Task 14 -- Communicative approach

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Date Posted: 15:15:10 08/06/03 Wed
Author: jara
Subject: Task 14

How we can test communicative competence.
To test communicative competence requires attention from the teacher. In fact, testing communicative competence needs four topics to be taken into account. The first one is that the emphasis should be placed on appropriateness rather than on ability to form grammatically correct sentences. Actually, the test should be built in order to make the testees comfortable to shape the language they are using according to the situation. This way of making language convenient to the situation has to do with the second topic to be taken into account, the context. In fact, a specific context narrows the types of language that could be used, provoking in the testees the need to use a specific language. Supposing that a test does not have a specific context, the testees would be able to apply any language, for they would not recognise the appropriate language to be used.
The third point is that the teachers should be aware that the test should be about the language and its uses, but not about knowledge. As a matter of fact, the teachers should have in mind that the test�s purpose is not about general knowledge, but communicative competence concerning language. So, the testees would fail, for instance, in a test that just charges about language knowledge instead of language uses. The last point is that, while evaluating testees, the teacher should take into account that real life situations do not have specific answers. The multiplicity of possible answers is proportional to the multiplicity of different testees� experiences. Therefore the teacher should be aware about the diversity of possible thoughts, and check if the answer is possibly used in the given context.
On example of a communicative competence test would be the following role playing game:
Student A plays an employee who reports to his/her boss the great ammount of good sells he/she has made during the last month. So his/ her argument follows the purpose of an extra salary.

Student B plays the boss, who argues about the company�s financial situation and that every employee must be dedicated as the student A is. The boss tries to refuse the extra salary.
The student which finally convince the other, is the one who �wins� the game.
In conclusion it is possible to say that a communicative competence test requires attention from the teacher in order to employ the test according to the students needs, and evaluate them according to the pertinence of the dialogues, but not to the language knowledge they have.

References:
http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kitao-Testing.html

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Replies:

Re: Task 14 -- Vera, 08:11:15 08/07/03 Thu