1 UT International Students’ Perception of their Communicative Competence

2 Ilona Schmidt – Linguistic & Strategic Frank Chen – Discourse Cynthia Ward – Sociolinguistic

3 Purpose of the Study: Identify international college-age students’ perception of their communicative competence Investigate problems in communicative tasks in and out of classroom

4 What is Communicative Competence? History & Definitions Chomsky’s (1965) competence and performance model Dell Hymes (1972) Canale and Swain (1980), Canale (1983)

5 Characteristics of CC (Savignon, 1983) - Dynamic -Context specific -Relative to the communicating partners involved -Described as a presumed underlying ability

6 Continued…. Major components of CC (Canale and Swain,1980) Grammatical (Linguistic) Socio- linguistic Discourse Strategic

7 Savignon’s (1983) definition Culture as communication Relationship of social setting to linguistic expression Distinction of language usage and language use Language form and function.

8 Communicative competence: Savignon’s diagram

9 Methodology Participants Procedure Use of questionnaire and interview Data analysis

10 SubjectsNationalityUnder G/GradLength of Res.Major 1KoreaGrad1 yr. 3 mos.Education 2ChinaGrad3 mos.Engineering 3ChinaUnder Grad.5 mos.Agri. Business 4ChinaGrad1 yr. 6 mos.Elec. Eng. 5TaiwanGrad1 Yr.Business 6ChinaUndergrad4 yrs.Finance 7MalaysiaUndergrad2 yrs.Ecol/Bio 8TaiwanUndergrad1 Yr.Economics 9ChinaGrad3 mos.Biology 10GermanUnderGrad9 mos.Chem. Eng. 11ColumbiaGrad2yrs.Indus. Eng. 12TaiwanGrad3 yrs.EE Subject demographics:

11 Students’ own perceptions of talking in and out of class: Questions Much Not much 1. participated in-class discussions last week participated in group work last week spoke English outside the classroom actively sought out opportunities to speak 3 9

12 Own perception of ability to understand people and to talk Questions In Class Out of class BothNeither 1. What is easier for you: to understand people’s ideas Do you feel more comfortable when you are talking:

13 Own perception of being understood Question WellNot well DependsI don’t know 4. How well do you think people understand you?

14 Linguistic Competence/grammatical competence: Definition by Noam Chomsky (1965) Tacit knowledge of language Mastery of the generative grammar of the language Knowledge of the lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonological features

15 Questions YesNoSome- times 1.a Did you study grammar before you came to the US? 12 1.b Do you study grammar now in the US?” Do you have to think whether your sentences are grammatically correct before you speak? Do you monitor your sentences whether they are grammatically correct while you are speaking? Do you realize when you or others make mistakes in grammar/ word usage? 8 1 3

16 Sociolinguistic Competence: Appropriate uses of and the ability to interpret: Social meanings Body language Nuances in communication situation Social distance

17 Sociolinguistic Competence: Knowing when to talk, to listen, and to be quiet. Ability to read, interpret and understand the metalinguistic components involved.

18 Questions relating to Socio-linguistic Competence: Did you learn about American culture in your home country? Yes –through various forms of media, foreign friends, and school.

19 Has your perception of American people and culture changed since you arrived in the US? Yes & No: through interaction with native speakers

20 Discourse Competence: Competence that combines grammatical forms and meanings to achieve unified text in different genres.

21 Questions relating to discourse competency: Do you modify your English when you are speaking in different situations to different people? Table 5. Modification of language in different situations Yes No 12 0

22 When you are speaking do you pay attention to listener’s comprehension signals? Listeners’ comprehension signals Yes No 12 0

23 Do you monitor your speaking to ensure your conversation is related to the topic? Monitor Yes No 10 2

24 Please think of a situation when you had/might have difficulty expressing your ideas. What, in your opinion, caused the difficulty?

25 S1 Concept in biology or math S2 I am not comfortable with topics I never really touched. S3 Myself because of lacking enough vocabulary S4 Not knowing the exact word S5 My accent S6 No knowing the exact word S7 The football game, rules S8 My feelings, when I don’t understand what the teacher says. S9 Class discussions S10 Unfamiliar things, such as newly learned knowledge or technical jargons S11 Unfamiliar topics S12 Class discussions, lack of vocabulary

26 When subjects are not familiar with topic or contexts, they feel difficulty expressing their ideas due to a lack of vocabulary and background knowledge.

27 Strategic Competence  The effective use of coping strategies to sustain or enhance communication.  The ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse rules limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, inattention.

28  Closely related to the other three areas of communicative competence.  Present at all levels of proficiency.  Importance diminishes as the other competencies increase with an overall increase in communicative competence. Continued…

29 Questions relating to strategic competence: Think of an event when you wanted to describe something or you wanted to express an idea and you did not know the word for it. What did you do to solve this problem?

30 Strategy use in order of preference1st2nd3rd4th5thTotal Paraphrase Ask for help Draw Describe or give definition2 1 3 Message reduction33 Use another word 213 Use Body Language112 Use dictionary11 Relate to other words from L1 or international words 11

31 2. Think of a situation when you did not understand someone or someone did not understand you in class. What did you do in this situation?

32 Strategy use in order of preference 1st2nd3rd4thTotal Ask for repetition4217 Pretend3115 Explain again213 Repeat213 Give up112 Ask a classmate112 Use other words11 Use body language11 Use dictionary11 Tell them I do not understand11 Listen carefully11 Not much I can do11

33 3. Think of a situation outside the classroom when you did not understand a native speaker (in the store, at the bank, etc). What did you do?

34 Strategy use outside the classroom in order of preference 1st2nd3rdTotal Ask for repetition5117 Paraphrase213 Point at it, use body language112 Tell them I do not understand11 Pretend11 Ask for slowing down11 Dictionary use11 Tell them I am not a native speaker11 No answer11

35 4. Do you translate sentences into English before you start speaking to someone? Do you translate sentences into your native language when people are talking to you?

36 Table 12. Translation NoYes Some times Before presentations a. Translating into English b. Translating into L1 11 1

37 Summary of the most frequently used strategies: In resource deficit: Direct strategies Use another word Circumlocution( describing a word, giving definition) Interactional strategies Ask for help

38 In academic setting: Interactional strategies Ask for clarification Ask for repetition Ask for confirmation Indirect strategies Pretending understanding

39 Outside the classroom: Interactional strategies Ask for repetition Expressing nonunderstanding Translation Non desirable At the beginning necessary Unconscious

40 Observations and Conclusions based upon Findings: Most students feel that knowing more about the culture would help their English skills. Students are comfortable speaking in both academic and social settings when they are familiar with the topics.

41 Students use strategies extensively but they are not aware of a great variety. Students value fluency and speech correctness but will stress one over the other depending on the situation. Students feel more competent in BICS than CALP. Continued…

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