Theoretical bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing
Canale & Swain
1. Background (p.2)
1.1 Difference in the syllabus depending on a Grammatical or a Communicative Approach / Situational Syllabus
1.2 Difference in concept between Communicative Competence and Performance (p.3). Definitions by Chomsky (1965) and Campbell and Wales (1970)
2. Some theories of Communicative Competence (p.8)
2.1 Basic Communication Skills Theory (“emphasizes the minimum level of communication skills needed to get along in language situations”) / Disadvantages and drawbacks of this theory (p.10) / Specifications or Principles of this theory / Conclusion: grammatical competence is not a good predictor of communicative competence.
2.2 Sociolinguistic perspectives on communicative competence (p.15)
Relation between language and social context
Theories of Hymes (1972), (p.15) and Halliday (1973), (p.17)
2.3 Integrative Theories (p.19)
Munby´s Model: sociocultural orientation, sociosemantic view of linguistic knowledge and rules of discourse (p.20)
Drawbacks of Integrative Theories (p.22)
2.4 Comments of the proposed theories (p.25)
3. Toward an adequate theory of Communicative Competence (p.27)
3.1 Principles that guide a Communicative Competence Approach: it must address the learner´s needs, learner must be involved in producing interaction, provide learner with learning situations, etc.
3.2 Competences required to reach a communicative competence: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. (p.28) / Definition of Communication (p.29)
3.3 Teaching with a Communicative Competence Approach (p.31): focus on Syllabus design, focus on teaching Methodology (p.33), Role of the teacher
3.4 Assessment in Communicative Competence and Communicative Performance (p.34)
4. Further Investigation
