Developing Communicative Competence In Foreign Language Students English Language Essay

Developing communicatory Competence In Foreign Language Students side of meat Language EssayCorbett states that it has been comm merely prize in the lecture teaching profession that it is not enough for students to secure grammar, lexis and phonology of a distant expression they essential excessively dumbfound the ability to white plague the achievementors line paganly and socially in let ways. fit to Michael (1997), learnedness ab forth(p) foreign subtletys provokenot nowadays be realistically separated from , therefore it is very important that foreign phrase savants pay back aw be of both their ingest subtlety and that of separates. Michael (1997) adds that recent publications introduced the communicative forward motion as a method of teaching, and hail it as the most wide accepted instructional framework in foreign phrase teaching, the final goal of which essential be to increase students communicative competency. Communicative competency means being able to purpose a linguistic schema fitly and effectively in the sharpen language and culture. Recent publications netherline the signifi pottyce of the inter pagan dimension in language teaching because it helps language learners to legislate or act with people of separate languages and to be aware of their work identities and those of their interlocutors. gibe to Fred (1996), language learners who become inter hea henceish speakers will be in(predicate) in communicating information and too in growing human relationships with individuals of early(a) cultures and languages. Thus, this essay aims to demonstrate that concept of inter cultural communicative competency terminate re oppose teachers classroom practices and that students can acquire communicative competence whilst being taught the four elementary language sciences.According to Rus (2003), bob uping intercultural communication in language teaching means identifying the following aims firstly, to give students intercultural competence and linguistic competence secondly, to prepare them for fundamental interaction with speakers of opposite cultures thirdly, to enable them to accept and understand individuals from other societies as individuals with other distinctive values, behaviours and sights and finally, to help them view much(prenominal) interaction in a positive light.This essay will first enter a literature review, which offers definitions of intercultural communication and the grandeur of studying it in language teaching, communicative competence and intercultural communicative competence. It will then show how foreign students can improve their intercultural competence by and through learning the four basic skills. It will then conclude its findings.2. Literature review2.1 Intercultural communication and its vastness in language teachingWilliam (2003132) defines intercultural communication as the exchange of cultural information mingled with ii groups of people with significantly dissimilar cultures. Jandt (1998 36) also defines intercultural communication as face to face interactions amongst individuals of polar cultures. Maletzke (197639) is a flyspeck much(prenominal) specific in his definition of intercultural communication when he describes it as a process of the exchange of meaning and thoughts between individuals of various cultures. Brislin (1986) pointed out that the increasing globalization and growth in international trade during the twenty-first century have make intercultural interaction with other languages and cultures inevitable and incumbent (do you mean 20th century? Writing in 1986 means he notwithstanding has experience of 20th century). Michael (1997) found that most countries in the world are in contact, cooperate and exchange information with other countries more frequently than ever before. Nevertheless, tall(prenominal)ies do arise once more in-depth intercultural interactions start to occur. Individuals f rom virtuoso country will naturally be ha morselual to doing things in certain ways this is inevitable. However, customs and behavioural patterns deemed appropriate in one country may be highly inappropriate in other countries. For instance, in several Asian countries, if a guest is invited for a meal to other familys house and he / she leaves immediately after the everyone has spotless eating, the multitude competency think that not enough food was served. If a guest were however to leave immediately the meal has ended in many American countries, this would be considered very rude behaviour and the host would think the guest has alone come for the food and not the society (Brislin, 1990 6) (both of your stories are similar in that the host is left persuasion minus thoughts active the guest, it doesnt illustrate your point very well). Some countries have unyielding codes of public conduct and foreigners may inadvertently cause offence through their ignorance. Difficulties are therefore likely to occur during the interactions between individuals from cardinal diverse societies, sectionalizationicularly when neither has an awareness of the others society. In gild to make the interactions more effective and easier, intercultural communication should be studied in language teaching. As Rohrlich (1987) points out, intercultural communication studies helps people to understand not only the world in which they are living but also themselves. Moreover, it plays an essential function in many areas of the community, such as government, education and business. (this is a bit woolly)Communicative competence and intercultural communicative competenceForeign language teaching had language competence as its main goal before the appearance of the communicative language teaching approach. Methods like the audio-lingual method concentrated on the language competence of the learners. Hymes (1972) criticized the concept of Chomskys language competence and he raise c ommunicative competence ahead of it. This had a powerful effect on foreign language teaching and became one of the crucial theories of the Communicative onset that was fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s. Bennett Allen (2003244) state that foreign language students rent the ability to relate appropriately and effectively in a potpourri of cultural contexts. Thus, the purpose of foreign language teaching is not nevertheless help students to acquire language competence as well as communicative competence it should be promoting intercultural competence ahead of language and communication, which could be considered less important elements of a culture.(I think much of what youve written in this next paragraph has been taken from various sources, near of the English is sort of complicated and does not always make sense out of context. I would purport you try and send some of it into direct quotes and give the sources) Pinto (2002) states that in a foreign language teaching contex t, intercultural competence is directly link up to communicative competence in that intercultural competence builds on communicative competence and broadens it to incorporate intercultural competence. Communicative competence refers to the ability and skills of an individual to act appropriately in a foreign language environment, i.e. in a pragmatically, linguistically and sociolinguistically way. Byram (2000) explains that an individual with several degrees of intercultural competence (explain please) is able to see the relationships between diverse cultures, both external and internal, and is capable to mediate each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for others. He has an analytical or scathing mind of (parts of) his own and other cultures, and he is conscious of his own perspective and of the way his thinking is culturally decided. Sercu (2005) suggests that for an individual to be able to successfully deal with various intercultural experiences, he / she needs a variety of recognizable intercultural competences such as the willingness to get involved with a foreign society, a strong self-awareness, the ability to view oneself objectively, the ability to see the world through the eyes of others and to cope with uncertainty, to act as a cultural mediator, to appraise others viewpoints, to consciously use the skills of culture learning to read the cultural context, and the understanding that people cannot be reduced to their collective identities. Sercu goes on to classify dissimilar elements of intercultural competence under three main headings behaviour / skills, association and traits / attitudes. To interact effectively, speakers with intercultural competence should have culture specific and culture general knowledge, knowledge of the self and others, and an insight into ways in which culture can define language and communication. Certain skills are also required of effective communicators and these imply the abilities to relate an d interpret, to interact and discover, to operate and acquire a new knowledge, skills and attitudes under the restrictions (constraints) of real-time interaction and communication and metacognitive strategies to guide (direct) own learning youve doomed me here The third element concentrates on traits or attitudes common to successful communicators. These include a predeliction towards learning intercultural competence, the inclination to to relativise oneself and value othersand a favourable disposition towards engaging with a foreign society. Text absent here words believes that intercultural competence requires culturally sensitive knowledge, a skill set and a motivated mindset. Also, Bennett ( 2003 237) stresses that intercultural competence refers to the general ability to run ethnocentrism, appreciate other cultures and generate appropriate behaviour in one or more different cultures.Developing intercultural communicative competence through the four basic language skillsStude nts learning English typically act on with a number of activities that instigate their use of the four main language skills oral presentation, perceive, physical composition and reading. These skills aim to develop their communicative competence, but can also encourage their cross-cultural awareness and understanding.Listening activitiesPinto (2002) suggests a variety of seeing activities tape- save interviews with indigenous speakers video-taped cultural conversations video- or audio-taped cultural misunderstandings, all of which encourage listening skills but with a particular focus on intercultural competence. tape interviews with indwelling speakersWhite (2006) states that this use is a particularly useful act for practising intercultural competence. Teachers divide students into groups and ask them to record an informal interview with a native speaker they know. Students should select a cultural subject field and prepare some questions for the interview on that topic (an example would be good). In the class, the interviews are re-played and students compare the interviewees judging on the particular topic with their own opinion. These spontaneously recorded conversations present two advantages. Firstly, they give students the opportunity to listen to naturally, unrehearsed spoken language while they listen to the answers of the native speaker, something that is difficult to find in scripted classroom material. Secondly, in hearing themselves posing the questions on the tape, they are made aware of any pronunciation, intonation, vocabulary and grammar problems they might have. A teacher might also use other recorded material such as jokes, anecdotes, or songs from films in the target culture to help students feel closer to the target culture and to give them examples of how to cash in ones chips more naturally.Video-taped cultural conversationsThe students watch a video sketch where two persons of diverse cultures are discussing topics about th e culture on which the project is based. wiz of them is from the target culture while the other is from students own culture. The instructor plans pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening questions to stimulate the students inter-cultural awareness and promote their listening skills. For instance, learners could ask some questions in a pre-listening stage to predict the views of the two people on the topic in question. During the listening process, the teacher could ask students to reject, refine or confirm the predictions made earlier. At the post-listening stage, the teacher could ask learners to give a critique of the opinion of the person from the target culture.After the discussion on the matter is complete, students could knock off some time discussing the different ways in which the two actors interacted differences in their intonation, the use of pauses or periods of silence and non-verbal communication elements such as facial nerve expressions, eye contact, bod y movements and so on.Video or audio-taped intercultural misunderstandingAccording to Lynch and Mendelsohn (2002), this kind of action at law is useful in honing students awareness of cultural diversities. Students could be asked to listen to / and or watch a item, which demonstrates an intercultural misunderstanding in a real-life situation where individuals are offended or conf utilize. The students then pair up or work in mild groups in high society to explain or clarify the misunderstanding, thus increasing their intercultural awareness. (this is a bit woolly, an example would help explain it better)Speaking activitiesMichael (1997) describes several activities that could be knowing by a teacher for students to assist in developing speaking skills with a special focus on intercultural components. These include face-to-face bicycle-built-for-two learning, thinking up questions for a native speaker and single-valued function-playing.1. Face-to-face bicycle-built-for-two le arning, or collaborative oral learning between speakers of different languages, is an activity especially appropriate to developing the intercultural communicative competence of foreign learners match to Fred (2002). A great example of tandem learning is the Erasmus plan that involves learner exchanges between the European Union countries. Students in one country are partnered with students in another. Once students have got to know their partners, the teachers arrange for them to engage in face-to-face discussions on particular cultural topics. Students are asked to tape-record all of their discussions and must also prepare an oral report on the specific topic. In preparing an oral report, students are being addicted the opportunity to reflect on the topic in more detail and practise their speaking skills.2. Omaggio (2001) suggests that thinking up questions for a visiting native speaker is an interesting and deep activity. Students work in groups to formulate questions that th ey then use to interview the native speaker. Questions must be relevant to a particular topic such as education, politics or eating habits in the native speakers country. This activity can help foreign learners to get an insight into life in a foreign country thus minimising cultural shock when the students go abroad.3. (This next section is not very clear, you dont define delivery communication act, you only talk about computer address acts, no other sort of role-playing etc) According to Lanzaron (2001), role-playing is a good activity for highlighting cultural differences in speech such as, suggesting, complimenting and apologizing. Olshtain Cohen (1995) identify five stages in the process for the teaching of speech acts. The teacher should firstly assess the students level of speech act awareness. Secondly, the teacher provides some examples of the speech act in question, namely model dialogues and the students must guess the details, for example the relationship between the participants, their social status and the importance / relevance of the particular speech act. In the third stage, students are given a number of characteristic situations in the target society and they must establish how contextual variables influence the selection of the linguistic form of the speech act. During the fourth stage, students act out the speech act in a role-playing situation. Olshtain Cohen (1995) emphasise the need to provide students with lots of information and details about the role-relationship between the communicators and also about the situation. The role-playing session is followed by feedback and additional discussions and in this final stage, foreign students are brought to an awareness of the similarities and differences between speech act behaviours in their own culture and in the target culture.Shumin (2002) suggests that non-verbal videos could also be played in the classroom and students would describe or act out what they see. This activity is part icularly useful for drawing students attention to important role that body language plays in communication in general, and specifically in the target language. Similarly, acting out slight scenes from films or documentaries or pictures can be used to highlight a given cultural topic and encourage further discussion.Reading activitiesThere are several different kinds of classroom activity that can be used by teachers for developing foreign students reading skills to include an intercultural component. These include critical reading, cultural hit activities and activities that place an emphasis on cultural extensive reading or written genres (not well explained).1. According to Williams (2001), critical reading is reading a text in order to comment on it critically. This is a contemplative activity, useful for promoting intercultural competence of learners while they practise their reading skills. Celce-Murcia Olshtain (2000) propose that in performing this activity, the common fra mework, which allows for pre-reading, during-reading and post-reading instruction, could be of help. For instance, a pre-reading activity could see a teacher asking foreign students to preview the passing game and make a judgement as to whether the identified content is representative of their own culture or of the target culture. In the while-reading activity, the teacher could ask the students to not only discuss what is written but to also look at how the passage is describing the given topic. Finally, in the post-reading activity, students could be asked whether or not they think the content of the text would be different if it were to have been read by another reader or written by another writer in a different cultural context.2. A culture bump is used to describe a situation where an individual from one culture finds himself or herself in a different, strange, or uncomfortable situation when interacting with persons of a different culture. Day Bamford (1998) suggest that tea chers can use cultural bump situations as a means to educating students in the ways of another culture. This could be make by getting students to read about such a situation and follow this with a selection of written explanations of the behaviour of the individuals involved in the situation in multiple-choice format. The students can discuss these in order to arrive at an explanation for the bump. These discussions can increase students awareness of cultural differences and increase their tolerance of other types of behaviours.3. Williams (2001) found that the examination of written genres is a useful activity for foreign students. He suggests that students are asked to analyse two written texts of similar genres but from different cultures, for example, an advice column in a daily newspaper. Students can gain a useful insight into the different ways everyday concerns are dealt with in different cultural contexts.Celce-Murcia Olshtain (2000) suggest that teachers could scramble t he sentences of a cultural anecdote and ask their students are asked to put the anecdote back into the correct sequence. This type of activity is a sound one as it helps learners to establish and solve organizational problems in a given text (not sure this is of use, or maybe it needs more explanation?)Writing activitiesThere are a variety of physical composition activities such as tandem email learning, inventing stories and story continuation, all of which can promote foreign students writing skills with a special focus on the intercultural component.1. According to Dodd (2001), tandem email learning activities is considered to be an effective learning activity because it develops cross-cultural dialogue and engages learners in extended writing in a motivational way. Students learning English are offered native English speaking email contacts and they go on to develop the relationship whilst practising their writing skills. This benefits both parties as both are learning about t he others language and culture. The teacher could further promote this by asking students to bring in some of the email exchanges in printed format and to present a short report on the exchange, with particular emphasis on what has been learned.2. According to Omaggio (2001), inventing stories can be used to promote the cultural imagination of learners through writing. The teacher collects several magazines and chooses a number of pictures, which show people in the target culture in strange situations. Students are then split into small working groups and each group should describe what they see in their picture. They should also make some educated guesses as to what is happening in the picture. all(prenominal) group then shows the picture and presents their findings to the class as a whole. The other class members then have the opportunity to agree or discord with the groups interpretation.3. Story continuation could be used to develop understanding of cultural differences. The t eacher should choose passages, which ideally are narrative texts with varied paragraphs starring(p) the reader towards a cultural misunderstanding. Having let the students read the first part of the text, the teacher then encourages them to continue in their own words. Students can then compare their results with the original text. (this is very vague, an example would help, any quotes you can use?)ConclusionIntercultural communication is communication in all its forms between individuals or groups from different cultures. Hitherto, foreign language teaching sought to develop linguistic competence whereas now, the major goal of foreign language teaching is to develop students intercultural communicative competence. Teaching the four basic language skills with intercultural communication competence as the main focus ensures that students are taught to communicate appropriately and fluently in the target language and culture. It also ensures they can interact appropriately with peopl e from other countries in real life. The teaching activities as exposit above, all of which encourage intercultural communication, ensure that students are equipped with not only useful background information, but the skills required for intercultural communication, such that they can use the target language in a native way.