Communicative Language Practice

Question 1

What is communicative competence?

Answer 1

Savignon (1998) contends that communicative competence consists of four underlying competences: 1) Grammatical competence-knowledge of the structures and forms of language. 2) Discourse competence-knowledge of the rules of cohesion and coherence across sentences and utterences. 3) Sociolinguistic competence-knowledge of the rules of interaction. 4)Strategic competence- knowing how to make the most of the language you have.

Question 2

What is classroom communication as information exchange?

Answer 2

Information exchange or information based tasks allow for communication within the context of the language classroom; these activities require learners to obtain information from each other that is put to use in some way.

Question 3

How do you construct an information-exchange task?

Answer 3

Identity topic/subtopic—design appropriate immediate purpose—-identify information sources

Question 4

What is the most important element of CLT?

Answer 4

Negotiation of meaning is seen as one of the most important elements of CLT; information-exchange activities meet this criteria.