Basic Communicative Competence Research Articles

Inadequate Aural Vocabulary Knowledge of High-Frequency Words

Aural vocabulary knowledge (AVK) of high-frequency words is critical for second language listening comprehension. However, learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), despite considerable periods of language study, often do not have the AVK needed for basic communicative competence. A mixed methods approach is applied to determine whether mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) can help solve this problem. First, a cohort of 33 Japanese EFL students with suboptimal AVK were divided into a treatment group (n = 17) and a control group (n = 16). Over a two-month period, the treatment group used a MALL application that enabled self-assessment and teacher monitoring of learners’ AVK of 1,000 frequently occurring English words. A comparison of pre- and post-test scores between the treatment and control group suggested that the MALL intervention was associated with improvements in AVK. Further, data stored by the application enabled an analysis of the words learners found most difficult, and interviews with a sub-group (n = 5) were undertaken. Results suggested that reduced forms and the influence of Japanese phonotactics were key factors limiting the ability to recognize spoken words. Links to resources that can help learners improve AVK of high-frequency words are provided and pedagogical implications are discussed.

Theoretical Model for Developing Professionally Oriented Foreign Language Competence in the Field of Spa and Wellness Services

The issue related to the quality of the employees in tourism is one of the most significant factors for the certification of the places in the SPA and Wellness industry. The efficiency and benefits from the provided products depend to a great extent on the knowledge and skills of the people working in this sphere. The increasing requirements for the language competence of the specialists in SPA and Wellness predetermine the necessity of designing a modern model for building professional foreign language competence. The aim of this study is to suggest some contemporary approaches to improving the language preparation in English and Russian of employees working in the field of SPA and Wellness services. The suggested foreign language model is aimed at creating practical habits for using English and Russian language and developing some basic communicative competence needed for professional realization. The model of education meets both linguistic and methodological guidelines and the peculiar requirements for professionally oriented training in a foreign language for specific purposes.

Developing an effective and comprehensive communication curriculum for undergraduate medical education in Poland – the review and recommendations

BackgroundThe recognition of the importance of effective communication in the healthcare system has been growing. Given that communication courses must be adjusted to the specificity of a particular culture, language, and other contextual issues, many countries and communities sharing a common language have proposed their recommendations for a communication curriculum for undergraduate medical education. To date, no recommendations have been developed for either any Central and Eastern Europe countries or for regions where Slavic languages are spoken. Their specificity of post-communist transformation should be acknowledged. This study aims to review communication curriculums and offer recommendations for medical communication training for undergraduate medical students in Poland.MethodsThe recommendations were developed through an iterative consultation process with lecturers, faculty members of medical schools, and education coordinators. PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched to identify full text English and Polish language articles on communication curriculum for undergraduate medical education. Additionally, the new Regulation of the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education, defining educational standards for undergraduate medical education was analysed in search of learning outcomes that could be applied in communication skills teaching. The authors extracted the most relevant communication skill competencies, as determined by the process participants, discussed current challenges, including those of the COVID-19 pandemic era, and indicated best practices.ResultsA review was conducted, and a set of recommendations was developed pertaining to the scope and methodology of teaching communication skills. The study included: (1) definition, (2) education content, (3) learning outcomes, (4) the recommended teaching methods. The recommendations are in concord with the graduate profile, as well as the current structure of medical studies. The authors listed and discussed the basic communication competencies expected of medical graduates, as well as medical communication course content viewed from different perspectives, including clinical, psychological, sociological, legal, and linguistic.ConclusionsDetailed recommendations aimed at integrating best practices into a comprehensive communication curriculum may promote successful teaching, learning, and assessment of medical communication.

초등 영어 학습자의 의사소통 능력 향상을 위한 타동 구문 지도 방안

This paper discusses how to teach the transitive construction for improving communicative competence of primary English learners. Given that sentence-level comprehension (form-to-meaning) and production (meaning-to-form) are two major axes in communication, it is necessary to teach the forms and meanings of English sentences in an integrated way. Thus, we employ Construction Grammar (Goldberg, 1995) as the theoretical framework for form-meaning integration and explore methods of teaching the transitive construction, one of the major argument structure constructions in English. We first propose four principles for teaching argument structure constructions and highlight the characteristics of the transitive construction that primary English learners should be taught. Then, we describe instructional methods and specific activities for teaching the transitive construction to primary English learners. These efforts lead us to conclude that such instruction will contribute to primary English learners’ basic communicative competence and that the forms and meanings of other argument structure constructions also should be taught in integrated ways.

Pembelajaran teks Ande-Ande Lumut dengan teknik sosiodrama di Escola Tecnica Informatica, Dili sebagai kegiatan ekstrakurikuler

Learning Indonesian language in Timor-Leste Vocational High Schools is intended to make students communicate Indonesian language effectively. Indonesian language as a foreign language as stipulated in Timor-Leste constitution plays a strategic role in education. Moreover, vocational education such as the Escola Tecnica Informatica (ETI), Dili, prepares graduates ready to work. Basic communication competencies are developed based on mastery of Indonesian language and literature. This paper aims to describe the results of the study of narrative text learning of Ande-Ande Lumut using sociodrama technique in class XI ETI, Dili as an extracurricular activity. The method used in this research is descriptive-qualitative method with case study technique. The research findings show that there are three benefits of integrating narrative text learning of Andeande Lumut with sociodrama technique, namely: (1) enhancing student attention through scenes; (2) make students understand psychosocial problems through the characters; and (3) make students emphathize to other people

4차 산업혁명이 한국인 영어 학습자의 기본적 의사소통능력 발달에 미치는 영향에 관한 비판적 검토

The purpose of this study is to theoretically evaluate the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (e.g., machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL)) on English education in South Korea. Few studies have investigated to what extent ML/DL technologies have instructional potential for Korean English learners’ development of English proficiency. To this end, this study deals with the four research issues by extensively reviewing previous literature on computer science and SLA theories. First, this study introduces several well-known concepts and architectures of ML/DL for the following discussions. Second, the study critically examines the opinions of those who claim that recent progress in machine translation can dramatically reduce the need for foreign language learning. Third, this study highlights the significance of basic communicative competence in English learning contexts in South Korea, which―as specified by the components and principles of construction grammar―enables Korean English learners to generate sentence-level utterances without resorting to memorized formulaic expressions. Finally, this study presents three types of English learning applications built upon ML/DL techniques whose validities are evaluated from a perspective of basic communicative competence. As a final remark, this study suggests that ML/DL techniques guided by the principles and components of construction grammar should be applied to Korean English learning contexts as a way to develop their basic communicative competence in English.

IEBOOK-based Experimental Operation Platform of Computer Basic Course

With the development of information technology, educators combine the teaching contents of basic computer knowledge with the abundant materials available online, having raised the interestingness and attraction of the teaching practice of computer basic course. This paper aims to design an IEBOOK-based experimental operation platform of computer basic course which can overcome the defects of traditional experimental operation platform of inconvenience and less abundance of contents by combining IEBOOK software and an interactive display technology (including input module, picture processing module, touch screen, image addition module, and output module) of electronic courseware. The results show that the IEBOOK-based experimental operation platform effectively combine classroom teaching and after-class review, Q&A and resources exchange, and largely raise students’ interest in computer basic course learning, self-management sills, and communicative competence via mobile devices such as mobile phone and tablet PC.

Variations in an African Grey parrot's speech patterns following ignored and denied requests.

Communicative competence is one measure of an individual's ability to navigate conversations with social partners. The current study explored the possibility of basic communicative competence in a non-mammal speaker, a speech-using African Grey parrot. Spontaneous conversations between one Grey named Cosmo and her caregiver were recorded, from which three corpora (i.e., bodies of text) of Cosmo's vocalizations were developed: (1) Baseline: Vocalizations containing no requests, (2) Ignored Requests: Vocalizations immediately following Cosmo's caregiver ignoring Cosmo's requests, and (3) Denied Requests: Vocalizations immediately following Cosmo's caregiver denying Cosmo's requests. The distributions of social (e.g., "I love you," kiss sounds) and nonsocial (e.g., answering machine beeps, "That's squirrel") vocalizations, as well as speech and nonword vocalizations, were statistically different across the three corpora. Additionally, qualitative analysis of the datasets indicated Cosmo was persistent in repeating vocalizations when denied and ignored, and interrupted her caregiver more often when requests were denied compared to ignored. Neither repetition nor interruption occurred during the Baseline conversations. The data indicate that despite the outcome being the same (i.e., request was unmet), Cosmo treated an ignored request differently than a denied request, modifying her vocalizations in accord with the specific context. Such modification is evidence of basic communicative competence.

Drama Therapy: An Experimental Approach to Improving Communication Skills in Radiation Therapy Students

Excellent communication skills are integral to the behaviours expected of all health care professionals. In addition, proficiency in communication builds positive relationships with staff, peers and patients, and enhances student confidence and performance. Every year there are a small number of radiation therapy students at the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences, who struggle with the clinical portion of the program because of challenges with communication and interpersonal skills. Although, for many of these students, English is not their first language, their vocabulary and accents are not the factors that limit performance. The larger obstacles that these students face are rooted in their expressions and/or their socio-cultural construct. In an effort to provide the students with the tools to maximize their chances for success in the clinical environment, we identified students who demonstrated significant communication challenges. We also invited the students to ‘self-identify’ if they felt that they were struggling to meet the basic communication competencies of the program. Specifically, the most common behaviours identified were timidity, lack of self-efficacy (confidence), lack of awareness of Western cultural norms, unclear speech, poor diction, and awkward expression/non-verbal communication. Traditional remedial approaches for communication issues were based upon repetition and modeling, but were largely ineffective in addressing these particular behavioural concerns. At the beginning of January 2006, ten students were identified by faculty as exhibiting lack of confidence and clarity in both verbal and non-verbal communication. Of the ten students, five spoke English as a second language. All ten students accepted our invitation to participate in an experimental program utilizing the dramatic arts. The goal of this program was to provide the students with the opportunity to focus on various aspects of communication (i.e., tone, volume, posture, and expression) in a safe, supportive, and fun environment. The course consisted of nine 1.5-hour sessions over a ten-week period. The first class was unique in its format as it employed a series of individual warm up exercises to “shake off ” the physical and mental tensions and distractions of the day. The following classes were comprised of a directed open reading (i.e., rehearsal) of the stage play Arsenic and Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring. This play was selected for the relative simplicity of the English language used, strong characters, humour, and a cast size that suited our needs. At the beginning of each session, an instructor would provide the students with a synopsis of the scene(s) to be studied. After selecting a character, the students would perform an unrehearsed oral reading or “cold read”. The pronunciation or meaning of any words, expressions or attitudes which were not familiar to the group were also explained. These conversations often led to discussions which highlighted the differences between the culture of the play and those of the students. Following the cold read, the students would read through the scene again “in character”. The focus of this second read was to encourage the students to build dynamic and expression into their character while continuing to work on pronunciation, clarity of speech and volume control. Instructors provided continuous encouragement and feedback. The movie version of each scene was also shown on video to the students which provided further insight into the plot and its characters. As the course progressed, we observed increased interaction and confidence amongst those students who appeared more reserved and hesitant when attempting to speak. At the completion of the course an evaluation was conducted. The following is some of the feedback that we received:

Trends in selected entry‐level technology, interpersonal, and basic communication scans skills: 1992–2002

The authors describe a longitudinal study that was conducted to identify trends in entry‐level technology, interpersonal, and basic communication competencies and skills using classified newspaper advertisements from 10 U.S. standard metropolitan statistical areas. To date, 4,200 advertisements have been analyzed for 2 competencies and 1 foundational skill from the “Workplace Know‐Hows” identified in the 1991 report of the U.S. Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Data for the year 2002 indicated that the workplace continues to seek the competencies and skills advocated by the SCANS authors.

Trends in Entry-Level Technology, Interpersonal, and Basic Communication Job Skills: 1992–1998

This longitudinal study was conducted to identify trends in entry-level technology, interpersonal, and basic communication competencies and skills using entry-level classified newspaper advertisements from ten standard U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Two competencies and one skill were selected from the “Workplace Know-How's” identified by the 1991 U.S. Department of Labor Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). Specifically, ads including interpersonal competencies increased for the fourth consecutive year; ads including basic communication skills increased for the second consecutive year. Ads including technology competencies decreased slightly; however, the overall trend for technology remains strong. Therefore, the workplace continues seeking the competencies and skills advocated by the SCANS authors.

Integrating Technology and Interpersonal Communication to Prepare HDFS Majors for the Future

Integrating Technology and Interpersonal Communication to Prepare HDFS Majors for the Future* A new Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) baccalaureate program at the Pennsylvania State University Commonwealth College emphasizes the link between technology and interpersonal communication. Based on results from focus groups, three themes were identified for HDFS-Community Human Service students: (a) basic communication skills and competencies. (b) professional skills, and (c) content areas. New courses in the curriculum were designed to enhance student skills in these areas. Technology and communication skills are developed in two new courses called Leadership and Technology for Human Service Professionals (Parts AB Kim. Moore, & Fouhy, 1995; King, 1995; Perry, 1998). Computer and software applications are also increasingly necessary in the human services (Brauns & Kramer, 1987; Hanna, 1995; Nurius, 1995; Rafferty. 1997; Visser. 1995). In fact, international conferences and journals devoted specifically to the use of information technology in human services have been developed (Rafferty, 1997). In regard to the need of employees to have technology skills, Dusick (1998) strongly asserts, . . future employees will either be able to work with technology, or be replaced by it. . . . A summa cum laude student who is technophobic is potentially unemployable (p. 11). Dusick further argues that it is the responsibility of education to prepare students for this reality, to enable all students access to and training in technology. Without this effort, she suggests, we will create the next generation of haves and have-nots. According to Dusick, to be successful in society today, it is the responsibility of education to help students gain self-efficacy (Bandura,1989) in using computers. Self-efficacy in regard to using computers is defined as having a high expectation to succeed in using computers. In an educational world of increased competition and rising educational prices, students and parents expect the use of technology in education. Wadsworth (1997) reported that 80% of parents thought that teaching media technology and computer skills was essential in public schools. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the use of electronic information resources in undergraduate education is not a `luxury item' for a few institutions; it is a sine qua non for any liberal arts college that prides itself on its ability to provide an educational environment of `the highest scholarly standards' (Ringle, 1996, p. 7). Raven Lee .md Johnson (1998) argue that students will increasingly select 'universities with the best computer facilities and faculty who use technology to provide innovative instruction (p. 13). The ability to collaborate and communicate well with others is also an important skill that employers desire in their employees (Beckman, 1990: Bruffee, 1993; Gubman, 1995; Kim, Moore, & Fouhy, 1995; King, 1995). Small group-based instructional methods such as cooperative and collaborative learning have been used to help students learn the skills of working well with others. …

Achieving Scientific Competency:

Business school graduates often lack basic communicative competence in the sciences. Business librarians and business education should respond to the needs of rapidly growing science-related industries by teaching students how to acquire basic knowledge in the sciences. Science reference materials found in most university libraries are an excellent source of basic scientific information. Information resources covering major areas of scientific inquiry are described int this article.