address one or two language-skills categories more than others. 

Detailed information about products is available in the print or Online Authors & Editors Creative Language Teaching & Learning Catalog and at the  Authors & Editors Online Store.