Enculturation

The second, sociolinguistic competence, deals with the social rules of

language use, which involve an understanding of the social context in

which language is used. Such factors as the role of the participants in a

given interaction, their social status, the information they share, and the

function of the interaction are given importance. Social context here

refers to the culture-specific context embedding the norms, values,

beliefs, and behaviour patterns of a culture. Appropriate use of the

language requires attention to such constructs.

Next comes discourse competence, which is the ability to deal with the

extended use of language in context. This is ordinarily achieved through

the connection of a series of sentences or utterances to form a

meaningful whole. These connections are often quite implicit: ideas are

linked to each other based on general knowledge of the world as well as

familiarity with a particular context. Where these conceptual and

experiential bonds are weak or inadequate, the meanings inferred from

them are likely to be erroneous. Studies in contrastive rhetoric provide

ample evidence for culture-specific thought patterns and organizational

differences that lead to serious misunderstandings. In such cases, formal

cohesive devices normally used to establish overall coherence among

propositions fall short of achieving adequate interpretation.

The last component in the model is strategic competence, which is

defined as the ability to cope in an authentic communicative situation

and to keep the communicative channel open. This requires the

knowledge of communication strategies that one can use to compensate

for imperfect knowledge of rules, or for factors such as fatigue,

inattention, and distraction which limit the application of such rules.

What, for example, do you do when you cannot think of a word? What do

you do when you realize that your message is misunderstood?

The communicative approach considers target language-based

communicative competence to be essential in order for foreign language

learners to participate fully in the target language culture. As such, the

target language culture and its inhabitants, the native speakers, are

elements crucial to the success of the teaching model. Learners are not

only expected to acquire accurate forms of the target language, but also to

learn how to use these forms in given social situations in the target

language setting to convey appropriate, coherent, and strategically-

effective meanings for the native speaker. Thus, learning a foreign

language becomes a kind of enculturation, where one acquires new

cultural frames of reference and a new world view, reflecting those of the

target language culture and its speakers. Proponents of this view perceive

foreign language teachers as ‘gatekeepers’ who equip their learners with

the four competencies of communication with a view towards enabling

them to gain access to educational or economic opportunities within the

target language setting.

As various communicative features underlying the sociolinguistic,

discourse, and strategic competencies in the target language culture are

different from those in the learner’s own culture, it is suggested that

teachers develop target language communicative competence in

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