ROLE OF FOUR SKILLS TOWARDS ACQUIRING COMMUNICATIVE

COMPETENCE:

APPROACHES

TO

LANGUAGE

LEARNING

AND

TEACHING

INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century English has become the language of the global world. Now it is language of
communication. And when we talk about language communication then four skills are necessary
for this. Languages are generally taught and assessed in terms of the four skills: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and reading are known as receptive skills while
speaking and writing are known as productive skills. All language learners will need to develop
their skills in each of these areas.
Progress in our understanding of how L2 languages are learned, and subsequently taught, has
expanded impressively over the past five decades. Research findings from a variety of
disciplines, mainly those of linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology and
sociolinguistics, have better established the complex nature of language learning: it has become
clear that linguistic, psychological and sociocultural factors interact and play a
part in this process. Moreover, these findings have also shown that communication
is crucial in the process of learning a language (Mitchell and Myles 1998) and that the degree of
success achieved in this process depends to a great extent on how meaning is negotiated in
particular acts of communication. This view of language learning explains the emergence of

communicative approaches to language teaching over the last few decades, whose main goal is to
develop learners communicative competence. However, the implementation of a communicative
approach is not a simple task.
In fact, it presents a challenge to the teaching profession (Anderson 1993), since it requires a full
understanding of what is involved in the L2 learning process.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The framework of communicative competence we propose was designed on the basis of all the
models of communicative competence described in Section 3. Additionally, we found the work
by Scarcella and Oxford (1992) and Celce-Murcia and Olhstain (2000) to be particularly
valuable, given the emphasis they place on the four skills in the overall communicative process.
Figure 1 shows the schematic representation of our proposed framework of communicative
competence integrating the four skills. The proposed framework contains five components which
appear inside rectangular boxes of the same size, namely, discourse, linguistic, pragmatic,
intercultural and strategic. Discourse competence, which appears inside an oval with a broken
line, is placed in the core of our construct leaving room within the same rectangular box for the
four skills, which are situated in the four corners. This competence, therefore, is located in a
position where the rest of the components (i.e., linguistic, pragmatic, intercultural and strategic)
serve to build discourse competence which, in turn, also shapes each of the other competencies.
According to Cortazzi and Jin (1999), culture can be regarded as a wide framework of values,
beliefs, attitudes and behaviors that are used to subjectively interpret other peoples actions and
patterns of thinking. Given the subjective nature of this concept, it is essential for foreign
language learners to become aware of different cultural aspects if they are to make an

appropriate interpretation of the target language. For this reason, in order to foster L2 learners
knowledge of the skills required to be successful in intercultural communication, the
development of intercultural communicative competence should be included within a
communicative approach for L2 teaching. This competence has been defined by Meyer (1991:
137) as the ability of a person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted
with actions, attitudes and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures. In fact, Byram
(1997) proposed a model of intercultural communicative competence, given the need to integrate
the teaching of intercultural communicative skills as part of classroom instruction.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

Communication is basically transmission of message from one person to another. It occurs when
one person sends message to another and the receiving message is understood. Communication is
the mechanism of conveying feelings, thoughts, commands or actions to someone else.
Communication happens when information, knowledge and meaning flow from one point to
another. Communication and teaching will be effective if the flow is full and the knowledge is
accurate and valuable (Hodge, 1993:7).
For effective communication to occur, people need not only to speak or write but also to
understand how others have perceived their messages if they are to respond in ways that address
the concerns and questions of their audience. For instance, a job task might entail reading about a
companys product and explaining it to a prospective customer, thus eliciting both reading and
speaking skills to produce accurate communication, as well as listening skills to evaluate the
success of the communication. An additional task might require understanding a question from a
customer and then reading further in order to provide a satisfactory answer. As another example,

as a prelude to speaking at an upcoming meeting, a presenter might need to prepare by reading

and writing or taking notes. Thus, multiple skills are often required in combination
for successful on-the-job performance.
Finally, communication skills (e.g., following instructions, conversing, and giving and receiving
feedback) are becoming increasingly important in todays workplace (See, for example, Maes,
Weldy, & Icenogle, 1997) and our communication abilities come into play to an increasing extent
with the advance of technology through, for example, voice mail, e-mail, or teleconferencing.
Moreover, as teamwork becomes more and more critical in the workplace, communication skills
will assume even greater importance. Stevens (2005) and others have predicted that the ability to
communicate effectively both orally and in writing will become even more valuable as
technology intensifies the
influence of messages in the workplace.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

We have to see in this study that what are the problems faced by the EFL students in
acquiring communicative competence through four skills in the process of language learning
Because Pakistani students or the EFL learners and they have definitely draw back in acquiring
communicative competence through four skills. The purpose of this research to know that which
type of language tools are more affective in the competency of language learning and teaching.
in the content of Pakistan EFL learners we have to develop skills to compete the deficiencies of
EFL learners.
Definitely there can be difference among private and government school.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.

What are the four communicative skills, that are necessary for EFL students in acquiring
communicative competence at secondary level EFL students?

2.

How for the four communicative are more effective skills through acquiring through
communities competence at secondary level EFL student?

3.

What are the problems face by the EFL students in acquiring communicative competence
at secondary level?

4.

Which type of tools are helpful in acquiring communicative competence at secondary

level students.

5.

How do the four skills are implemented in the EFL classroom in acquiring the
communicative competence?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Hymes (1972) referred the widened idea of communicative competence that grammatical
knowledge is not enough for communication rather knowledge of language use is essential as
well as grammatical knowledge because to interact to others a child must have the ability to
accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events and to evaluate their
accomplishment by others.
Romaine (2000) explains that the term communicative competence is intended to replace the
dichotomy between competence and performance central to mainstream linguistics.

Canale (1983) asserts that construction of communicative competence is made up of four

elements such as grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence. Grammatical
competence is knowledge of lexical items and the rules of morphology, syntax, semantic and
phonology and "focuses directly on the knowledge and skill required to understand and express
accurately the literal meaning of utterances". Discourse competence is the ability to connect the
sentences to make them meaningful. The other two components are related to functional aspects
of communication.
Socio cultural competence is the ability which gives the sense of social context in which learners
use language. The fourth component of communicative competence is strategic competence
which enables the participants to overcome the breakdown in communication due to insufficient
competence. As Canale explains the need of such strategies, to compensate for breakdowns in
communication due to limiting conditions in actual communication or to insufficient competence
in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence, and to enhance the effectiveness
of communication.
Romaine (2000) defines communicative competence as being a speakers underlying
knowledge of the rules of grammar (understood in the widest sense to include phonology,
grammar, lexicon, and semantics) and rules for their use in socially appropriate circumstances.
Gaining good communication skills is always considered one of the most important factors for
the trainee teachers in the teaching learning process especially in language teaching. Savignon
(1972) observes that the mastery of grammar rules is not the guarantee to use language for
communication.
She focused mainly on the skills that are needed to enable the students to communicate what they

really want to say in real life situations. She conducted research on three groups of college
students enrolled in audio lingual French course in United States to study communicative skills
and grammatical skills. These groups referred to as communicative competence group, the
cultural group and the grammatical competence group. She found that although there was no
significant difference among groups on tests of grammatical competence, the CC group second
significantly higher than the other two groups on four communicative tests she developed.
Savignons finding was that students who had received training in communicative skills felt
better prepared to use their limited knowledge of French to (its best) advantage. Effective
communication skills include delivering and comprehending messages clearly, the ability of
comprehensibly reading and writing, knowledge about settings, and development of skills to
resolve the problems and handle conflicts.
Gotelibeb, Margo (1985) conducted study on the role of communicative competence in the first
and second language achievement to observe the communicative and academic ability of first
and second language learners aiming to enhance current student assessment practices. A total
number of 304 students studying at intermediate level were selected as sample. Analysis of
variance and PPM correlation were used to analyze the data. The major findings of the study
were that development of entry and exit criteria for educational programs should rest on both
theoretical research and classroom practice.
Jallaluddin, K. (1985) A study of the course book, communication skills in English, introduced
by Osmania University for first year degree students, examined different types of approaches in
comparison with communicative approach. He concluded that communicative approach in
English Language Teaching was more effective than the existing methods of approach to
language teaching.

He added explaining that communicative proficiency test also examines the integrated skills
among the students.
Deepa Reddy (1986) conducted a research study on role of teacher in the teaching and writing at
the college level. The study concentrated on the main traditional way and the new way of
teaching composition. The study also aimed at enabling the teachers to understand their role
better in the teaching of writing. She observed that students are mostly dependent on guidebooks
and prepared material to pass in the examination. She concluded that writing can help the
students in making them independent learners.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
One of the main and basic aim of the research is to know that how the four skills are helpful in
communicative competence for language learning and teaching in Pakistan specially in Distt
Muzzafargarh Schools.
To see these things my research will be the combination of both qualitative and quantitative types
of research.

PARTICIPANT
The participants of may research study will be the students of secondary level. In the Govt, and
private schools of Distt MuzaffarGarh.
There will be at least 100 participant in this research so that the data would be reliable form the
different types of groups among then 100 students.

DATA COLLECTION TOOLS

In this research through the qualitative types of research the tool will be the questionnaire
interview pre- test and post -test in short it will be mixed method research because it will be the
survey of questionnaire and semi structured interview.

DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This research study will be delimited to the Govt or Private school of Distt Muzafargarh. I will
collect the data from these schools to analyze it.

4. ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS

The arrangement of the chapters in my thesis is given below,
CHAPTER NO.1 Introduction
(1.1)
(1.2)
(1.3)
(1.4)
(1.5)

Background of the Study

Significance of the Study
Purpose of the Study
Research Questions
Organization of thesis

CHAPTER NO. 2 Literature Review

CHAPTER NO. 3 Research Methodology
3.1

Qualitative Research

3.2

Quantitative Research

3.3

Strategy and Participants

3.4

Instrumentation

3.5

Data collection

CHAPTER NO. 4 Data Analysis

CHAPTER NO. 5 Findings, Conclusion, Suggestions and Recommendation

REFERENCES

REFERENCES
Akram, M. (2009). Communication Apprehensions in English Classrooms in Pakistan.
www.languageinindia.com, 7 July 2009
Canale, M. (1 983). From communicative competence to communicative language
pedagogy. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp.
2-27). New York: Longman.
Ellis, R., (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gotelibeb, M., (1985). The role of communicative competence in first and second language
achievement as demonstrated in the pleasure of essential communication and concept
achievement. Unpublished Ph D thesis, University of Illinois, Chicago
Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. In J.C. Richards, & T.S., Rodgers, (2000).
Approaches and methods in language teaching. (2nd ed). New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Jallaluddin, K., (1985). A study of the course book, communication skills in English, introduced
by Osmania university for first year degree students. Unpublished Ph D Thesis, Osmania
University, Hyderabd.
Reddy, Deepa, (1986). The role of teacher in the teaching and writing at the college level.
Unpublished dissertation, CIEFL, Hyderabad.
Romaine, S., (2000). Language in society: An introduction to sociolinguistics. (2nd ed). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Savignon, S.J., (1972). Communicative competence: An experiment in foreign language
teaching. Philadelphia: Center for Curriculum Development.

Sobhana, N., (2003). Communicative competence in English. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing
House.