Philological
Studies / Methods of language and literature teaching
PhD in Philology Olga A. Tolstykh
PhD in Methods of Teaching Anastasia A.
Khomutova
South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk,
Russia
Developing the Communicative Competence
of the University Teaching Staff:
An Integrated Skills Approach
Communicative competence
is a highly topical linguistic term which refers to a language user's
grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology, as well as social
knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. The term appeared
in 1966 thanks to Dell Hymes, a famous American linguist, sociolinguist and
anthropologist. Since those times communicative competence has become the
target of numerous hot debates among scholars.
Such debate has occurred
regarding linguistic competence and communicative competence in the second and
foreign language teaching literature, and scholars have found communicative
competence as a superior model of language following Hymes' opposition to
Chomsky's linguistic competence (1).
Through the influence of
communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that
communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to
good classroom practice. Language teaching both in European countries and in
the UK is also based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is
communicative competence: the ability to use the language correctly and
appropriately to accomplish communication goals.
Canale and Swain (1980)
defined communicative competence in terms of three components:
1. grammatical competence: words and rules
2. sociolinguistic competence:
appropriateness
3. strategic competence: appropriate use of
communication strategies (2).
Canale later refined the
above model, adding discourse competence: cohesion and coherence.
Communicative competence
at present is made up of four competence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic,
discourse, and strategic. Let us enumerate all the four:
• Linguistic competence is
knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language.
• Sociolinguistic competence
is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting,
the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating.
• Discourse competence is
knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer
stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.
• Strategic competence is
knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work
around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the
language and in the context.
Communicative competence
is more than acquiring mastery of structure and form. It also involves
acquiring the ability to interpret discourse in all its social and cultural
contexts.
In an age when English
has become a primary medium for international communication, most
cross-cultural interactions take place between non-native speakers of English
rather than between native and non-native speakers.
Today’s university world
is undergoing rapid change which is caused by globalization process. The
purposes for which people learn English today have also evolved from a cultural
and educational enterprise to that of international communication. This process
affects all spheres of knowledge and human activities, giving rise to numerous
projects concerning language acquisition and language proficiency and
highlights the extreme importance of developing communicative competence.
All university teachers need
good English to conduct their research, prepare papers for scientific journals,
take part in international conferences and establish their international
contacts. These objectives embrace all the four primary skills – listening,
reading, speaking, and writing as well as associated or related skills such as
knowledge of vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, syntax, meaning, and usage. This
necessity leads to optimal English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) communication when the skills are interwoven during instruction.
This is known as the integrated-skill approach.
There is an alternative
way – the language-based approach according to which the language itself is the
focus of instruction (language for language's sake). In this approach, the
emphasis is made not on learning for authentic communication. Unfortunately,
practice shows that this approach is out-of-date as it does not allow keeping
up with the modern trends. Thousands of university teachers who attended
numerous linguistic courses are able only to read and translate using
dictionaries. They are not ready to communicate with native speakers at all as
their speech abounds with conversational clichés and obsolete words.
That is why the South
Ural State University (Chelyabinsk, Russia) launched a program aimed at
university teaching staff called Lingva
(2006 – 2012). The goal of this program was to encourage the academic
mobility and increase the number of publications in foreign journals in the
framework of the integrated-based approach. The program included several stages
– placement tests, team distribution, and classes. There were formed several
groups – from elementary to advanced learners. More than 1 thousand teachers
participated in this project and improved their English speaking and writing
skills.
First of all, the
integrated-based approach allowed solving the problem of ineffective language
teaching. The two types of integrated-skill approach are content-based language
instruction and task-based instruction. The first of these emphasizes learning content
through language, while the second stresses doing tasks that require
communicative language use. Both of these benefit from a diverse range of
materials, textbooks, and technologies for the ESL or EFL classroom.
In content-based
instruction, students practice all the language skills in a highly integrated,
communicative fashion while learning content such as science, mathematics, and
social studies. Content-based language instruction is valuable at all levels of
proficiency, but the nature of the content might differ by proficiency level.
For beginners, the content often involves basic social and interpersonal
communication skills, but past the beginning level, the content can become
increasingly academic and complex.
As for the advantages of
this approach, it exposes English language learners to authentic language and
challenges them to interact naturally in the language. Learners rapidly gain a
true picture of the richness and complexity of the English language as employed
for communication. Moreover, this approach stresses that English is not just an
object of academic interest nor merely a key to passing an examination;
instead, English becomes a real means of interaction and sharing among people.
This approach allows teachers to track students' progress in multiple skills at
the same time. Integrating the language skills also promotes the learning of
real content, not just the dissection of language forms. Finally, the
integrated-skill approach, whether found in content-based or task-based language
instruction or some hybrid form, can be highly motivating to students of all
ages and backgrounds.
The great results of the
program Lingva in the South Ural
State University proved the effectiveness of new approaches in the field of
language teaching. The speed of the modern world development forces English
teachers to apply new methods of teaching improving the old, tried and tested
ones.
With careful reflection
and planning, any teacher can integrate the language skills and strengthen the
tapestry of language teaching and learning. When the tapestry is woven well,
learners can use English effectively for communication.
References:
1.
Hymes, D.H. (1966) "Two types of linguistic
relativity." In W. Bright (ed) Sociolinguistics pp. 114-158. The
Hague: Mouton.
2.
Canale, M.
and Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative
approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied
Linguistics 1, 1-47.