Seed Learning

Global English Education Company

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Seed Learning Inc. was established to provide the best language learning products and service for the development of resources to match the needs of English learners in the 21st century.

The focus of Seed Learning publications lies in the Four Strands Approach of well-balanced language opportunities. All Seed Learning publications relate to meaning-focused input and output, language focused learning, and fluency development for well-balanced language learning. To this end, top international scholars in the field of English language education, well-experienced native authors, and diverse professional groups of English education are involved our publications as consultants or writers.

Through the decades, with accumulated experience in developing competency and training services, Seed Learning will continue to provide training for future competitive leading R & D and market-oriented business development with the best educational solutions.

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Four Strands

A well-balanced language course should consist of four roughly equal strands:

1. Learning through meaning-focused input; that is, through listening and reading where the learners' attention is on the ideas and messages conveyed by the language.

2. Learning through deliberate attention to language items and language features; that is, through attention to the sounds and spelling of the language, through direct vocabulary study, through grammar exercises and explanation, and through deliberate attention to discourse features.

3. Learning through meaning-focused output; that is, through speaking and writing where the learners' attention is on conveying ideas and messages to another person.

4. Developing fluent use of known language items and features over the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing; that is, becoming fluent with what is already known.

A well-planned language course has an appropriate balance of these four strands.

Nation, P. (1996). he Four Strands of a Language Course. TESOL in Context, 6 (1), 7-12.

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