Revisiting the Four Strands

Abstract

The principle of the four strands is a curriculum design principle that says that “A course should include a roughly even balance of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development activities that cover the same language features.” This article looks at the development of the idea of the four strands and its implications for course design. The principle can be used to answer questions such as How should grammar be taught? How much time should be spent on extensive reading? Is it worth including intensive reading in a course?. The major effect of the principle is to stress the importance of learning through language use, along with a smaller amount of deliberate attention to language.

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