Communicative Competence in English - Dr. R. Ramesh (essential reading txt) 📗

universities. It also made a point that language instruction should focus on skills rather than literature.

First English language Teaching Institute in India was established at Allahabad in 1954 with collaboration of the British Council and a Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages was established at Hyderabad in 1958. These institutions are established for teacher training, syllabus revision and revision of teaching methods and materials for improving the standard of English. Ramamurthy Commission suggested that three national level institutions such as Kendriya Hindi Sansthan (KHS), the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) and Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL) should be given the responsibility of the development of Hindi, English and other Indian languages with the consultation of Central Board of Secondary Education and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). It also made some specific recommendations about the steps to be taken to effect the smooth change from English to other regional languages. That involves “production of University level books in Indian languages and options to be given to students for taken examination at all levels in the regional language media.” (Krishnaswamy and Sriraman 68).


In 1987, Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) was formed by University Grants Commission. This CDC submitted their report in 1989. It recommended a more learner centered and enquiry oriented teaching methods in which, “the learner should engage himself in creative and divergent thinking, problem solving, self learning and to explore new avenues of communication, productive work as well as innovations through such methods as simulation, games, project work and the like” (Krishnaswamy and Sriraman 69) should be included in the curriculum.

CDC’S report on “A Note on New Curriculum” says that, the new undergraduate curriculum comprises a general English course and a special English course. To cater to the heterogeneous tertiary level student population (the range of linguistic competence in extremely varied, since students from both English medium and regional medium schools come together at this level) the General English course is conceived of as comprising of different units and modules suited to the different levels of learners. The patterning of the course is such that student depending on their linguistic competence at the time of admission, would not only begin their general English programme at different levels, but also reach different levels at the time of graduation. (Krishnaswamy and Sriraman 70)

The National Knowledge Commission appointed by government of India in 2006 recommended that English should be introduced from class I along with the first language with greater emphasis on usage of language rather than rules and grammar. It views that, people recognize that the English language is the critical determinant of access to and opportunities for a better life. Available information suggests that middle income or lower income household spend a large proportion of their modest income on sending their children to relatively expensive English medium schools. But there are a very large number of people who simply do not have the resource for this purpose. The out come is exclusion. …There is an irony in this situation. English has been a part of our education system for more than a century, yet English is beyond the reach of most of our young people, which make for highly unequal access. Indeed, even now, no more than one percentage of our people uses it as a second language, let alone first language. (Pitroda and Singh)

They requested the Prime Minister to formulate a National Development Council for implementing teaching of English language from first standard onwards, in addition to regional language. They felt that this step will ensure that at the end of twelve years of schooling, every student will be proficient in at least two languages.

Today it is difficult to think of success in any career without adequate proficiency in English language communication skills. Though our government has permitted the use of Indian languages in many national recruitment and admission tests, English is accepted as the common medium of examination which has a basic qualification of Higher Secondary. It is felt that good professional education and growth in careers like engineering, medicine, accountancy, business, journalism, law, mass media, politics, IT, etc. may not be possible without good English. In the words of Jayakumar, “gone are the days of Angrezi Hatao’ and the new slogan is ‘Angrezi Avo’ ” (34). In his view it would be right if we say that “ the teaching and learning of English has a state in shaping the future of India and the English teachers of India have a major role to play in it” (34).

Though English Language Teaching had a long background of nearly four centuries, it is still became a nightmare for educationally backward learners, especially in villages and rural areas. Now English has become “…an international commodity like oil and microchip and more than a quarter of the world’s people use English; the world has become a global village. English has become necessary for the mobility of social and economic success in the world today” (Krishnaswamy and Sriraman 25). This condition paved the way for the bubbling of spoken English institutions and courses almost every part of our country. Now it is flourishing businesses which provide regular and correspondence course with cassettes, CDs and books. Yet it is not sure that whether they achieve their goals fully or partially.

Some reasons for the pathetic condition of English in India lies in our defective methods of teaching, lack of specific aims in teaching English, importance given to literature than language usage in the curriculum, inadequate materials and lack of trained instructor. This made our educators think over and took necessary steps to reform our educational policies.

V. Scope of the Research Topic
The present research studies the communicative ability of non- major Post Graduate students in the Departments of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.

Tirunelveli is the sixth largest city in Tamil Nadu and very oldest city with a history that dates back to B.C.1000. Many archaeological excavations have been carried out since 1840s to till date. This city is famous for architectural works in stones and woods in temples which were built at the time of Pandyas and Cholas. Economy of this district is chiefly agrarian in nature. This involves cultivation of ragi, paddy, pulses, groundnut, gingerly, coconut, chilly, indigo and cotton. This district is gifted with mineral resources like limestone, sulphides and ilmenite – granite sands. Some industries in this city include cement factories, cotton textile mills, spinning and weaving mills, beedi companies, steel products etc.,

Manaonmaniam Sundaranar University and Anna University which are situated in this district fulfils the higher education needs of learners. Educational institutions in this city include, three Medical Colleges, 21 Arts and Science Colleges, 12 Engineering Colleges, one Law College, 148 Higher Secondary Schools, 6 Teacher Training Institutes, 508 Middle Schools, 1521 Primary Schools and 201 Pre-kindergarten Schools. Number of student outcome per year in this city include 18000 engineering graduates, 3000 post graduate in engineering and 27000 under graduates from arts and science college.

Students from Thoothukudi, Vidrudu Nagar, Nagercoil and Kerala come here for their higher education. Learners in these educational institutions have multi-cultural and multi-lingual back ground. These learners are in search of jobs in Tamil Nadu, or in other states or even abroad. So they need to have excellent communication skills to compete with global job market. Most of these students are coming from semi-urban and rural areas with their schooling in mother tongue. These learners have sound subject knowledge but they lack good communication skills in English language. This study tries to focus on this aspect of student’s inefficiency in communicative English and analyze the need to introduce communicative English for these learners.

VI. Theoretical Background of Communicative English When we acquire a language, we do not only learn how to compose and comprehend correct sentences as isolated linguistic units of random occurrence; we also learn how to use sentences appropriately to achieve a communicative purpose. (Hubbard, etal. 160)

There are a number of means of communication which help for the effective transaction of meaning. Human beings use language as a tool of communication for centuries because it enabled them to regulate their social behaviour .Communication is the ultimate aim of any language and speech is the prototypal form of communication.

Frequent studies conducted by linguists and theorists helped for the evolution of many approaches in language teaching and learning. An approach refers to theories about the nature of language which serve as a source of practice and principles in language teaching. There are different language approaches which came under three theoretical views, such as structural view, functional view and interactional view. Structural view focuses on language structure and structurally related elements for the coding of meaning. Main target of language learning is the mastery of language elements such as phonological units, grammatical operations and lexical items. Functional view treats language as a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning. It focuses on the semantic and communicative dimension than grammatical characteristics. Communicative movement in language evolved from this view. Interactional view seen language as a vehicle and a tool for the creation and maintenance of social relations.

Communicative approach evolved from the British language teaching tradition of late 1960s. It has faced severe criticism from linguists. But some central tenets of this approach were accepted. Now communicative principles in language teaching became the central goal of language teachers. International professional co-operation in business and trade increased the popularity of communicative language teaching.

Notional Syllabuses (1972) published by British linguist D.A Wilkins created a great impact on the different approaches in language teaching and learning. He proposed functional and notional syllabus based on communicative criteria. Many theorists conducted research in this field by applying socio – linguistic principles. The concept of ‘communicative competence’ put forth by Del Hymes, a socio linguist, was another notable development in this area. Canale further studied about this aspect and brings out four components of communication. They are grammatical, socio linguistic, discourse and strategic competence.

McDonald and Christopher proposed some implications Communicative Approach for teaching as,

1. Communicative implies ‘semantic’, a concern with the meaning potential of language. 2. There is a complex relationship between language form and language function. 3. Form and function operate as part of wider network of factors. 4. Appropriacy of language use has to be considered alongside accuracy. This has implications for attitudes of errors. 5. ‘Communicative’ is relevant to all four language skills. 6. The concept of communication takes us beyond the level of the sentence. 7. ‘Communicative’ can refer both to the properties of language and to ‘behaviour’. (21)

Communicative language learning emphasizes interactive language learning rather than mere memorization of rules of grammar, semantics, phonology or lexical items. It gives much prominence to student. He has central role in the learning process. The primary goal of teaching is to develop the ability of communication. Here language learning is contextualized and utmost importance is given to meaning. This approach is generally viewed as an active learning approach and active learning strategy.

Communicative language teaching provides much exposure to practice the target language. Here communicative development is predicated and it has slow but steady progress. Principal goal of communicative language training is to develop ‘communicative competence’. This is a broad term which includes grammatical (syntactical) competence, semantic (lexical items) competence, phonological competence, strategic competence (social appropriateness) and fluency.

VII. Relevance of the study
National Knowledge Commission of 2006 stressed the significance of language as a means of communication, medium of instruction as well as a determinant as access. From their study, they came to the conclusion that, an understanding of and a command over English language is perhaps the most important determinant of access to higher education, employment possibilities and social opportunities. School leavers who