The communicative role of silence in Akan

The mission of higher education institutions is to prepare well-developed, competent new generation specialists who possess not only professional but soft skills, a high level of communication culture, critical thinking, ability to make non-standard decisions, work in a team, model and project the results of professional activity. Outlined tasks are facilitated by the use of interactive learning technologies in the training of future social workers. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the expediency of using interactive training technologies in the process of forming the communicative and vocational competence of future social workers in higher education institutions. Playing learning technologies play an important role in shaping the communicative and vocational competence of future social workers. Thanks to the game, future social workers have the opportunity to experience different professional roles, to put themselves in the place of the interlocutor, to better understand him. Created in the course of the game, the communicative situation helps to form the ability to navigate in communication conditions, to choose language, communication strategies and tactics, to ask questions and to answer them. The main purpose of game technologies in the process of training students, future social workers, is to create professionally oriented communication and speech situations, during which students master the practical skills of interpersonal interaction, conducting dialogue, which is the basis of professional work of a social worker. Modeling of professionally directed situations in the process of forming communicative and vocational competence of future social workers is aimed at conscious attitude towards the future profession. The efficiency of mastering the material, the result of the game and the performance of tasks depends on the purpose and task, the equipment selected, the content of professional situations in solving various problems, a positive focus on learning.

The essence and core pursuit of English learning is to communicate in English. Role-play activity is an important means of English learning. In role-play activities, students communicate and interact under specific learning topics to achieve the purpose of applying what they have learned. This paper expounds on the importance of role-play activity in English teaching to cultivate English learners’ communicative skills and competence. Role-playing activities help stimulate students’ communicative intention, enhance students’ communicative creativity, and create a harmonious communication atmosphere to improve students’ communicative competence. This paper also discusses the methods and suggestions for using role-play activities to improve English learners’ communicative skills and competence. Teachers should create a suitable communication situation, develop students’ communicative competence according to the role-playing Stage, and use communicative strategies and conversational skills to realize communicative intention.

It is widely acknowledged that the expansion of English has had a democratising effect: knowledge is now accessible to a larger number of people worldwide. However, it is also contended that the uncritical and unreflective teaching of English is contributing to reproducing power structures, accentuating inequalities among speakers. This article presents the results of a study carried out with 86 final-year students in the Degree of Primary Education (English) at the University of Seville. Working within the framework of critical research, and combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study analyses learners’ perceptions on communicative competence, on the factors that bear upon successful communication, and their capacity to identify and understand power relations in communicative interactions. Results show that communicative competence does not necessarily entail learner empowerment; learners are too worried about linguistic aspects and accuracy when they speak English; they aspire to a model—the native speaker—that they can never reach; and they are not aware of power inequalities, their origin and how they transpire in communicative situations. This analysis points to the need to include a critical component in English language teaching to equip learners to identify and tackle power asymmetries in communicative interactions.

Communicative competence and awareness of communicative strategies are vital factors in EFL learning. Due to their importance, this study aimed to investigate the strategies used by EFL teachers and learners. To this end, 10 teachers were randomly selected. One hundred fifty EFL learners attending these classes were also subjected to the study. The utterances produced by participants were recorded, transcribed, and coded based on Dornyei’s taxonomy (1995). A mixed-method approach entailing both qualitative and quantitative analysis was taken. The findings indicated that while compensatory strategy was the most frequently used strategy (54%) by EFL learners, stalling or time gaining strategy was the least frequently used one (19%) with the avoidance communicative strategy (27%) placed between them., EFL teachers, however, employed the strategy of stalling or time gaining most frequently (63%), while the strategy of avoidance was the least frequently used strategy (11%) by the EFL teachers after the compensatory communicative strategy (26%). Finally, in further analysis, the results of the chi-square test demonstrated a significant difference between teachers’ and learners’ strategy use frequency. Language teachers need to be aware of the type and frequency of effective communicative strategies used by their learners to raise their consciousness about the appropriate use of efficient strategies. Teacher trainers can help these teachers with the proper means of initiating and maintaining classroom interactions to foster the communicative and strategic competencies of their learners. Material developers need to take these findings into account in course content preparation to improve strategy use among language learners. Keywords: Achievement Strategy; Avoidance strategy; Communicative Strategy; Dornyei’s taxonomy; Stalling Strategy

The research is devoted to the problem of speech training of preschool children before they begin studying at school. The terms “speech training for school”, “general speech training”, “special speech training” have been clarified. The essence and structure of the phenomenon of “communication and speech competence” are revealed, the criteria, indicators and levels of communication and speech competence are described. The experimental method of speech training for school by using activity and personality approach is researched. The speech readiness for learning is highlighted as a main condition for entry into the learning environment and a further successful learning start. The analysis of researches of modern scientists devoted to the phenomenon of “children’s speech training for school” (A. Bohush, M. Vashulenko, L. Kalmykova, N. Shylina) is conducted. It is revealed that the result of speech training is the formation of speech and communication competence of preschool age children. The criteria of speech and communication competence were phonetic, lexical, grammatical, diamonological competence with relevant indicators. Formation of speech and communication competence in the process of speech training by means of activity and personality approach involves the introduction of a specially developed program of speech training of older preschoolers before they get into studying at school: communication and speech situations, play-based speech exercises, variative dialogues. The results of the research confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed program for the formation of communication and speech competence in the process of speech training of older preschoolers before their studying at school.

The article presents a study of the peculiarities of the development of communicative and sociocultural competences of pre intermediate students by means of role play. The aim of the article is to develop and implement into educational process original and productive tasks within the concept of role play as an interactive method of teaching in order to promote the development of students’ communicative and sociocultural competences.The following research questions were formulated in order to develop relevant methodology and expect trustworthy findings: Can role play enhance the productive skills of students (in particular speaking)? How does the use of role play influence the development of students’ communicative and sociocultural competences?The research methodology is based on the use of relevant data collection tools, namely introductory questionnaire with the subsequent experimental intervention, teacher survey and post intervention questionnaire.The results of the intervention indicate that the use of role play in the English classroom develops both communicative and sociocultural competences of language learners, primarily because they become more motivated to participate in productive activities, develop self-confidence and creativity. Participation in role-playing activities allows pre intermediate language learners to become more fluent in English, increases their vocabulary volume, expands their conceptual spheres and variety of speech patterns that can be used in appropriate communication situations. However, educational process should not be overloaded with role playing activities as it can become boring and predictable for students if used regularly.The study proves that role play is of great pedagogical importance in the English classroom for improving learners’ communication skills and developing their communicative and sociocultural competences. Keywords: role play; communication skills; communicative competence; sociocultural competence; case study; pre intermediate students; motivation; simulation.

The growth of distance education, in its many forms, has had consequences for both online universities as well as more traditional universities. This study examines instructional behaviors and communication strategies used in face-to-face and online educational settings. The purpose of this study is to explore student perceptions of instructor immediacy, motivation, and communicator competence in addition to their own motivation and intrapersonal communication use in higher education settings. This dissertation follows a social scientific organizational pattern: introduction, literature review, methods, results, and discussion. The first two chapters examine the purpose of the study and the appropriate research on distance education, teacher immediacy, communication and communicator competence, student motivation, and imagined interactions. The third chapter describes the participants, instruments, and methods utilized in both the pilot and current study. The fourth chapter presents the results of the 6 hypotheses and 5 research questions posited for this current study. Finally, the discussion considers how the results clarify the potential and pitfalls associated with online education. Conclusions about the roles of immediacy, motivation, communicator competence and imagined interactions in online education are posited. The role of sample demographics and different methodological approaches are examined and implications for future research are considered.

This study examines four fundamental components of linguistics—morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics—as the essential foundation for developing students’ language competence at the elementary school level. The research focuses on an in-depth analysis of how word structure, sentence structure, meaning systems, and contextual language use interact to form comprehensive linguistic ability. The morphological discussion highlights word-formation processes, including affixation, reduplication, and compounding, as well as the role of morphemes as the smallest meaningful units. The syntactic analysis explores the organization of phrases, clauses, and sentence types to understand how utterances are grammatically constructed. Furthermore, the semantic section emphasizes lexical, denotative, and grammatical meanings as the basis for accurate interpretation of words and sentences. The pragmatic analysis addresses the importance of context in determining the intended meaning and function of utterances, and how language use is shaped by communicative situations. The findings indicate that these four linguistic aspects are inherently interconnected, functioning collectively within the language-learning process. Morphology provides the fundamental building blocks of words, syntax organizes these elements into coherent structures, semantics offers interpretative frameworks, and pragmatics ensures that language is used appropriately within various contexts. This study concludes that language instruction at the elementary level should be designed comprehensively by integrating all linguistic components. Such a holistic approach is believed to significantly enhance students’ literacy skills and communicative competence, both in academic settings and in everyday interactions.

This paper continues the research traditions established by Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor I.A. Sternin and is devoted to the results of the study of communicative skills of modern first-year students. As a theoretical introduction to the description of the conducted research, it postulates the need to differentiate a number of concepts that are actively used in communication theory and are often mixed in scientific and everyday consciousness: communicative competence, communicative competency, communicative skill, communicative literacy. In particular, communicative competence is proposed to be understood as a degree of experience of interaction between an individual and others, and communicative competency as a system of internal resources necessary to build effective communication. In turn, communicative competency is considered as a set of specific communicative skills that allow the individual to implement adequate models of communication in a particular communicative situation. The distinction of these concepts allowed to further focus on such an object of research as communication skills. The research was based on the questionnaire method, its purpose being to identify the specific communication difficulties experienced by the respondents (i.e., modern students), as well as the origins of these difficulties. The communication situations that are most difficult for interviewees have been captured and further quantified and analysed. The result of the study was, on the one hand, a list of real communication difficulties experienced by students and the causes of these difficulties, and on the other hand, the confirmation of the thesis that the lack of communication skills can and should be eliminated during the study of the disciplines of the communication cycle.

<p style="text-align:justify">Regardless of varied lingua-cultural ideologies enriching the theories of communicative competence (CC), the four CC dimensions (e.g., linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse, and communication strategies (CSs)) still become the main cores of English speaking (ES) classrooms. Of the four dimensions, CSs seem to be the most technical which deserve to be persistently studied. Hence, this study aimed to probe into ES lecturers’ performances of CSs, their efforts to improve students’ CC, and the impacts of their efforts on students’ learning according to students’ perspectives. Two ES lecturers and 10 students at a university in Indonesia were purposively selected to be the participants. They were observed and interviewed according to the study’s purposes. This study uncovered various CSs performed by ES lecturers according to several contexts, such as to understand spoken texts, to understand spoken recorded texts, and to overcome temporary communication difficulties. Various ES lecturers’ efforts were also revealed according to their functions to improve each dimension of CC. Most students perceived the lecturers’ efforts positively due to the impacts on their motivation, self-efficacy, collaborative skills, and metacognition. However, few students echoed negative perceptions about a lecturer’s native-speakerism-endorsed effort due to lingua-cultural issues. Implication, limitation, and recommendation are discussed.</p>

This paper looks at the role of silence within the Nzema speech community. Nzema is a Niger-Congo language of the Kwa language family spoken mainly in the South-western part of Ghana and some parts of the La Côte d`Ivoire both in West Africa. It consists of five main dialects namely; Jomoro, Ellembele, Ajomoro, Egila and Evaloe. The paper discusses linguistic and semiotic aspects of silence. It outlines the various communicative situations in Nzema society in which silence is employed, focusing cultural, social and linguistic aspects.

The article discusses the methodological potential of fiction in developing professional and communicative competencies of Hospitality students based on interdisciplinary approach. The study focuses on the most actual aspects of speech culture and describes the ways of developing professionally oriented communicative competencies and the basics of professional speech training of bachelors in the field of Hospitality. Particular attention is paid to the specifics of the occupational novel, in which special vocabulary is widely used, and various systems and mechanisms are described in detail. Hotel, an occupational novel by Arthur Hailey, can be used in teaching Hospitality students as source material for consolidating knowledge about the status and role-based dynamics between hotel staff, communicative strategies and tactics, types and forms of speech, rules of speech etiquette in business communication, as well as for improving oral (public speaking) and written (creative work) language skills. The content of this novel allows students to gain a better understanding of their future professional activities. The article emphasizes that learning professional communication culture fundamentals goes hand in hand with the development of professional (study subject) competence of a prospective specialist. Hence it is suggested that students have a solid understanding of the hospitality industry, its main areas, forms and methods of working with clients. This paper describes the most effective tasks and the questions aimed at studying situations of business communication presented in the novel text, as well as the national specifics of business and speech etiquette and various strategies and tactics of communicative behavior in the framework of English communicative culture. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the role of literary texts in developing professionally-oriented communicative competencies of bachelors in the field of hospitality.

The article reveals the research of social and communicative competence formation of future boatmasters in the process of studying humanities. This competence covers a system of social and communicative knowledge, skills, as well as basic values and personal qualities necessary for effective interpersonal interaction and ensuring the safety of a ship. The structure of social and communicative competence of a future boatmaster is determined by the content of his or her professional activity and covers the following components: personal-value, cognitive-content and activity-effective. The results of the study made it possible to establish the educational reserves for improving the quality of training future boatmasters and forming their social and communicative competence. Taking into account the trends of globalization of the maritime shipping industry and the impact on the professional training of future boatmasters, the influence of postmodernism on formation and development of value orientations of students, the emergence of new social values, it is assumed that formation of social and communicative competence will be effective in case at the Maritime institutions of higher education will be introduced such pedagogical conditions: structuring the content of humanitarian disciplines in accordance with the basic values of social and communicative interaction of future boatmasters; using dialogical methods for the development of future boatmasters skills of interpersonal professional interaction; developing on the basis on contextual training of managerial decision making skills; preparation of teaching staff to forming social and communicative competence of future boatmasters. The effectiveness of pedagogical conditions of the formation of social and communicative competence of future boatmasters in the process of studying humanities was confirmed by the results of the pedagogical experiment. According to the results of the study the cadets of experimental group had mostly high (36.03 %) and average (45.96 %) levels of social and communicative competence formation. In control group, these data were 24.38% and 44.37%, respectively. In this group, the number of cadets with a low level, compared to experimental group, was much higher and amounted to 31.25 % (13.24% more than in experimental group).

This article considers aspects of the formation of communicative competence among students of the Pedagogical Faculty of Foreign Languages. In connection with the new requirements for graduates of linguistic universities, there is a need to train teaching staff of a new formation, capable of communication in various fields. This article talks about the training of specialists in a foreign language sectoral education, namely, the humanitarian, economic, natural science areas. For the development of the communicative competence of students of the Pedagogical Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​in different directions, the staff of the Department of Methods of Foreign Language Education developed and introduced into the educational process Teaching aids (Communication workshops) in the three above-mentioned areas of training. These workshops contain the necessary content for the formation and development of students' communicative competence - communicative situations, role-playing games, problematic issues for discussion, case studies, project technologies, and more. Approbation of the developed teaching aids has shown its effectiveness in conducting practical classes and contributed to the development of students' communication skills in foreign language sectoral education.

Libyan EFL classrooms represent the main exposure to English (L2) for secondary school students in Libya. Classroom interaction using the L2 is essential for Communicative Language Teaching, which has been adopted by the Libyan authorities for developing the communicative competence (CC) of learners, albeit with limited success. Communication strategies (CSs), required for strategic competence, a component of CC, can potentially enhance L2 communication, interaction and learning in the Libyan secondary school classroom. The use and teaching of CSs, adopted in many educational contexts have not been investigated in the Libyan classroom. Hence, this research examined the role of CSs in the Libyan EFL classroom in developing CC. This research investigated the content of the teaching materials (instances of CSs and types of tasks available), the teachers and students' perceptions about CSs (use, awareness, and teaching), the implementation of tasks and activities in their classrooms, and the Libyan teachers' understanding of CSs. A pragmatic paradigm guided MMR approach. It produced three data sets: a quantitative content analysis of the classroom materials (English for Libya), a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 55 teachers and 52 student questionnaires, and a qualitative content analysis of the ten teacher interviews.
\nThe findings suggested that there exist difficulties in the Libyan classroom with regard to developing a declarative knowledge of CSs and encouraging the use of CSs in natural situations due to mismatches between the curriculum’s aims and the teachers' perceptions and practices. The different course book materials lack explicit content for teaching and learning CSs, focus on linguistic knowledge and lack interesting communicative tasks and listening content. Also, there are difficulties related to implementing interactive communicative tasks due to contextual factors, the students' levels and abilities, and the over reliance on the L1. Libyan students and teachers seem to lack interest in the materials due to their inauthenticity and focus on form. The knowledge of CSs is limited or unavailable from the teachers' education. The use and teaching of CSs appear to be limited and unconscious. This research offers a pedagogical CSs framework that could help to link CSs theory to CST in practice, which may have implications for materials designers, and may help to identify recommendations to the Libyan educational authorities.