A study of senior university students' communicative competence

Other Title(s)

دراسة القدرة التوصيلية لطلبة المرحلة الرابعة في الجامعة

Dissertant

Sadiq, Haydar Muhammad

Thesis advisor

al-Azzawi, Muhammad Basil Qasim

Comitee Members

Ali, Wuria Izz al-Din
Jawad, Hoshang Faruq
Fattah, Muhammad Maruf

University

Salahaddin University-Hawler

Faculty

College of Languages

University Country

Iraq

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2010

English Abstract

The term Communicative competence has changed a lot of the way language is seen or taught.

The term itself has undergone many modifications since it was first publicly discussed by Dell Hymes in 1966.

The term has been and still is most influential in the area of Second Language Acquisition and English as a Foreign Language. This thesis, a study of senior university students’ communicative competence, explores the term, and in the light of a general framework of communicative competence, the researcher studies some aspects of the term by having senior students answer a questionnaire.

The questionnaire contains situations that require verbal and non-verbal communicative aspects of the language.

It is felt that students‘ communicative competence needs more development and maturation.

In this study it is suggested that senior university students be exposed and trained in the language‘s sociocultural, pragmatic, and communicative aspects of English. The thesis is divided into six chapters.

Chapter one is an introduction to the thesis.

The hypothesis, the purpose, the significance, and the method are explained. Chapter two is a review of the emergence of communicative competence, the historical development and areas of communicative competence are elaborated on. Chapter three explores and reviews the models of Communicative Competence in second or foreign language pedagogy.

The principles of communicative language teaching are outlined.

Chapter four dwells on some factors that affect language use and language learning.

Among many factors, the researcher sheds light specifically on the sociocultural and sociolinguistic aspects.

There will be reference to some cultural differences between Americans and Kurds, differences in cultural values, assumptions and communicative or conversational style of Kurds and Americans. Chapter five focuses on pragmatic competence as a crucial component of communicative competence.

References are made to language transfer, interlanguage pragmatics, and speech acts.

These aspects are related to the study of senior students‘communicative competence.

The subjects were ten Americans and forty senior college students from the department of English language.

The study analyzes speech acts which embodies verbal and non-verbal communicative aspects of language.

Chapter six, the last chapter, draws some the conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions for further studies.

A bibliography of books and sources on the consulted books follows, and abstracts in Kurdish and Arabic come at the end. According to the results of the study, Kurdish senior students of English have insufficient communicative competence to interact with native speakers of American English.

Also, the language used by the students has many interlanguage features.

Main Subjects

Languages & Comparative Literature

Topics

• Education
• Higher education
• Learning
• English language

No. of Pages

127

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-309874