CONSTRUCTS AND MODELS

Fulcher and Davidson

MODELS, FRAMEWORKS AND CONSTRUCTS Models: abstract theoretical descriptions of the ability to communicate in a second language.

Frameworks: selection of skills and abilities from a model that are relevant to a specific assessment context.

Construct: generative blueprints or plans for a specific test which comprise the components of a model.

SPECIFICATIONS OF MODELS

McNamara argues that all models of language ability have three dimensions

1. Model of knowledge: what it means to know a language.

2. Model of performance: all the factors that influence our ability to communicate.

3. Actual language use: use language in real-world situations.

THREE MODELS OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE1. Canale and Swain`s Model of Communicative Competence

2. Bachman`s Model

3. Celce-Murcia`et al.`s Model

CANALE AND SWAIN`S MODEL

COMPONENTS1. Communicative Competence:

Grammatical competence: knowledge of formal features of language.

Sociolinguistic knowledge: the knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language use and rules of

discourse.

Strategic competence: the knowledge of how to overcome problems when faced with difficulties in

communication.

2. Actual communication:

the demonstration of knowledge in actual language performance

CANALE AND SWAIN`S MODEL AND TESTING

Inadequacy of paper and pencil tests to indicate language proficiency so tests should contain both actual performance tasks as well as knowledge items.

Discrete point tests were seen as useful for some purposes as communicative competence was viewed as knowledge.

Criteria could be developed for the evaluation of language performance at different levels of proficiency.

CANALE`S REVISED MODEL

THE COMPONENTS OF REVISED MODEL

1. Grammatical competence: remain unchanged from the definition provided by Canale and Swain.

2. Sociolinguistic competence: refers to sociocultural rules and is the appropriateness of meaning and form thus incorporating pragmatics. It also incorporates proxemics and non-verbal behavior.

3. Strategic competence: it is expanded in this model to include strategies that “enhance the effectiveness of communication.”

4. Discourse competence: the ability to produce a unified spoken and written text in different genres using cohesion in form and coherence in meaning.

BACHMAN`S MODEL OF COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ABILITY

SPECIFICATIONS

Bachman`s model is different from earlier models in two ways:

1. It clearly distinguishes between what constitutes knowledge and what constitutes a skill(left unclear in Canale`s).

2. It explicitly attempts to characterize the processes by which the various components interact with each other and with the context in which language use occurs.

THE COMPONENTS

1. Language competence: formal knowledge of language

2. Strategic competence: the capacity for implementing the components of language competence in contextualized communicative language use. It is affected by the world knowledge of the language user.

3. Psychophysiological mechanisms: which enable the actual execution of language as a physical phenomenon.

THE COMPONENTS OF THE KNOWLEDGE COMPETENCE

1-PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE

Acceptability of utterances within specific contexts and rules of successful language use. It has two components:

1. Illocutionary competence including:Ideational functionsManipulative functions Heuristic functionsImaginative functions

2. Speech acts.

2- SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

Sensitivity to or control of the conventions of language use that are determined by the features of the specific language use context. It enables us to perform language functions in ways that are appropriate to that context. Relevant components are:

a) Sensitivity to dialect or variety

b) Sensitivity to differences in register,

c) Sensitivity to naturalness

d) Cultural references and figures of speech

COMPONENTS OF THE ABILITY COMPETENCE

It is driven by the strategic competence which is a psycholinguistic model of speech production, made up of three components:

1. assessment component: Identify information needed for realizing a communicative goal in a particular context.Decide which language components we have to achieve the goal.Decide which abilities and knowledge we share with our interlocutor.Evaluate the extent to which communication is successful

2. Planning component:Retrieve information from language competence.Select modality or channelAssemble an utterance.

3. Execution component: Use psychological mechanisms to realize the utterance.

BACHMAN AND PALMER`S 1996 AMENDMENTSThe model was amended by Bachman and Palmer (1996) by:

The introduction of affective(non-cognitive) factors in language use.

Re-labelling knowledge structures as topical knowledge.

Reconceptualizing strategic competence as a set of metacognitive strategies.

CELCE-MURCIA, DORNYEI AND THURRELL`S MODEL OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE.

IMPETUS FOR A NEW MODELThe inadequacy of previous models to generate detailed content specifications for CLT Criticisms of Bachman (1990) and Bachman and Palmer (1996) model as relating only to the context of language testing.Being critical of the type of content specifications that have been developed on an ad hoc basis for syllabus design, because they were not built on a model of communicative competence.Attempt to produce a detailed description of what communicative competence entails in order to use the sub-components as a content base in syllabus design.

COMPONENTS OF CELECE-MURCIA ET. AL.`S MODEL

It has five components as follows:

1. Discourse competence: remains a separate component as defined by Canale 1983 and reunites cohesion and coheernce.

2. Actional competence: knowledge required to understand communicative intent by performing and interpreting speech acts and speech sets.

3. Sociocultural competence: knowledge related to the context that impacts upon what is said and how it is said. Sociolinguistic competence is relabelled sociocultural to better distinguish it from actional competence.

4. Linguistic competence: grammatical competence

5. Strategic competence: (unchanged) a set of skills for overcoming communication problems or deficiencies in other competences.

INTERACTIONAL COMPETENCE

The notion of interactional competence minimally subsumes the following parts of the model: The conversational structure component of discourse competence.

Non-verbal communicative factors component of sociocultural competence.

All of the components of strategic competence.

THANKS YOU