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OFFICIAL SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES

UNIT 1

LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION.

FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE.COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.ANALYSIS OF ITS COMPONENTS.

1. INTRODUCTION

2.LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

2.1. The linguistic sign2.2. Spoken and written language

2.2.1. Differences2.2.2. The Relationship Between Speech and Writing

3. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

3.1. The Communicative Function3.2. The Integrative Function3.3. Theories

3.3.1. Jakobson3.3.2. Riffaterre3.3.3. Bülher

4. THE COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

4.1. The Communication Process According to Canale.4.2. Elements within Communicative Competence

5. COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN THE L2 TEACHING CLASSROOM

5.1. Methodology

5.1.1. The Communicative Approach.5.1.1.1. The Role of the Teacher5.1.1.2. Warm-up5.1.1.3. Presentation5.1.1.4. Practice5.1.1.5. Production

5.2. Evaluation.

6. CONCLUSION

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1. INTRODUCTION

As language teachers, we have the goal of building what Hymes  refers to asCommunicative Competence . In 1957, Noam Chomsky defined language asa set of sentences, each finite in length, and constructed out of a finite set of

elements. An able speaker has a subconscious knowledge of the rules ofgrammar, which allows him to make sentences in that language.

However, in the 1960’s Hymes felt that Chomsky had not covered all of thepoints. He also felt that the ability to speak does not only include a knowledge ofthe rules of the grammar, but the speaker must also know what he has to say,to whom he has to say it, the circumstances in which to say it, as well as how to say it. He understood competence as linguistic competence , although thiswas for him the grammatical knowledge of idealised speakers of the language,whereas performance  was the actual use of competence in a given exchange.

In other words, competence alone is not enough to explain the knowledge of anative speaker. The speaker also needs to know how to use his competence ina communicative situation.

In this unit we are going to look at language and communication , the functionsof language as well as the components of communicative competence and itsimplications in the language classroom. The information we will use is takenfrom Richards, Halliday, Hymes and Canale. 

2. LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

Communication is understood as the exchange and negotiation of informationbetween at least two individuals through the use of verbal and non-verbalsymbols , oral and written/visual modes , and production/comprehensionprocesses .

Written and spoken language are the most useful of all the language codesemployed by humans as a means of transmitting thoughts, feelings,experiences and opinions. It is through language that man is able to let othersknow his innermost thoughts and feelings.

We will begin this section by looking at language through linguistic signs.

2.1. The Linguistic Sign.

For both the speaker (the sender) and the listener (the receiver) to understandeach other, they both have to be in agreement about which code they are using.When we converse with someone, we in turn code  and decode  messages,using linguistic signs with which the contents and forms of each message arebuilt, interpreted and assessed.

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The most authoritative work done on linguistic signs was made bySAUSSURE, and for this reason we will quote from him. Saussure acceptedthat there must be two sides to a meaning, the content and the expression.The names that he gave to these concepts were: signifié  and signifiant.

Saussure believed that the relationship between the object, ideas, etc. on onehand, and the means used to convey them, e.g. language, on the other,constituted the meaning. He called this relationship between the signified andthe signifier a Linguistic Sign.

Every language must contain a set of signs, and also that the sender and thereceiver share the code. Then the ideas can be expressed in a concrete way bymeans of speech.

We will now go on to provide an examination of spoken and written language.

2.2 Spoken and Written Language

It should be immediately apparent that there are a great deal of differencesbetween written and spoken language. It is these differences that we will look atto begin this section.

2.2.1. Differences

The nature of oral communication makes oral discourse contain redundantinformation. This comes about as a result of the complexity of a process thatforces both the speaker and the listener to perform highly complex processesunder time pressure. Through this we can see:

1. Syntactic Alterations:

Repetitions.Overlappings.

Incomplete/ ungrammatical utterances.Tags to negotiate intended meaning (er, um, etc.).

2. The Need for Extra Linguistic Elements:

Gestures.Body posture.Eye contact.

Facial expression.The writer has the distinct advantage of being able to read over that which hehas written, and so can remove any mistakes. The speaker does not have thisoption. The speaker cannot check the meaning of words in a dictionary, nor canhe change what he has already said. He cannot read over earlier utterances inthe conversation in order to refresh his memory about the direction that theconversation is taking, and, most importantly, he has to keep talking.

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The writer does not, however, have all the advantages. The speaker can tell,simply by observing his listener, if he is being understood. Eye contact andgestures to emphasise a point are unavailable to the writer.

The speaker also has recourse to the natural rise and fall of his voice. In a

stress-timed language such as English, rhythm  and intonation   play a vital rolein ensuring that the message is received in the correct way. Although the writercan make use of rhythm, the all-important intonation is impossible to reproducein writing.

The reasons for choosing one or the other medium depend upon the type ofencounter that is to take place. For example, a husband would rather speakwith his wife face- to-face than through the letter. As valuable as a letter from aloved one is, it does not replace time spent together.

However the written word, such as a newspaper, gives the reader time to

assimilate the information at his own pace - a luxury that is denied to those whowatch the televised news. A letter can be read over and over again, whereasoral language is a temporal medium.

When we come to the world of business we find that communication is carriedout by a mixture of the mediums available. Phone calls may be made, meetingsarranged, letters, faxes or e-mails sent. This mixture leads us to the next pointto be discussed:

2.2.2. The Relationship Between Speech and Writing.

Like speech, written communication is a two-way process which includes theuse of both a productive and a receptive skill. When we write we use graphicsymbols, in other words, letters or combinations of letters which relate to thesounds that we make when we speak. On one level, writing can be said to bethe act of forming these symbols, making marks on a flat surface of some kind.However, writing is clearly much more than the simple production of graphicsymbols, in the same way that speech involves more than the production ofsounds. These sounds and symbols have to be arranged according to certainconventions in order to form words. These words in turn have to be arranged toform sentences. Once this has been achieved, then these sentences, either

written or spoken, have to be linked together in order that they form a coherentwhole.

However, one form may be used as a result of the other. Think about asecretary who writes down a letter that is dictated to her, or a student who takesnotes during a lesson. In these instances speech is transformed into writing, butit can just as easily happen the other way around, for example if we think aboutan actor reading out his lines, or a teacher reading aloud from a book.

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3. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

3.1. The Communicative Function.

This concerns the transmission of purely referential, denotative information.

Here the speaker is using the language in order to interact with the listener. Thismay be done either as an act of friendship, or to try to impart information. In thiscategory we may find functions such as:

•  Informing:  The sender has a point that he feels is important for the receiverto know.

•  Arguing/debating : The sender wishes to change the opinions of thereceiver about a certain subject.

•  Instructing:  The sender wishes to advise the receiver on how to perform acertain action.

•  Ordering:  The sender uses the language to make the receiver comply withan order.

3.2. The Integrative Function. 

This involves the use of language to mark the speaker as a member of aparticular social group. This can be seen on a number of different levels:

•  The Class Distinction:  Let’s take the example of Received Pronunciation .This, although only spoken by a minority of the population, is what separatesthe elite of the society from the rest. The speakers of this accent can

immediately identify with each other, in much the same way that speakersof a local dialect such as the London accent of cockney   are able torecognise people from the same city.

•  Professional Language : The use of technical terms, such as those utilisedby doctors or engineers, (otherwise know as “jargon”) identifies people asbelonging to a social group connected by profession.

3.3. Theories: Jakobson and Riffaterre and Bühler

3.3.1. Jakobson

As language is a system of communication used in different situations of oursocial life, Jakobson understood that every utterance has at least 1 function.The term function is basic for him and he builds his whole theory using it as thefoundation. He distinguishes 6 different functions.

•  Emotive or expressive function : This is the direct expression of thespeaker’s attitude towards the message. It is focused on the addresser.

•  Conative   : This is mainly represented by imperatives and vocatives. Itfocuses on the addressee.

•  Referential:  This is the use of language to refer to things. It focuses on themessage and the overall context. This is seen as an objective way of

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received and sent messages. Riffaterre felt that Jakobson, by approachinglanguage from a scientific viewpoint, was ignoring the possibility to use wordscreatively.

3.3.3. Bühler

In 1934, Buhler was concerned with the functions of language from a standpointnot so much of the culture, but of the individual. Bühler made the distinction intothe following:

Expressive language: orientated towards the addresser . Conative language: orientated towards the addressee.Representational language: orientated towards the rest of reality, i.e. anythingother than the addressee or addresser.

Buhler’s scheme was adopted by the Prague School  and later extended by

Roman Jakobson, who we will look at next.

In relation to all of these functions of language that we have just studied wehave to say that initially L2 learners will use the language for the communicativefunction. Pidgins and interlanguages which fossilise, or reach a dead-end, inthe early stages of development remain restricted to the communicativefunction. Native speakers of the language use it for both the communicative andintegrative functions, as will those L2 learners who do not fossilise early on.

4. THE COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

There is a certain amount of disagreement amongst linguists as to the exactnature of competence. As we have seen, some such as Chomsky viewcompetence as linguistic, while others such as Hymes view it ascommunicative. Another problem in analysing competence is whether it is to betreated as Homogeneous  (a single set of rules), or Variable (alternative setsof rules that are drawn upon differently in different situations).

The homogeneous model dismisses stylistic variability, treating it only as anaspect of performance.

However, the user tends to use rules differently in different situations, one rulewill guide performance on one occasion, and another rule on a differentoccasion. In other words, the rules can vary according to the situation that thespeaker finds himself in.

Canale,  1983, distinguishes between communicative competence   and actualcommunication . When we use language in real-life situations differentsurrounding conditions will affect the final outcome and expected success of thecommunicative exchange. These conditions could include memory, fatigue,nervousness, background noise, etc. If the speaker is experiencing any ofthese, and there is a good chance that one of them will be going on at the time

of the speech act, then he may find that he has some difficulties in delivering his

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message. The knowledge of the student can be related to his skill incommunicating. The competence refers to his underlying capacities, whereasthe actual communication is the manifestation of those capacities.

Canale understands communicative competence as the necessary grammatical

and sociocultural system that both speaker and receiver use in order tonegotiate information. He adjudged the process of communication to have sixdifferent characteristics, which we will look at now.

4.1 The Communication Process According To Canale.

•  Language is a way that we communicate socially. For this reason we learn itand use it in order to initiate and maintain social relationships. Withoutlanguage we would not be able to function as a society.

•  Nothing is predictable. The use of the language can change according to the

circumstances. In addition to this, there is room for creativity. Sentences canbe made that go away from the norms of speech, but which can still beunderstood.

•  The sociocultural contexts in which we use conversation restrict the use ofthe language. In addition to this, clues are provided for the understanding ofthe utterances. We can interpret the meaning from the context in which it isuttered.

•  There is always a reason why we use language. It can be to persuade, to

instruct, to advise, to make friends etc. Language is functional, it has a roleto play in our day to day lives.

•  The conditions in which language is spoken can have a limiting effect, suchas if the speaker is tired or ill.

•  The material is authentic, as opposed to the kind of language that is found inthe coursebooks, which tends to be contrived and unnatural. This meansthat, communicatively speaking, the learners don’t come into contact withtrue communication

However, students do have to go through several stages in order to reachcommunicative competence. This means that they have to satisfy variouscomponents, which we will look at now.

4.2. Elements Within Communicative Competence.

Communication is a form of social interaction within a community, normallyacquired and used in that community. The most important aspect that standsout about it is that it always has a purpose. On many occasions there’s a highdegree of unpredictability and creativity both in form and use, also emphasisedby the fact that it is carried out under limiting psychological conditions, such as

those we have already mentioned (memory, fatigue, etc.).

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However, it takes place in discoursive and sociocultural contexts which provideconstraints on the appropriate language used and clues to a correctinterpretation of utterances.

Before we move on to the specific components of communicative competence it

is important to quickly go through the actual nature of communication. In anycommunicative exchange there are always different extralinguistic elements,like the context where the communication takes place or any piece ofinformation already known by any of the individuals taking part in thatexchange.

This will certainly add to or modify the information being transferred betweenthe members of the communicative process. We can also find verbal symbols,which, put together, form the words that we use to communicate. Finally, in orallanguage prosodic features like intonation   add extra meaning to those otherelements mentioned before and clearly differentiate between written and oral

language, since intonation can significantly alter the meaning conveyed bywords. To demonstrate this, think of the word thank you   said with a risingintonation, and in comparison with a flat or falling tone. The seconddemonstrates that the gratitude is not genuine. Here we have an example of thesame word being used with very different messages.

Any information exchanged between the interlocutors will easily be changedand qualified by further information such as the context of communication andthe negotiation of meaning between them. The continuous evaluation of theinformation and the negotiation of meaning through other questions leads us toconsider that the communication will only be successful if it is conceptually clearand relevant.

Now that we have clarified a few important points in relation to the very natureof communication, let us deal with the different subcompetences gatheredunder communicative competence. It is important to realise that thesesubcompetences are laid out in the Spanish curriculum as being relevant to theteaching of a foreign language, and have been adapted from the work byCanale and Swain, (1983).

•  Grammatical Subcompetence: This simply refers to the mastery of the

language code itself. That is to say, the knowledge of the linguistic signsneeded in order to communicate through language. It takes into account theneed for the speaker to be able to make correct use of language featuressuch as morphology, syntactics, semantics, phonology and lexis. 

•  Sociolinguistic Subcompetence: This is the appropriate use of utterancesin different sociolinguistic contexts. There are different factors that theparticipants will have to take into account in order to successfully reach thatappropriateness. The status of the participants is easily recognisable in thedegree of formality and politeness used. The purpose of the interaction andthe different norms and conventions shared between the people involved in

the exchange will have to be taken into account. They will also need to show

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appropriateness of meaning  (e.g. communicative functions, different ideas orattitudes which are proper in a given situations, like inviting or commanding)and form  (proper verbal and non-verbal forms in a sociolinguistic context).

•  Discourse Subcompetence: This refers to the combination of grammatical

forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in differentgenres or types of text (e.g. scientific reports, business letters, etc.)according to the purpose of the communicative exchange and theinterlocutors involved. It can be summarised by saying that it points to howthe different utterances are linked structurally and how they must beunderstood as a text. Sometimes, parts of the sentence are not used as thecontext of the communication completes any missing words. In an exchangelike the following there is no sign of apparent cohesion, but it is a coherentdiscourse as the communication develops and ends successfully due to thefact that both interlocutors share the rest of the information needed which isnot overtly expressed.

a: The milkman’s waiting!b: The money is in my purse!a: OK  

In the next exchange we can see a clear problem:

a. What did the rain do?b. The crops were destroyed by the rain. 

This above example is one that was provided by Widdowson. The problem isthat, although grammatically correct, the response does not demonstratediscourse competence because the speaker has not made the answer tie inwith the question. A speaker with discourse competence would have answered:

It destroyed the crops.

It is important here to point out that there are different ways in which we cancontribute to this success that we have just mentioned. The content of thecommunicative exchange must be relevant to show coherence, and it mustprogress to indicate that the negotiation of meaning is taking place. At the same

time there must be no contradiction to show consistency with the rest of theexchange, although at different points there could be repetitions, which, as longas they are relevant, will also add consistency and contiguity to thecommunication.

•  Strategic Subcompetence:  This is the mastery of verbal and non-verbalcommunicative strategies to solve problems during communication.Sometimes, due to the different conditions in which the interaction can takeplace there can be problems or shortages in the amount and quality of theinformation exchanged. In other words, there is an imbalance between themeans used and the result or the end of the communication. At the same

time, one of the interlocutors may be finding it difficult to make proper use of

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the other four subcompetences and is therefore forced to try to improve theeffectiveness of the communication. This could take the form of techniquesknown as Hesitation Fillers   such as er, you know, um,  etc. or Catch-allWords   such as Whatsitsname... which is used when we don’t know whatsomething is called.

•  Sociocultural Subcompetence:  This is the degree of familiarity with thecultural and social context in which a language is used. This goes beyond thesociolinguistic use of the language. The speaker must also know the differentnorms of conversation that are used by native speakers, especially the use ofwords such as please   and thank you , etc. Other kinds of socioculturalcompetence that could come in useful for the learner would be a knowledgeof the way that English people start conversations by talking about theweather, or finish them by the use of strategies such as: Well, I mustn’t keepyou waiting .

With the changes to the curriculum, as established by Royal Decree 937/20013rd  August, we can find the addition of Linguistic Competence which dealswith syntax, morphology and semantics. 

5. COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH IN THE L2 TEACHING CLASSROOM. 

The aim of successful teaching in a classroom where the CommunicativeApproach is followed, must always take into account that it has to cover the fivesubcompetences that we have just explained. There has to be an integration that prepares students to exploit their limited command of a foreign language inactual communicative situations and gives them help in relation to how to makeup for any lack of grammatical knowledge that they might face at a given point.

This approach must meet the communicative needs and interests of thestudents providing them with the information, practice, and experience neededas well as knowledge of the foreign culture. Therefore, the traditional role ofgrammar in L2 teaching will be that of standing for the functions andmacrofunctions of language in order to have the necessary basis to becommunicatively competent in real-life situations.

In relation to this, it is important to state that the outcome of this teaching-

learning situation will be greatly influenced by how the learners are regarded.The learner’s contribution to the learner process, or in other words his passivityor activity, will determine the type of activities carried out. Basically thissuggests that the teaching techniques should be raised in degrees of difficultyaccording to the student’s ability.

However, nowadays this is impractical, if not impossible, due to the variety oflevels that can be found in each individual classroom.

With this in mind we will go on to look at the ways that the content is planned.

5.1. Methodology

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 In relation to the methodology used it is important to take into account thelearner variables which affect the awareness of learners and the extent to whichthey are able to articulate their language-learning needs, such as sex, age,education, urban-rural background, purpose of the learning, etc. All of these will

have an effect, one way or another, on the ability of the learner to makeprogress in his studies, and to maintain a sufficiently high level of motivation.

The first step in the process of deriving content from the data that has beencollected throughout the evaluation process is to examine this data and extractinformation relating to the positive reasons that the learners can find for wishingto learn the language, and which can be translated into communicative goals.For example, the student may feel that reasons for learning could include thefollowing:

•  talk to penfriends

•  find out about American/British culture•  understand TV and radio

•  travel to England

•  sing songs in English

In a language programme committed to the direct development of the sorts ofskills required by learners outside the classroom, it is of vital importance tocreate as many links as possible between what happens in the classroom andwhat happens outside. In developing these links, resources for learning have avital part to play.

The second step is to specify the communicative tasks and enabling skills whichlearners will need to be able to perform in order to achieve their language goals.

At a post-beginner level these could include the following, all of which arerelated to communicative competence:  

•  identifying topic of conversation

•  exchanging greetings

•  comprehending requests for personal information

•  providing personal details

•  describing objects•  offering and asking for help

•  indicating likes and dislikes

The third step is to provide contextualisation for the tasks by deciding on suchthings as topics, settings, interlocutors and so on. These data, which can bederived from needs analyses, serve to differentiate goals for different learnergroups.

The final task in the methodology to be used here is to produce a samplenumber of specific objectives which are related, via tasks or skills, to learner

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goals. By producing such objectives, one will have a set of ready-made criteriafor judging the effectiveness of the learning process. This step thereforeprovides a convenient bridge into the assessment and evaluation phase of thecurriculum-development process.

These variables are at the basis of the methodology that is used in languageteaching today, that being The Communicative Approach.

5.1.1. The Communicative Approach 

This methodology has been developed throughout the last hundred years, andmakes use of many other teaching techniques. The basic idea is that thestudents acquire Communicative Competence  through the fivesubcompetences that we mentioned earlier, and through the integration of thefour skills; reading, writing, listening  and speaking.Emphasis is placed on fluency over accuracy, and the students are encouraged

to communicate together in the classroom in a variety of different linguisticsituations.

The first area that we must look at here is that of the role of the teacher.

5.1.1.1.The Role of the Teacher

Teachers have had to abandon their traditional role of dominance in theclassroom in favour of a less dominant role. In the Communicative Approachthe teacher is there to act as a guide  to the students through the differentstages of the lesson.

It is up to him to set the tasks in a way that is as communicative and asinteresting as possible, and also which give the students the opportunity to usethe language so that it doesn’t just remain as a written word.

When the students are communicating, the teacher must be a monitor in orderto ensure that all is being performed correctly, and also as a prompter  toenable the students to find new areas to discuss should any conversation thatthey have stop.

Overall, we can say that the communicative teacher has to be much moreactive than in the past, and he must also take more care to plan certain differentstages of the lesson. It is these stages that we will look at next.

5.1.1.2. Warm-up.

Any language lesson should begin with a warm-up stage. This is so that thestudents are acclimatised to the language as they will be coming to theclassroom from another subject where they would have been studying inSpanish.

This stage should have no didactic purpose, but should be purely

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communicative, with the students communicating with the teacher. Theactivities that could be done in this stage include brainstorming, revision,prediction tasks, games, songs, and so on.

5.1.1.3. Presentation.

As the name suggests, this is where the teacher presents to the students thelanguage or grammar that is going to be taught or practised in the lesson. Theinteraction here is teacher led, and is purely didactic.

It is in this stage that the teacher actually teaches. This may take the form of agrammar point, or it may be vocabulary. Also here, the teacher should ensurethat the students are able to use the correct pronunciation, as well as stress,rhythm and intonation.

5.1.1.4. Practice

This is a controlled stage where the students are given tasks to perform whichforce them to use the target language. This acts as part of the evaluationprocess as it is here that the teacher has the chance to see if his students areable to follow that which has been taught. 

There are many different tasks that can be set here, including   jumbled texts,matching exercises, listening or reading activities, answering setquestions and so on. Normally the students will work individually at this stage,and all the work will be written.

5.1.1.5. Production.

It is here that the students have the chance to actually communicate. It issupposed to be a free production of the language, but in reality it is only freer,with the teacher still guiding the students towards the target language.

Normally they will work in pairs or small groups, or, in the case of a discussion,as a whole class. The teacher may wish to set the students tasks which includerole plays, group work, pair work  and so on, as long as the students areusing the language verbally.

Naturally, it is vital for the teacher to know if both the learning and the teachingtechniques are functioning adequately, and this is where the role of evaluation comes in. 

5.2. Evaluation

In the Communicative Approach, the teacher has a crucial role to play in bothstudent assessment and course evaluation. Evaluation should encompassstudent outcomes, causes of learning difficulties and possible remediation.Teacher self-evaluation, as well as giving the students the opportunity to

evaluate the teacher, the course and themselves, can act as a valuable means

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to stimulate the teaching/learning process, as well as the curriculardevelopment. Tools and techniques for evaluation include standardised tests ofvarious sorts, questionnaires, observation schedules of classroom interaction,interview schedules and diaries that the learners keep themselves. In anovercrowded classroom, it may be difficult for the teacher to evaluate if the

students are achieving the desired communicative competence; in fact, this isone of the failings of the system - it is hard to evaluate. However, the teachershould try to make the evaluation as individual as possible, as well as coveringas many of the four skills as time will allow. Students must be made aware thatthe role of errors is an important one in the Communicative Approach, as theyare seen as a sign that the students are making progress.

However, not all students succeed.

There are many possible causes of learner failure, which include :

•  inefficient learning strategies•  poor attention in class

•  difficulty with discrete language points

•  faulty teaching techniques

•  objectives inappropriate for learners

•  materials and learning activities inappropriate  for learners

In an ideal world, that which was planned would be that which was actuallylearned, there would be no unanticipated outcomes, and learners would learneverything they were taught. However, this rarely happens. To try to avoid this

unsuccessful outcome the monitoring and evaluation element needs to be seenas parallel with all other elements rather than occurring simply as an appendageto the instructional process.

This means that the evaluation has to be done in accordance with the teaching,and should not be seen as an additional element that is simply to be done at theend of a didactic unit, term or year. 

An initial evaluation is normally done at the beginning of the year, and takesinto account many factors, including the previous academic abilities of thestudent, as well as personal details such as his family background. It is normally

done through either a test or by looking back at the student’s past records -where these are available.However, this can also be done at the beginning of each didactic unit so that theteacher knows how much still has to be taught, or even at the beginning of eachindividual lesson so that the previous knowledge of the students is known.

The ability of the students is likely to change throughout the year, for this reasonit is important that the teacher carries out a formative evaluation. This basicallymeans that the students are being constantly evaluated by monitoring, tests andso on. The results from each didactic unit should serve to help the teacher todecide how much extra follow up work the students need in a particular area.

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The summative evaluation is done at the end of the year, or at the end of thedidactic unit. It is from this evaluation that the teacher can decide howsuccessful he has been with his students.

As we can see, the evaluation process is vital if the students are to be assessed

effectively. However, if we were to point out a disadvantage, it would be that inthe gaining of Communicative Competence it is difficult to do an effectiveevaluation of a student’s speaking ability. This is due to the fact that theclassrooms are often overcrowded so not leaving enough time for the teacher tocarry out individual oral interviews with the students.

6. CONCLUSION

As we have seen, the development of linguistic ability and the usage ofprocedures for the teaching of the four language skills, together with the criticalself-consciousness by learners of their own role as active agents within the

learning process, make the Communicative Approach the most extendedforeign language teaching system.

Reaching Communicative Competence is the main aim of language teaching,and is laid out as such in the curriculum. Therefore matching what is taught inthe classroom and what they will find outside is of utmost importance. Thismeans that language teaching has to place the students in differentcommunicative situations, the kinds of which they could find in day to day life.This is what the Communicative Approach sets out to do.

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EOI UNIT 1:LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION

THEMES NOTES

Homogenous model : Single set of rules. Variable. Alternative sets of

rules are drawn upon differently in different situations. Canale statesthat different conditions affect expected outcome of language use inreal situations. Comm. process according to Canale:  Language isway we communicate socially. Nothing is predictable. Socioculturalcontexts restrict use. There is always a reason why we use language.Conditions can have a limiting effect. Authentic material is preferred asopposed to language found in coursebooks.Components of Communicative Competence: Always has apurpose. Takes place in situations that provide constraints on languageused and clues to meaning. We must also take into account the fivesubcomps as laid out by Canale and adopted by Spanish EducationSystem. Grammatical, Sociocultural, Discoursive, Sociolinguistic,

Strategic.Comm Approach in the L2 Classroom: Integration: Sts need to beplaced in actual comm situations. Contribution of learner will mark typeof activities to be carried out. The lesson is divided into several areas:Warm-up: The students are acclimatised to the language.Presentation: The teacher presents the students with the tasks thatare to be carried out. Practice: The students are given the chance tohave a controlled practice of the language area that has been taught.Production: There is a chance for the students to use the languagemore freely and in a communicative situation.Evaluation: Possible causes of learner failure: Inefficient learningstrats. Poor attention in class. Difficulty with discrete language points.

Faulty teaching techniques. Objectives inappropriate for learners.Materials and learning acts. inappropriate.Evaluation has to be individual and cover all the skills ascommunication is not just about speaking, but also about reading andwriting.There should be an initial evaluation at the beginning of either the yearor the didactic unit or the lesson so that the teacher will always knowthe level of the students.The formative evaluation should be carried out throughout the whole ofthe learning process so that the teacher is always aware of the stagethat his students are at.The summative evaluation is done at the end so that the teacher can judge if the teaching and learning processes have been successful. If there are any disadvantages, they are that it is difficult to evaluatethe speaking skills effectively as the classrooms are overcrowded somaking it impossible for the teacher to have individual interviews withall of the students.

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Check your understanding of unit 1 by answering the following questions

1. Give a brief summary of the communication process according to Canale.

2. What are the five subcompetences?

3. What are the stages that should be followed in a lesson?

4. What are the stages of the evaluation process?

5. Name the possible causes of learner failure.