Hagit Arieli-Chai
Hebrew Language Coordinator at Louchheim School of Jewish Studies at USC
Hebrew Union College/ University of Southern California
[email protected]
Developing Communicative Abilities is Beyond the Linguistic Tasks
Language is a mean of communication through which we deliver ideas, feelings, and thoughts. It has been the shared experiences among all human beings that language is acquired in a proper environment or situations.
Knowing a language is more than understanding language skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Widdowson pointed out, "Someone knowing a language knows more than how to understand, speak, read and write sentences. He also knows how sentences are used to communicative effect".
When we acquire language, we learn how to compose with comprehension correct sentences to achieve communicative purpose. Thus the learning of language requires the ability to create correct sentences that can generate proper replies to questions, description etc.
Spoken language and written language are two forms of language. In the language phonological system clarity and distinctiveness are measured. In the language graph logical system clarity and legibility of writing are measured. The sentence "He speaks correctly" indicates the grammatical system of the language as well as the accepted rule of sentence formation. Therefore, speaking involves the manifestation of the phonological system and the grammatical system of the language.
Speaking as a matter of use becomes reciprocal exchange and it functions as a receptive and productive participation. The skill of speaking is interconnected with the aural medium.
Communicative Language abilities involve acquiring ability to compose correct sentences that are appropriate for specific contexts. For different level of communication there will be various tasks that require different cognitive demands.
The linguistic skills and communicative abilities are used interchangeably. Speaking, hearing, composing, and comprehending are linguistic skills. These skills are attributed to the medium; however, the skills that are defined to the manners and modes are communicative abilities. Widdowson refers to communicative abilities as "embrace linguistic skills but not the reverse". He says that the ultimate goal in language learning is "to acquire communicative competence".
The communicative competence is referred to the ability to function with the language. This approach focuses on meaningful communication not structure. In this approach students are given the opportunity to use the language instead of studying the language (Jin, 2009). Thus fluency and communication is the goal rather then accuracy.
The language learning is composed of talking, corresponding, and psychological activity, which is referred to the ability to say, listen, write and read. In order to develop communicative abilities there is a need to emphasize drills and exercises for the production and reception of sentences. The nature of the communicative abilities is manifesting itself in ways of creating and recreating discourse in various modes. Since language is a social-cultural-geographical phenomenon, it is require an understanding of the relationship between the language and its culture and society.
The various tasks that can promote communicative abilities of speakers at different levels are as follow:
Novice level: making lists, asking and answering simple questions about self, describing one's work or studies, ordering a meal at a restaurant, ordering service, explaining how to sign up for a course.
Intermediate level: analyzing texts (poem, monologue, dialogue, short story, short biography), asking and answering simple questions about my family living and school environment, explaining a minor accident occurred, describing and talking about a typical day.
Advanced level: justifying the awarding of athletic scholarship (instead of merit-based), getting a full cash refund for a purchase when the store's policy does not give cash refund, reserve hotel room, relating an incident for the first week of school, explaining the concept of multiculturalism.
The above tasks might impose cognitive demands or complexity. Therefore, the fulfillment of the tasks can create pressure at conceptualizing and formulation stages of the speech production performance. Robinson (2011) claims that making tasks more cognitively complex will not only have predictable impact on speech production process but also allocation of attention and memory resources to input, and retention of the input.
Communicative abilities are incorporating language beyond the grammar and knowledge on linguistic rules. The variables' that influence language production abilities can be attributed to memory, interest, personal connections, linguistics abilities, individual differences, and task characteristics. Thus, The degree of difficulty learners might experience is depending on their affective and cognitive attributes.
Widdowson, H.G, Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978
Task complexity, theory of mind, an intentional reasoning: Effect on L2 speech production, interaction, uptake and perceptions of task difficulty. Peter Robinson
International Review of Applied Linguistics, 2014. Volume 45, Issue 3
