Communicative competence in English among rural African high school learners in the Eshowe Circuit
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Date
2008
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Abstract
This study investigates communicative competence in English among rural African high school learners in the Eshowe circuit. Poor student performance especially in higher institutions has generally been linked to incompetence in English Second Language, which motivated an investigation into communicative competence among high school learners from a rural background. The study was conducted in five high schools in the Eshowe circuit The design of the study necessitated the adoption of qualitative approach in order to probe the multifaceted phenomenon of communicative approach in its natural setting (the classroom situation).
The theoretical underpinnings on which this study relied on were extracted from the field of discourse analysis and text linguistics. Also, due to the nature of the study i.e. being concerned with communicative competence and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), much of the literature reviewed surveyed the concept of communicative competence from scholars and researchers such as Chomsky (1969); Hymes (1982); Widdowson (1985), and Saville-Troike (1997). Moreover, the linguistic context on which the study was based necessitated that we explore the definitions of bilingualism and multilingualism. Classroom discourse was used in analysing the lessons in a Second Language classroom setting. Lessons seemed to display a unique classroom interaction pattern, typical of teacher-pupil interaction in a Second Language classroom. In addition, the study looked at the extent to which the lessons complied with the expectations of the Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) with particular attention to \earner roles and teacher roles in CLT. Moreover, the analysis of lessons is subjected to seven standards of textuality discussed by Beaugrande and Dressier (1981), which helped determine the textuality of lesson texts, as these standards are activated during communicative events.
The study further considered possible remedy to the errors found in English lesson transcripts. Though the National Curriculum Statement offered viable solutions to learners' errors, a challenge lied with errors committed by teachers, who according to the study, fell below the assumed competence and fell short of being subject specialists. Nevertheless, teachers' utterances were characterised by occurrences of code-switching, which according to the study played a positive role in regulating classroom behaviour.
From the analysis of lessons it emerged that in most lessons, though a communicative approach was followed, there was little or no linguistic input from the teachers, which raised doubts about the implementation of the communicative approach to language teaching. Indeed, data indicated shortfalls in the implementation of CLT as expected in NCS. The problem of communicative incompetence loomed heavily not only over the learners, but also over the teachers as well, which is a cause for concern in the teaching of English as a Second Language.
Description
A thesis
Submitted as a requirement for the degree of doctor of
Philosophy (D.Phil) in the Department of English, Faculty of
Arts at University of Zululand, 2008.
Keywords
Communicative competence, English Second Language