competent

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InternationalRefereedRearchJournal■■Vol.–V,Issue–4,Oct.2014[182]

COMMUNICATIVECOMPETENCEANDLANGUAGE

LEARNINGSTYLESOFPROSPECTIVETEACHERS

OFENGLISH

,Ph.D.

AssociateProfessorIV,

DepartmentofSecondaryEducation

CollegeofTeacherEducation,

IsabelaStateUniversity,Cabagan,Isabela,Philippines

ABSTRACT

Thispaperisaimedatexploringthepossiblerelationshipbetweenthelevelof

communicativecompetenceandlanguagelearningstylesofprospectiveteachersof

softhestudyonoverallcompetenceshowtestshowthattheprospective

teachersofEnglisharefairlycompetentursofEnglishwithatotalmeanof23.97with

softheirlanguagelearningstyles,resultsofthestudy

alsoshowthattheirstyleoforientationbelongedtonsoryorientationscalewitha

frequencyof39or69%.Correlationanalysis,however,showstheinsignificant

relationshipbetweenthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceandlanguagelearningstyles

dicatesthatthelanguagelearningstylehasno

bearingonthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceofprospectiveteachersofEnglish.

Therefore,itisrecommendedthatexperiencesinactualschoolenvironmentsfor

prospectiveteachersofEnglishshouldalsobeenhancedinadditiontoariesofcours

thatwilldeveloplanguagelearningstyleandcommunicativecompetenceofprospective

teachersofEnglish.

Keywords:Communicativecompetence,languagelearningstyle,prospectiveteachersof

English,languageperformance.

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InternationalRefereedRearchJournal■■Vol.–V,Issue–4,Oct.2014[183]

INTRODUCTION:

Oneofthemostpopularwordsinthe20thcenturyis“communication”.Thishasagreatinfluencein

thelanguageteachingworldnotonlybecauofitshighfrequencyappearanceintherearchworld

butalsobecauofitsntialmeaningthatreprentsthegradualglobalizationinthepastcentury.

SinceHymes,alinguisticanthropologistpropodtheconceptof“communicativecompetence”,

Chomsky’sscopeoflinguistictheoryconfrontedanattackofbreakingChomskyian’

Chomsky,hefocushisattentionontherulesoflanguageforagenerativegrammar.

However,forDellHymes,hisconcernisnotonlyongrammaticalpossibilitiesinalanguage,buton

feasibilityandappropriatenessaswell(Spolsky,1989;Grenfell&Harris1999citedinXin2007).In

likemanner,oncethecommunicativecompetenceapproachembarksontheacademicandpedagogic

world,manymes

(1972),CanaleandSwain(1980)andBachman(1990)arethereprentativeswhohavedevelopedand

extendedthenotionofcommunicativecompetence,whichattemptstoincludeallthedimensions:the

grammatical,thesocialandpsychological(Xin,2007).However,thearenotjustsomedevelopments

inlinguistictheory,butanimpetustoestablishingaconceptoflanguagelearningandteaching.

CanaleandSwain(1980)propodtheirowntheoryofcommunicativecompetencethatminimally

includesfourmaincompetencies:grammatical,sociolinguistic,discourandstrategiccompetence.

Grammaticalcompetenceincludesknowledgeoflexicalitemsandrulesofmorphology,syntax,

ntence,intedoutthatgrammaticalcompetencewouldbe

animportantconcernforanycommunicativeapproachwhogoalsincludeprovidinglearnerswith

knowledgeofhowtodetermineandexpressaccuratelytheliteralmeaningofutterances.

Sociolinguisticcompetenceismadeupoftwotsofrules:sociolinguisticrulesofuandrules

ofdiscour.

Discourcompetencereferstotheinterpretationofindividualmessageelementsintermsoftheir

interconnectednessandofhowmeaningisreprentedinrelationshiptotheentirediscourortext.

Further,theybelievethatknowledgeoftheruleswouldbecrucialininterpretingutterancesforsocial

meaning,particularlywhenthereisaleveloftransparencybetweentheliteralmeaningofanutterance

andthespeaker’y,strategiccompetenceismadeupofverbalandnon-verbal

communicationstrategiesthatmaybecalledintoactiontocompensateforbreakdownsin

communicationduetoperformancevariablesortoinsufficientgrammaticalcompetenceastohowto

helpstudentsacquirecommunicativecompetenceintheclassroom.

Ontheotherhand,learningstyleisinherentandpervasive(Willing,1988)andisablendofcognitive,

affective,andbehavioralelements(EhrmanandOxford,1988).Languagelearningstylesand

strategiesareamongthemainfactorsthathelpdeterminehow-and-howwellourstudentslearna

dlanguageisalanguagestudiedinattingwherethelanguageis

themainvehicleofeverydaycommunicationandwhereabundantinputexistsinthatlanguage.

AccordingtoOxford(1990b),thetermlearningstyleisudtoencompassfouraspectsoftheperson:

cognitive,whicharepreferredorhabitualpatternsofmentalfunctioning;patternsofattitudesand

intereststhataffectwhatanindividualwillpaymostattentiontoinalearningsituation;atendencyto

ucertainlearningsituation;atendencytoeksituationscompatiblewithone’sownlearning

patterns;andatendencytoulearningstrategiesandavoidothers.

Withtheforegoingpremis,thispaperisaimedtoexplorethepossiblerelationshipofthelevelofthe

communicativecompetenceandthelanguagelearningstylesofprospectiveteachersofEnglish.

Specifically,itattemptedtoanswerthefollowingquestions:

thelevelofcommunicativecompetenceofprospectiveteachersofEnglishasmeasured

throughthefollowingvariables?

1.1Linguistic

1.2Discour

1.3Sociolinguistic

1.4Strategic

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InternationalRefereedRearchJournal■■Vol.–V,Issue–4,Oct.2014[184]

ethelanguagelearningstylesofprospectiveteachersofEnglish?

easignificantrelationshipbetweenthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceandlanguage

learningstylesofprospectiveteachersofEnglish?

`

MATERIALSANDMETHODS:

thestudywereanalyzedboth

quantitativelyandqualitativelyusingcorrelationtechnique,multipleregression,percentages,mean

score,average,udyalsomadeuofstandardizedtestsforthelanguage

learningstyle(Oxford,1990b)andthecommunicativecompetence(Danao,1987).

Atotalof56prospectiveteachersofEnglishconsistingof31juniorBachelorofSecondaryEducation

(BSEd)Englishmajorsand25niorBachelorofSecondaryEducation(BSEd)Englishmajorswere

drawnpurposivelyfromtheCollegeofTeacherEducationoftheIsabelaStateUniversityfromthe

clustercampusofCabagan,Echague,andCauayan,Isabela,Philippines.

RESULTSANDDISCUSSION:

AsgleanedinTable1,itisunfortunatetonotethatthreefromthefourcriteriacomponentsof

communicativecompetencerevealedthatprospectiveteachersofEnglisharefairlycompetentursof

ore,saying,softheprentstudy

furthershowedthatintermsofLinguisticCompetence,prospectiveteachersofEnglishobtaineda

fairlylevelcompetencewithameanof30.64withastandarddeviationof7.15followedbyameanof

meprospectiveteachersof

ion3,ontheotherhand,onSociolinguistic

competenceshorly,

prospectile,as

earliermentioned,theoverallperformanceofprospectiveteachersofEnglishoftheIsabelaState

Universityobtainedafairlevelofcompetence.

Table1:LevelofcommunicativecompetenceofprospectiveteachersofEnglish

CriteriaM(SD)Interpretation

sticCompetence30.64(7.15)FairlyCompetent

rCompetence30.43(8.11)Competent

inguisticCompetence25.82(5.44)FairlyCompetent

gicCompetence9.00(1.06)FairlyCompetent

Overall

23.97(5.44)FairlyCompetent

Thisimpliestherefore,thatthequalityoflanguageteachinginstructiontheprospectiveteachers

of,any

attempttosolvetheincompetenceofthepre-rviceinIsabelaStateUniversitymuststartwith

thein-rviceteachers.

Tsofthestudy

showthatintermsofnsorylanguagelearningstyle,thethirdyearstudent-respondentsofEchague

campusobtained9or16.1%whilethethirdyearstudent-respondentsofCabagancampusobtained6

or10.7%.Intermsofcombinationoroverallorientationstyle,thethirdstudent-respondentsof

Echaguemaincampusgot2or3.6%.

Theresultsofthestudyshowsthatthefromamongthelanguagelearningstylesbeingudbythe

prospectiveteachersofEnglish,nsorylanguagelearningstyleobtainedthehighestwithafrequency

of39or69.6%.ThisgoestoshowthatprospectiveteachersofEnglishrememberthingsbetterifthey

gsveryimportantvariablestotheforefrontoflanguagelearningandcancontribute

significantlytotheconstructionofaunifiedtheoryoflanguagelearning(Brown,1994).

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InternationalRefereedRearchJournal■■Vol.–V,Issue–4,Oct.2014[185]

Table2:LanguagelearningstylesofprospectiveteachersofEnglish

LANGUAGE

LEARNING

STYLES

ISABELASTATEUNIVERSITY

COLLEGEOFTEACHEREDUCATION

F%

CabaganEchagueCauayan

3rdYear4thYear3rdYear4thYear3rdYear4thYear

F%F%F%F%F%F%

Sensory610.7610.7916.135.4712.5814.33969.6

Ideas--------11.811.823.6

Overall11.8--11.8--11.8--35.4

Combination11.823.623.647.123.611.81221.4

Total814.3814.31221.5712.51119.71017.956100

Note:F-frequency,%-percentage

Learningacondlanguageissimilarlyviewedbylanguageproponentsasacquiringthelinguistic

andSwain(1980)prentfourdimensions

ofcommunicativecompetence:Linguisticcompetence,discourcompetence,sociolinguistic

competence,andstrategiccompetence(Canale,1983).Thetheoryofcommunicativecompetence

isanissuefordiscussionamongthelanguageteachersintheworld.

Relativetotheresultsofthestudyprentedabove,FattandKasper(1983)intheirstudy

examiningthevitalroleofhighereducationindevelopingcommunicativecompetencein

universitystudents,concludedthatasEnglishistaught,universitygraduatesaresuppodtobe

r,mostofthemsoonfindthemlvescommunicatively

nicativeapproachbadoncommunicative

andlinguisticcriteriaispropodtobringlanguagelearningclortotheneedsoftheindustry.

Table3showsinsignificantrelationshipbetweenthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceand

rtsthatthelanguage

learningstylehasnobearingonthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceofprospectiveteachers

ofEnglish.

onshipbetweenthelevelofcommunicativecompetence

andlanguagelearningstyleofprospectiveteachersofEnglish.

Componentsr-valueInference

Linguistic-.134Insignificant

Discour-.092Insignificant

Sociolinguistic-.099Insignificant

Strategic.072Insignificant

Thenullhypothesisstatingthatthereisnosignificantrelationshipbetweenthelevelof

ultsoftheprent

studycontradictedthefindingsofReid(1987)thatinthelanguageclassroom,learnersrarely

reportusingcooperativebehaviors(behaviorsthatonewouldinfertoreflectacooperativestyle).

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However,thisfindingmightwellberelatedtoinstructionalmethodologiesthatoftenpreclude

cooperationandfostercompetition.

CONCLUSIONSANDRECOMMENDATIONS:

Badonthefindingsofthestudy,thefollowingconclusionsweredrawn:

yleorientationshowsthattheprospectiveteachersbelongedtonsoryorientationscalewith

ntstudysupportedthefindings

ofDelaCruz(2000)thatalmosthalfoftheprospectiveteacherswerensory-visualoriented;

elevelofcommunicativecompetenceofprospectiveteachersofEnglishwasfairwithatotal

meanscoreof23.97andstandarddeviationof5.44

ereisnosignificantdifferencebetweenthelevelofcommunicativecompetenceandlanguage

learningstyleofprospectiveteachersofEnglish.

Thus,sincethelanguagelearningstylehasnobearingonthecommunicativecompetenceof

prospectiveteachersofEnglish,experiencesinactualschoolenvironmentsforprospectiveteachersof

Englishshouldbeenhancedinadditiontoariesofcoursthatwilldeveloptheircommunicative

competenceandlanguagelearningstyle.

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