The language skills of speaking, listening, writing and reading are often divided into sub-skills, which are specific behaviours that language users do in order to be effective in each of the skills.

Example
Learners developing the skill of listening need to have the sub-skill of being able to recognise contracted forms in connected speech.

In the classroom
Learners spend time developing a wide range of sub-skills as they build each of the four skills. Amongst the sub-skills focussed on are scanning and skimming in reading, organisational and editing skills in writing, recognition of connected speech and understanding gist in listening, and pronunciation and intonation in speaking.