David Palfreyman, UAE
Hi Julieta,
It sounds to me like the "skill" would be listening/speaking/writing/listening, e.g: "listening for general information", or "writing an informal letter". A function, on the other hand, would be something like "complaining", or "narrating" or "enquiring".

Ahmed Afifi, Egypt
Dear Julieta
Here in Egypt, there is a well known part in the high school exams called "Language Functions". In this part students are asked either to fill in the missing gaps in a dialogue between two people who are at the airport, for instance or answer the question, 'what would you say if ...... ?' This is the function of the language - what you use in certain situations For example, we teach: May I...? or Can I... ? when we want to have permission from someone.
Best wishes.

Abdelkrim Belabed, Morocco
Hi Julieta,
Well, skills are devided into two categories: receptive and productive. The recepive skills are reading and listening. While, the productive ones are speaking and writing. The skills, of course, take a certain lapse of time to acquire/learn as opposed to functions. these latter mean what we can perform with a given structure in a particular situation. In other words, we teach students expressions to use ,say, to make requests,etc. The same function may have different exponents.
Best wishes.

Guillermo Hernandez Moreno, Mexico
Dear Julieta,
I don't know which part of Mexico you are teaching English in, but in secondary schools we have a format for writing lesson plans, its headings are: Activity, Objective, Interaction & Time, Material, Procedure and Notes.
In a hand out which I prepared for the English teachers in Tabasco I wrote that functions have something to do with the social behavior and represent the speaker's or the writer's intention, for example, advising, preventing, describing, etc.
The functions of the language are parts of the programme organization representing the speaker's intention when he/she makes use of the language, that is offering, asking, inviting, accepting or refusing something. On the other hand, the communicative skills are: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Best wishes.

Don Payzant, Canada/Korea
I agree that teaching terminology isn't necessary. What I DO teach is whether muscles are tight or loose; if the jaw is open wide, only a little, or closed; if the lips are relaxed or tense; where the air is coming from (mouth or nose), if there is vibration in the throat or not. All of these can be shown or mimed. I use these along with an excellent website that demonstrates the sounds the way no teacher can by themself.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

For teaching stress, rhythm and articulation I use the book "Clear Speech' , the activities are excellent.
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