7 - The Quest for Communicative Competence in Foreign Language Learning in English Schools, 1968–2010

Summary

Abstract

This chapter looks to identify the role of communicative competence as an objective for language teaching through the different periods and methodologies which have marked language learning in England over the author's thirty-five years as a middle school language teacher and researcher. As an autobiographical account it therefore focuses on Cuban's second level in the multi-layered curriculum: the teacher ‘deciding what to teach and how to present it’. Cuban's curriculum model is particularly relevant to this paper's exploration of how the intended curriculum, the official framework within which modern foreign languages are taught, is subject to a range of different influences. The development of intensive language programmes to supplement classroom language learning demonstrates how teachers can respond to an identified problem, here the difficulty of developing productive language skills that are essential for communicative competence.

Keywords: Communicative competence; productive language skills; audio-visual teaching; intensive language work; student exchange; national curriculum; ‘vocabulary dormancy’

Communicative Competence as Key Objective for and Appropriate Outcome of Language Learning

This chapter on valorizing practice explores the period of language learning in English schools from 1968–2010 and the different methodologies introduced over this time with which the author, as teacher and researcher, has been personally involved. The central theme is communicative competence, the ability to communicate in a foreign language, emphasizing the role of spoken language and the importance attached to productive language skills.

For much of this period, communicative competence is identified as an objective for language learning, an appropriate outcome: the ability to use the language practically. The chapter will trace this theme through the different periods of language learning, describing in turn the three key periods which marked language learning in England over the period starting with the ‘revolution’ of the pioneering audio-visual period of the 1960s, introducing language learning for younger pupils. This is followed by what is described as a consolidation period in the 1980s and finally the monitoring phase associated with the introduction of the National Curriculum in England in the 1990s. This is a way of establishing the importance given to spoken language from its central role in audio-visual language learning, to a less prominent position during the monitoring phase of the National Curriculum.