Classification of activities involving language use

Table Classification of activities involving language use

	Written mode	Oral mode
Receptive	Reading	Listening
Productive	Writing	Speaking

        Four areas of language activities (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) can be classified into receptive and productive; and as seen in the Table, they also can be divided into written and oral modes.

 Important activities in academic and interpersonal competences.

       

         Receptive activities are most important for processing academic competence input, while oral activities are most important for processing interpersonal competence input and expression.

         Even though in each language level, knowledge of all four activities would overlap each other, the activities are also independent to some extent.

        Normally, receptive ability development must precede productive ability in any language, but the details of L2 development order would depend on social circumstances. It is possible for learners to develop their proficiency by engaging in receptive activities with very limited productive activities, or only engage either in written or oral activities.

        Literacy is not always necessary for learners to engage in language activities, as many fluent bilinguals around the world are illiterate in one or both of their languages. However, literacy (and schooling) in L1 helps learners to acquire an L2 in formal instruction.

Brilliant Multilingual Street Selling Kid - A True Slumdog Hero!

         This is an example of bilingual illiterate, a young boy from Mumbai display his multi-linguistic brilliance. From a life of selling items on the streets of Mumbai, this young lad has acquired the ability to converse and sell items in various languages.