Helping Second Language Learners Acquire Communicative Competence

Helping Second Language Learners Acquire Communicative Competence



Regardless of the emphasis on a particular linguistic skill such as reading, writing, listening, or speaking, all courses offered by an English language program should have a singular focus on communicative competence. Hymes coined the term "communicative competence" with colleagues in anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociolinguistics and functional linguistics. He argues that language competence not only included Chomsky's (1957, 1965) grammatical competence but also sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. The term was taken up by proponents of the Communicative Language Teaching approach, but it was not structured into a pedagogical framework until the Canale and Swain (1980) article and later elaborated on by Canale in 1983.  

Communicative Competence is defined as knowledge of not only if something is formally possible in a language, but also whether it is feasible, appropriate, or done in a particular SPEECH COMMUNITY.

According to Hymes, communicative competence includes:

1. grammatical competence (also formal competence), that is, knowledge of the grammar, vocabulary, phonology, and semantics of a language
2. sociolinguistic competence (also sociocultural competence), that is, knowledge of the relationship between language and its nonlinguistic context, knowing how to use and respond appropriately to different types of SPEECH ACTS, such as requests, apologies, thanks, and invitations, knowing which ADDRESS FORMS should be used with different persons one speaks to and in different situations, and so forth
3. discourse competence (sometimes considered part of sociolinguistic competence), that is, knowing how to begin and end conversations
4. strategic competence, that is, knowledge of COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES that can compensate for weakness in other areas.    (Richards & Schmidt, 2011)                                                                       

To develop grammatical competence among students, the language program needs to incorporate pedagogical grammar into its courses. According to Williams (2010), "Pedagogical grammars do not typically aim at a theory of language or an exhaustive list of facts about a language; they are normally intended for a certain audience of non-linguistis, who, for some purpose, are learning something about language structure. Thus, the analysis stops at a certain level of detail and the topics selected for discussion are quite selective, as deemed appropriate for the purpose" (p.357)

Research shows that explicit grammar instruction does not facilitate language acquisition (Long, 2007). Therefore, the practice of teaching traditional grammar in the classroom should be abandoned, and clear explanations of grammar errors should be provided as and when they occur in academic contexts.  

As a two way process, communication involves comprehension and production abilities.  Thus, becoming proficient in a language requires achieving balanced skills in reading, listening, speaking, and writing.  To reach this balance, developmental learners need to be placed at the center of an integrated approach in which they can acquire and develop all of these skills. Second language pedagogy has a pivotal role to play in facilitating the students’ development of balanced skills since it is in the classroom where they can actually work with the language and in the language.  It is in our classes where they can get the input and the encouragement to achieve overall langauge competence for which they strive.

Since communicative competence involves knowledge of and ability to use language, it is essential to motivate developmental learners to communicate in English, both in speech and in writing, so that they can begin to internalize the appropriate rules of language use and of language usage.  The ability to determine what is appropriate language based on contextual factors that frame an interaction, written or oral, is as important as the ability to produce and interpret language accurately.  

Our primary responsibility then is to empower our students to develop their skills by exposing them to written and oral language, raising their consciousness about the linguistic and sociolinguistic features of the language, and providing them with multiple opportunities to use the language for various purposes and in different contexts (Sharwood Smith, 2005). In other words, we are likely to succeed in helping learners become competent in English if our approach brings contextualized input and output into equilibrium.

Indeed, nurturing the learners’ talent to actively use English enhances their language skills as it fosters their self-confidence as writers and speakers. However, to ensure the learners’ development of confidence, language instruction needs to encompass more than well-designed lesson plans that allow learners to acquire language knowledge and put it into practice.  It should also include creating in learners an awareness of the possible educational and sociocultural factors that might impinge on their learning process.  Cultural differences in classroom norms, such as teaching styles, student roles, student-teacher interactions, can lead developmental learners to confusion and discomfort, which, in turn, can adversely affect their acquisition of the language.  Therefore, it is vital for a language program to set a positive environment in which developmental learners can gain an understanding of such differences as well as of other cultural differences that might influence their daily lives in the North American academic context.

Integration of skills, focus on the learner, attention to sociocultural issues and critical thinking are fundamental factors in the development of language competence.  English language courses and workshops offered can be a result of the skillful combination of these elements. Moving forward, these concepts can be woven into an English language programmatic framework. Furthermore, an examination of the curriculum may reveal carefully designed objectives for each level that do not compromise instructional creativity or the developmental learners’ ability to focus on their particualr needs.  In this context, teachers can continue to grow professionally, thus contributing to the enrichment of the course offerings.  The classroom can become a space where students and faculty are able to expand their horizons while working towards a common goal: educational excellence. 

Last but not least, it will be crucially important to determine the types of input our developmental learners will encounter in classroom settings. Assuming the model proposed by Marianne Celce-Murcia (2007), who suggests providing the learner with "accurate and comprehensive" language using multiple modalities, it would serve well as the foundational principle for the design and implementation of English language courses.