elt j-2007-nazari-202-10

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

1/9

E FLteachers perception of theconcept of communicative

competenceAhmad Nazari

This study briefly reviews Chomskys and Hymes ideas on competence and

links them to Dubins notions of autonomous and ideological communicativecompetence. Based on interviews with high schoolE FLteachers, the studyhypothesizes that some of these teachers have an indistinct view aboutcommunicative competence that moves between autonomous and ideologicalconcepts. Drawing on observation of high schoolE F Lclasses, this study alsohypothesizes that raising high schoolEFL teachers awareness of the autonomousand ideological concepts of communicative competence is likely to help themsee that their teaching activities lean towards the autonomous model ofcommunicative competence. As a consequence, high schoolE F Lteachers mightreflect on their beliefs and practices and might be better prepared to base theirclasses on a broader view of communicative competence.

Communicativecompetence

The concepts of competence and communicative competence were initiallyexpounded by Chomsky and Hymes. In 1965, Chomsky asserted thatlinguistics deals with the language knowledge of an ideal speaker-hearer ina homogeneous community and unaffected by performance variables(Chomsky 1965: 3). In 1971, Hymes maintained that the competenceChomsky had talked about was linguistic competence, a limited aspect ofa broader concept he called communicative competence, which includednot only linguistic competence but also other aspects, specifically socio-cultural dimensions (Hymes 1971: 27486). According to Hymes, a theory

of language needs to deal with the constitutive roles of socio-culturalfeatures. . . (Hymes 1971: 277).

Later, language educationist Fraida Dubin (1989) asserted thatcommunicative competence had at least two meanings. She argued that theautonomous meaning of communicative competence entailed an idealizedspeaker-hearers socio-culturally neutral ability to communicate. Dubincontends this meaning of communicative competence leans towardsChomskys linguistic competence, which is narrow and reductionist. Bycontrast, according to Dubin, the ideological meaning of communicative

competence signifies what Hymes elaborated on in an attempt to separate itfrom Chomskys linguistic competence. In other words, the ideologicalmeaning is a broad definition incorporating the socio-cultural aspects of

202 ELTJournal Volume 61/3 July 2007; doi:10.1093/elt/ccm027 The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.

atUniversitiTechnoligiMalaysiaonNovember15,2014

http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/

Downloadedfrom
http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

2/9

language. In the present study, the analysis ofE FLteachersconceptualization of communicative competence is informed by thecategorization put forward by Dubin.

So, why ideologicalcommunicativecompetence?

The importance of socio-culturally embedded language practices inE FLeducation is amply elaborated upon in the relevant literature. For instance,foreign language educationists and cultural linguists believe foreign

language learning cannot occur properly unless the socio-cultural aspect ofthe foreign language is learnt simultaneously because the mere acquisitionof linguistic competence is not enough (Hollidayet al.2004; Robertset al.2001). Roberts etal. maintain that whatever thepurpose of foreign languagelearning may be, the cultural and social aspects are a fundamental andindispensable part:

Although the foreign language learner may not be joining a newcommunity in any permanent way, their goal is to understand the socialpractices of that community and to behave in ways which will allow somecontinuing relationship with it. (Robertset al.op. cit.: 10)

Similarly, Hollidayet al.(2004) believe that there are no neutral exchangesin communication and that all communication, in addition to being aboutwhatis said, is about establishing interpersonal relationships (Holliday etal.ibid.: 184). They also indicate that as language is socio-culturally embedded,one has to understand other groups and the language use within othergroups (ibid.: 185) in order to avoid misunderstanding, stereotyping,otherizing, and languacism. In summary, language and languagelearning are not to be detached from the socio-cultural practices of thetargetlanguage community, or they would lose substance.

Research question Enhancing learners communicative competence is one of the aspirations ofa considerable number of high schoolE FLteachers andE FLscholars, andthat is why different foreign language teaching methods (for example,communicative language teaching approaches) have been devised tocontribute to this enterprise. Moreover, teachers ideas and beliefs affect theway they teach (Tsui 2003; Richards and Lockhart 1996). Tsui contendsteachers knowledge and practices affect and inform each other andteachers disciplinary knowledge often has a decisive influence on theprocess, content, and quality of their instruction (Tsui op. cit.: 55). Giventhat teachers beliefs can affect their practices, it seems useful to find out

how high school EFL teachers conceive of communicative competence, theenhancement of whichis of paramount importance to a substantial numberof them. Such an exploration is likely to contribute to raising high schoolEFLteachers awareness of different meanings and dimensions ofcommunicative competence through helping them reflect on their beliefsand practices. Such reflection could help the teachers come to a somewhatclearer understanding of the dimensions of language teaching and learning(Tsui op. cit.: 66), and as a result they are likely to be better prepared toimprove their in-class teaching activities. It goes without saying that oneof the purposes of research in applied linguistics is to enable teachers to

reflect on their beliefs and practices and in this way to contribute to theimprovement of language classroom activities. In this regard, Schmitt andCelce-Murcia (2002: 1) and McDonough (2002: 1314) describe one of the

Teachers and communicative competence 203



Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

3/9

major functions of applied linguistics as providing knowledge for thosewho make decisions on language issues in settings including languageclassroom.

Drawing on this background, this study is an attempt to explore how highschoolE FLteachers conceptualize the term communicative competence,and how they put this into practice in their teaching.

Method of the study The present study is qualitative in that since the data have been collectedthrough interviews and observations and not through a quantitativesampling approach, they are true only about the teachers I have interviewedand the high school classes I have observed. However, the issues raisedabout theE FLteachers perception in the specific high school may haverelevance to theE FL teachers in other high schools. I am suggesting, thus,that the issues are generalizable to the theory and not to the population. Inother words, the issues I have raised and the principles underlying them arenot enumerative induction but analytical induction (Mitchell 2000: 127).Those principles are intended to be taken by other researchers and explored

by them.

To carry out interviews, and to carry out classroom observations forexploring how the teachers views on communicative competence arerealized in practice, I chose the EFL teachers and classes of a high school asa case. Choosinga case is not necessarily concerned with representativenessand typicality of the case but with its accessibility and the opportunity itprovidesto theresearcher to learn (Stake 2000: 4467). As Stake puts it, thecase study researcher leans

toward those cases that seem to offer opportunity to learn . . .. That

may mean taking the one most accessible, the one we can spend the mosttime with. Potential for learning is a different and sometimes superiorcriterion to representativeness. Isnt it better to learn a lot from an atypicalcase than a little from a seemingly typical case? (ibid.: 446)

Participants Interviews with three EFL teachers of a high school in Iran were carried outto find out how they perceive the concept of communicative competence.The participants were male and non-native speakers of English, two ofwhom had a BA degree and one had an MA degree in TEFL. Theparticipants, during their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes,

had passed courses on linguistics as well as language teaching theories andmethods. They also seemed well-experienced (a minimum of 10 yearsexperience) in teaching English as a foreign language. The interviews wererecorded, transcribed verbatim, analysed, and interpreted.

To move beyond perception-based data (e.g. opinions in interviews)(Cohenet al.2000: 305) and to explore further how the teachers views oncommunicative competence were realized in their teaching practices, nineEFL classes taught by the interviewed EFL teachers were observed. The highschool in which the observations were carried out was an urban state boysschool. Each class of the school held from 30 to 40 students meeting four

hours per week for English language classes. The age range of the studentswas from 15 to 18. Three textbooks, prescribed by the Ministry of Education,were used in the EFL classes in the three high school years, i.e. one book in

204 Ahmad Nazari



Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

4/9

each year. The EFL exams administered to the students were either teacher-made (for half-term exams) or made in the provincial department of theMinistry of Education (for end-of-the-term exams) to be administered in allhigh schools of the province.

As my research was inductive and hypothesis-generating by nature,I decided to carry out open-ended observations, attempting to write downalmost all teaching and learning activities I saw and heard. I acknowledgethat my presence in the classes I observed might have affected thebehaviourof the researched. Yet the extensive use of naturalistic research ineducational studies indicates that it is gaining acceptance and importanceas a legitimate style of research (Cohenet al.op. cit.: 157).

Data presentationand analysisTeacher reports

The following are the participants definitions of communicativecompetence:

Question: What does communicative competence mean to you?

Teacher 1: To me, communicative competence refers to a basicrepertoire of vocabulary, forms, and functions that the learnercan use in her/his daily conversations and communications.If the learner can creatively apply that basic repertoire to dailycommunication, both oral and written, I think s/he has gotwhats called communicative competence. Communicativecompetence, I believe, cant be obtained through memorizingthat basicrepertoirebut it can be developed throughcreativeuseof thatrepertoire.

Teacher 2: Its both the verbal and non-verbal aspects of language. Its

that by which the learner can express themselvesandcommunicate their ideaswith others. For instance, ifsomebodycant verbalize what they mean, they might expresswhat they mean by gestures and facial expressions. I considerall of these as the aspects of communicative competence.When we speak about communication and communicativecompetence, we mean not only the verbalization of languagebut also theexpression of languagethroughgestures andfacial movements.

Teacher 3: Its an amalgamation of forms and functions. Its the

application of forms to perform functions. If we dont knowthe language functions, we cant communicate. By languagefunctions, I mean how to use the language. Communicativecompetence is the ability to use the language forms as for alllanguage skills; the ability to use language forms in realsituations forcommunicative purposes.

The underlined expressions in the above interviews (for example, basic andvocabulary, forms, functions) seem to imply narrower views ofcommunicative competence. The highlighted statements such asrepertoire, creatively apply, not memorizing, and creative use seem tobe indicative of broader meanings of communicative competence.




Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

5/9

As mentioned earlier, it has been argued that teachers perceptions affecttheir activities and what they want from students (Tsui op. cit.; Richards andLockhart op. cit.). In this case, the interviewees teaching and learningactivities must be affected by their understanding of communicativecompetence. The analysis of the teachers assertions on the in-classactivitiesthat they assign to the pupils might reveal whether these activities areaffected by their views about the concept of communicative competence.

Asked what activities they require the learners to do in the classroom, theteachers said:

Q: What kinds of activities do you ask your students to do in theclassroom? Why?

T1: Having taught the new vocabulary, I want students to use those newlexical items in sentences orally. Then I teach the reading text and Iwant one of the good students to give asummaryout of the text.Afterwards, I teach the structure mentioned in the book by usingcertain traditional techniques.

To suggest to the students that the reading activitys for developingtheir reading comprehension,Iaskstudentsto summarize orally thereading text by using their own English words. While thestudentsarepresenting theirsummaries, I dont usually correct theirmispronunciations because I dont want to interrupt their chain ofthought.

T2: I ask my students to carry out certain activities including working onthevocabularyandthedialoguesinthebook.Iaskthemtomemorizethe dialogues. As for vocabulary, I ask my students to make Englishsentences by using the new lexical items.

Ialsoaskmystudentstogivean oral summaryof the reading passagebecause the students have problems with memorizing words, andI personally believe that if students want to internalize words, onewaytogive oral summaries as summarization isakindofproductionas well.

T3: I ask students to do silent reading so that they can concentrate on thereading passage individually. I also ask students some questionsbased on the reading passage, and theyre also required to makequestions basedon thereadingmaterial.In this way, students can not

onlycomprehendthe reading text but also practise the languagestructures.

Certain expressions in the above transcripts have been either highlighted orunderlined. The highlighted expressions (for example, summarization,comprehension, and production) can be labelled as activities dealing withbroader concepts of communicative competence because they seem tofocus on comprehension and production, which sound like flexibleactivities. The underlined statements (for example, sentence making,structure teaching, and word memorizing) may be labelled as activitiesdealing with narrower concepts of communicative competence becausethey appear to further focus on memorization and isolated chunks oflanguage, which are mechanistic.

206 Ahmad Nazari



Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

6/9

To further demonstrate that both the broader and narrower views ofcommunicative competence are lurking in the teachers conceptions, theanalysis of another part from the interviews with the teachers might befruitful:

Q: What methods do you apply to teach English? Why do you usethose methods?

T1: To teachgrammar, I use theinductive approachbecause,according tomy experience, the students spontaneously discover the structure asits more enjoyable for students to induce the structural rule bythemselves.

If we accept that language isa means of communication, teachingand learning language should be in line with that view. If we separatelanguage from communication, language will lose its real nature. Tome, language is asystem of communication, and I believe if thelearners cantuse practicallywhat they learn, their learning will benonsense.

T2: To avoid outmoded techniques and methods, I try to combine thetechniques of the audio-lingual and direct method to enhancestudents fluency. Actually, I tryto be eclectic in teaching thedifferentsections of the books. I should also say that eclecticism hasnt beensuccessful in teaching language structures in my classes, and thatswhy I apply certain traditional techniques to teach structures.

T3: I try to employ from traditional and more modern methods thosetechniques which seem suitable to my classes. If language learninghappens, well actually reach different objectives. In fact, my

experience shows if studentslearn communicationin the L2, theycan also cope with other aspects of language learning such as dealingwith structures, answering language tests, andcomprehendingwritten materials.

Once more, theunderlined phrases in the abovetranscripts such as toteachgrammar, discover the structure, and to induce the structural rule mightbe labelled as the limited views of communicative competence whereas thehighlighted phrases like a means of communication, communication,and a system of communication could be labelled as the broader viewsof communicative competence.

What happens inpractice

In the classes I observed, a number of activities were recurrent. Theseare highlighted in the following extracts from my notes made at the timeof the observations.

the teacherrepeatedthe example at the top of the exercise together withthe students. Then, he, in English, asked a volunteer to recite thestructurementioned in the last session.

On the board the teacher, in English, wrote: She bought a book, and, inEnglish, he asked what the syntactic function of each word was in that

sentence.




Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

7/9

He wrote on the board: I like swimming, and he performed somerepetition drillswith the students on this new structure.

He carried out somesubstitution drillstogether with the students onthe structure of gerunds. Then, in English,he said, Gerunds can beused as the object of the sentence as well.

The teacher, in Farsi,re-explained the relations of English verbs, and on the

board, in Farsi, he wrote:V+masdare ba to (V+ infinitive with to)

V+masdare bedoone to (V+ infinitive without to)

V+ esme masdar (V+ gerund)

V+that+yek ebarate kamel (V+that+a complete phrase)

He alsoexemplified in English each of the above structures orally.

The classroom observation data reveal that though some of the teachers

spoke in the L2 for teaching and communication, they spent most of theclass time on sentence-level activities, structural exercises, decontextualizedactivities, and activities which demanded that the learners memorizesyntactic structures and vocabulary items.

Discussion The analysis of the first transcript, i.e. the teachers definitions ofcommunicative competence, seems to suggest that the teachersperception is indistinct in that they appear to move,in definingthat concept,between the broader and narrower meanings of communicativecompetence. In other words, my interpretation of the interviews on themeaning of communicative competence is that the teachers seem to beaware of both broad and narrow meanings of that concept but they do notseem to make a distinction between the two.

Similarly, an interpretation of the analysis of the second transcript, i.e. theinterviews on in-class activities, might be that the teachers seem aware ofthebroader andnarrower meanings but do notseem to distinguish betweenthe two. Accordingly, some of the activities the teachers maintain theyassign to their pupils can be said to be affected by their narrower views ofcommunicative competence and some by the broader ones.

Likewise, the analysis of the third transcript, i.e. the interviews on the

method of teaching, seems to suggest that though both the narrow andbroad conceptions of the term are high in the teachers heads, theirperception of the concept is indistinct, and they do not seem to differentiatebetween the narrower and broader meanings of communicativecompetence.

The activities observed recurrently in the classes lean towards the narrowerconcepts of communicative competence (note the activities in bold in theobservation extracts) as socio-cultural practices are not embedded in them.According to Borg (2003), there is a complex relationship between teachersperceptions and practices in the sense that not only do they informand affect each other, but they are also influenced by factors includinginstitutional ones (ibid.: 91). Though I do not deny the impact of

208 Ahmad Nazari



Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

8/9

institutional constraints (for example, limited class time, big class size,prescribed syllabus) which might cause the teachers to feel morecomfortable with applying a narrower view to their teaching activities,I contend another reason for implementing the narrower concepts ofcommunicative competence in the classes could also be explained bysuggesting that the teachers seem to have a general indistinct view of thenotion of communicative competence and do not distinguish between its

two meanings. In other words, it can be said that the teachers practicesare, to some extent, based on a general indistinct view of the conceptcommunicative competence. Given the teachers interviews (they seem tohave a general indistinct view anddo not differentiate between the narrowerand broader meanings of communicative competence) and the way theyperformed in the observed classrooms, they do not seem to be aware thatthey tend towards the narrower definitions in their teaching and learningactivities. Accordingly, I hypothesize that were the teachers aware of thedistinction between the two concepts, they would be likely to see that theyarenot tendingtowards a broader concept in their classes; as a consequence,

they might be better prepared to implement the notion of communicativecompetence more fully in theirE FLclasses than was the case in whatI observed.

As was argued earlier, sticking to the narrower views of communicativecompetence establishes high school E FLclasses which are void of socio-cultural practices of the L2. It goes without saying that real communicationentails linguistic and socio-cultural practices of language. In other words,operationalizing the broader concept of communicative competence in theEFL classes is essential. A contribution to meeting this end, I contend, is toraise high schoolE FLteachers awareness of the distinction between the

narrower and broader views of communicative competence.

In addition, as far as research on the English language teachers perceptionsand practices is concerned, Borg (op. cit.), reviewing a wide range ofliterature, shows that much research has been carried out on native Englishteachers at private and higher education institutions. He concludes thatthere is a need for research on teachers perceptions and practices in stateschools, taught by non-native teachers, and where syllabuses are to variousdegrees prescribed (ibid.: 98). Borg continues, hardly any of the settingsstudied in research I have reviewed here reflect these characteristics (ibid.:98). The present research and discussion then could also be considered as

an attempt to contribute modestly to filling this gap in the literature as thisresearch has been carried out on the English language teachers perceptionsand practices in a state high school, taught by Iranian teachers, and wherethe syllabus is prescribed.

Summary andconclusion

This study concisely reviewed Chomskys and Hymes notions ofcompetence and made a relationship between these and Dubinselaborationon the meaningsof communicative competence. It was assertedthat, according to Dubin, the narrow, autonomous meaning ofcommunicative competence was actually revisiting Chomskys linguistic

competence as both ignored the socio-cultural practices of language. Thepresent study, through interviews with theE FL teachers in an Iranian highschool, showed that some high school EFL teachers have an indistinct view




Downloadedfrom

7/25/2019 ELT J-2007-Nazari-202-10

9/9

about the concept of communicative competence and do not seem todistinguish between the broader and narrower meanings of the concept.Observing theE FLclasses taught by the interviewed teachers, I also foundthat though the teachers definitions of communicative competence isa combination of broader and narrower views, in practice their in-classactivities tend towards the narrower concept. One of the reasons for thistendency could be certain institutional constraints, thereby causing the

teachers to feel more comfortable with implementing a narrower view.Another reason, I suggested, could be the teachers lack of distinctionbetween the two concepts of communicative competence.

As this is a case study and not intended to make any generalizations,interviews with other high schoolE FLteachers in other contexts mightprovide us with similar or different data and similar or differentinterpretations about their perception of communicative competence. Italso goes without saying that the research question of the present papercould relate to all EFL teachers. In other words, EFL teachers who are nativeEnglish speakers could also be the participants of further studies. In

addition to this avenue for further research, testing the hypothesisgenerated through this study could be another issue worth exploring, i.e.researching the probable effects of raising high schoolE FLteachersawareness of the distinction between the narrower and broader concepts ofcommunicative competence on their teaching activities.

Revised version received April 2005

References

Borg, S.2003. Teacher cognition in languageteaching: a review of research on what language

teachers think, know, believe, and do.LanguageTeaching36: 81109.Chomsky, N.1965.Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.Cambridge, MA:M ITPress.Cohen, L., L. Manion,andK. Morrison.2000.Research Methods in Education (fifth edition). Londonand New York: Routledge.Dubin, F.1989. Situating literacy within traditionsof communicative competence.Applied Linguistics10/2: 17181.

Holliday, A., M. Hyde,andJ. Kullman.2004.Inter-cultural Communication. London and New York:Routledge.Hymes,D.H. 1971. On communicative competencein J. B. Pride and J. Holmes (eds.).Sociolinguistics.London: Penguin Books Inc.McDonough, S. 2002. Applied Linguistics in LanguageEducation. London: Arnold.Mitchell, J. C.2000. Case and situation analysis inR. Gomm, M. Hammersley, andP. Foster(eds.). CaseStudy Method. London: Sage Publications.

Richards, J. C.andC. Lockhart.1996.ReflectiveTeaching in Second Language Classrooms. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Roberts, C., M. Byram, A. Barro, S. Jordan,andB.Street.2001.Language Learners as Ethnographers.Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Schmitt, N. and M. Celce-Murcia. 2002. An overviewof applied linguistics in N. Schmitt (ed.).AnIntroduction to Applied Linguistics. London: Arnold.Stake, R. E. 2000. Case studies in N. K. Denzin andY. S. Lincoln (eds.).Handbook of Qualitative Research(second edition). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Tsui, A. B. M.2003.Understanding Expertise inTeaching: Case Studies ofE SL Teachers. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

The author

Ahmad Nazarihas a PhD in Applied Linguistics. Hehas taught at the University of Hertfordshire and theUniversity of Sunderland in the UK. He is currentlya senior lecturer and the MA TESOLProgrammeleader at the School of Education in the University ofSunderland where he teaches Theories of L2learning, Language and power, and Researchmethods to MA TESOLstudents. His key area ofinterest is processes of L2 learning and teaching.Email: [email protected]

210 Ahmad Nazari



Downloadedfrom

elt j-2007-nazari-202-10

Documents