Review Module 2

 Quiz for week 2

 Checking homework
Q&A
 What are the differences between general learning targets
and mastery learning targets?
 Is learning target considered the same as learning outcome?
 Can you give me examples to illustrate the difference
between target and purpose?
 The levels of taxonomy indicated by the targets should be in
ascending order. (e.g. target 1 - level 1 - knowledge ->
target 2 - level 2 - comprehension and so on) Is this
necessary?
 One target should not indicate two or more levels of
taxonomy (e.g. identify & apply cannot be in the same
target). Is this necessary?
 MODULE 3:
Communicative Language Ability (CLA)
[email protected]
 Objectives: Learners will be able to…
• Identify the main components in Bachman & Palmer’s (1996)
concept of communicative language ability;
• Identify the main components in Common European
Framework of Reference (CEFR);
• Identify the components of English language competences in
the New English Curriculum 2018.
Contents
 Literature Review
 Bachman’s model of communicative language ability (1996)
 Common European Framework of reference (CEFR)
 New English Curriculum 2018
 Literature Review

 Language proficiency = skills (L,S,R,W) + components of

language (G,V, P/Graph.) (Lado, 1961; Carroll, 1961b, 1968).
Limitations of this model
- Cannot indicate how skills and knowledge are related
- Fails to recognize the full context of language use
 The role of context:
- Text and illocutionary (Halliday, 1976)
- The context of discourse (van Dijk, 1977)
- Sociocultural factors (Hymes, 1982)
Language Competence
Canale& Swain (1980) Canale (1983) Celce-Murcia et al (1995) Bachman & Palmer (1996)

Grammatical Grammatical Linguistic Language Knowledge

Competence Competence Competence
Organizational knowledge

Textual knowledge
Strategic Strategic Strategic
Competence Competence Competence Grammatical knowledge

Sociocultural Sociocultural Sociocultural Pragmatic knowledge

Competence Competence Competence
Functional knowledge

Actional
Sociocultural knowledge
Competence

Discourse Discourse Strategic Competence

Competence Competence - Goal-setting
-Assessment
-Planning

(Duong, Pham, Thai, 2012)

 Bachman’s model of CLA (1996)

 CLA consists of knowledge,

or competence, and the
capacity for implementing,
or executing that
competence in appropriate,
contextualized
communicative language
use.
Bachman’s model of CLA (1996)
 Discussion – 10 minutes
 Students work in groups.
 Each group is in charge of one component of CLA. Read the
materials, then present your understanding about that
component.
 You are encouraged to use mindmap, diagram, etc., and
examples to illustrate your understanding.
 Group 1: grammatical knowledge
 Group 2: textual knowledge
 Group 3: functional knowledge
 Group 4: sociolinguistic knowledge
 Group 5: strategic competence
Bachman’s model of CLA (1996)
 Organization Knowledge
 Grammatical knowledge:
- Consists of knowledge of vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and
phonology/graphology.
- Governs the choice of words to express specific meanings, their
forms, their arrangement; their physical realizations (sounds/symbols)
 Textual knowledge:
- Includes the knowledge of the rules of cohesion and rhetorical
organization to join utterances together to form a text – a unit of
spoken or written language.
- Cohesion: reference, sub-situation, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical
cohesion (explicitly marks the semantic relationship).
- Rhetorical organization: methods of development such as narration,
description, comparison, classification, process
Bachman’s model of CLA (1996)
 Pragmatic Knowledge
 Emphasizes the relationship between language users and the context
of communication
 Pragmatics: analysis of the conditions that make utterances
ACCEPTABLE in some situation for speakers of the language. (van
Dijk, 1977)
 Pragmatics = illocutionary force of utterances (the acts that the
speaker/writer intends to perform through the utterances) + the
characteristics of the context (that determine the appropriateness of
utterances).
 Pragmatics competence: the ability to understand the speaker’s
intention by making such utterance, and to know which form for
expressing a particular meaning is most appropriate in a particular
context.
 Pragmatic Competence
 Illocutionary competence: used both in expressing language to be taken
with some illocutionary force, and in interpreting the illocutionary force
of language
 Speech acts: utterance acts, propositional acts, illocutionary acts (Searle,
1969); perlocutionary acts (Austin, 1962m Searle, 1969)
- Utterance act: the act of saying something
- Propositional act: referring to something or expressing a predication
about something
- Illocutionary act: the function performed in saying something
- Perlocutionary act: the effect of a given illocutionary act on the hearer
 Language functions
- Ideational: expressing our experience of the world
- Manipulative: affecting the world around us
- Heuristic: extending our knowledge of the world
- Imaginative: creating our environment for humorous/esthetic purposes
Bachman’s model of CLA (1996)
 Sociolinguistic Knowledge
 Sensitivity to different dialect or variety
 Sensitivity to differences in ‘register’
- Field of discourse: the subject matter
- Mode of discourse: spoken or written
- Style of discourse: relations among the participants
 Sensitivity to natural or idiomatic expressions
 Ability to interpret cultural references and figures of speech
(understanding of denotation and connotation of vocabulary)
 Bachman’s model of CLA (1990)

 CLA consists of knowledge,

or competence, and the
capacity for implementing,
or executing that
competence in appropriate,
contextualized
communicative language
use.
 Strategic Competence
 Strategic competence: use of verbal and nonverbal strategies to
compensate for breakdowns in communication due to insufficient
competence or to performance limitation; and to enhance the
rhetorical effect of utterances. (Canale, 1983:339)
 Bachman’s
- Assessment
- Planning
- Execution
Assessment Component enables us to…
 Identify the information (language variety, dialect) that is needed
for realizing a particular communicative goal in a given context
 Determine what language competencies (L1, L2) are at disposal
for most effectively-used information to achieve the
communicative goal
 Ascertain the abilities and knowledge that are shared by the
interlocutors
 Follow the communication attempt, evaluate the extent to which
the communicative goal has been achieved
 Example of someone giving direction to one’s house for friends
coming from other corners of the city.
Planning Component
 Retrieves relevant items (grammar, textual, illocutionary,
sociolinguistic) from language competence
 Formulates a plan whose realization is expected to achieve the
communicative goal
Execution Component
 Draws on the relevant psychophysiological (neurological and
physiological) mechanism to implement the plan in the modality
and channel appropriate to the communicative goal and the
context.
A model of language use
(Bachman’s, adapted from Faerch & Kasper 1983)
 Part 2: CEFR
Some history
 A symposium in Switzerland in 1991
 01/2014/TT-BGDĐT: “Khung năng lực ngoại ngữ 6 bậc”
 Resources
 Scan the QR code to
access
1. Introduction on CERF
2. Introduction to New
English language
Curriculum 2018
3. A mindmap for
Bachman & Palmer’s
CLA
 CEFR – all scales & all skills (p32)
“Language use, embracing language learning, comprises the actions
performed by persons who as individuals and as social agents develop a
range of competences, both general and in particular
communicative language competences. They draw on the
competences at their disposal in various contexts under various
conditions and under various constraints to engage in language
activities involving language processes to produce and/or receive
texts in relation to themes in specific domains, activating those
strategies which seem most appropriate for carrying out the tasks to be
accomplished. The monitoring of these actions by the participants leads to
the reinforcement or modification of their competences.”
 CEFR – two broad dimensions
 Quantity dimension = Communicative Activities
- the number of tasks persons can perform successfully
by language use, in what number of contexts, in relation to
what number of themes, domains etc.

 Quality dimension: Communicative language Competences

- how effectively and efficiently the persons can achieve
their goals through language use.
Quantity dimension (p32)
Quality dimension (p33)
 Practice – 10 minutes
 Work in 5 groups
 Group 1: A1
 Group 2: A2
 Group 3: B1
 Group 4: B2
 Group 5: C1

 Each group read the description of 1 CEFR level, and note down its
key features in the following branches:
Communicative activities
Communicative language competences
Communicative strategies