Strategic, lexical and syntactic competencies in english of freshman students in thai nguyen university basic for drill exercises

STRATEGIC, LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC COMPETENCIES IN ENGLISH OFFRESHMAN STUDENTS IN THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASIS FOR DRILL EXERCISES A DissertationPresented toThe Faculty of Graduate School

STRATEGIC, LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC COMPETENCIES IN ENGLISH OF

FRESHMAN STUDENTS IN THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY:

BASIS FOR DRILL EXERCISES

A DissertationPresented toThe Faculty of Graduate SchoolBatangas State UniversityBatangas City, Philippines

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Degree

Of Doctor of PhilosophyMajor in English

By:

NGUYEN THI THANH HONG

April 2015

This dissertation entitled “STRATEGIC, LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC COMPETENCIES IN ENGLISH OF FRESHMAN STUDENTS IN THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY: BASIS FOR DRILL EXERCISES” prepared and submitted by NGUYEN THI THANH HONG in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy major in English hasbeen examined and is recommended for Oral Examination

College of Arts and Sciences

PASSED

Title: Strategic, Lexical and Syntactic Competencies in English of

Freshman Students in Thai Nguyen University: Basis for Drill Exercises

Author: Nguyen Thi Thanh

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Major: English

Year: 2015

Adviser: Amada G Banaag

Summary

English as an international language is spoken in many countries both

as native and as a second or foreign language It is the world’s dominantlanguage because aside from being designated as an official among sixtytwo nations, it has the greatest number of speakers In most internationalorganization, English is the official and working language aside from beingthe most taught foreign language across the globe People with knowledge

in English language have better career and pay as well as communicationwith the outside world

In globalization where English language and communication play acrucial role, the ability to communicate in English is now a necessity Peoplewith different linguistic background believe that if one communicates inEnglish fluently and proficiently he has an edge over the other since English

as the language of the global village serves as a neutral language to all.This study aimed to assess the strategic, lexical and syntacticcompetencies in English of Freshman students in Thai Nguyen University.The subjects of the study comprised of 382 college students selected throughrandom sampling out of 8,540 total population and 57 teachers of the fiveuniversities in Thai Nguyen City Descriptive method of research was utilizedwith teacher made test and survey questionnaire as instruments used ingathering data

Results of the study indicate that majority of the freshman students ofThai Nguyen University employed strategic competencies to cope andpromote their communication skills In terms of lexical competencies,freshman students have poor performance in the areas of vocabulary, idiomsand word formation but have better performance in synonyms and antonyms

As regards to syntactic competencies, freshman students demonstrate poorperformance in the areas of verb tenses, direct and indirect speech, but have

better or remarkable performance in the areas of subject verb agreement,pronoun references and phrases and clauses.

Further, there is no significant relationship that exists between students’lexical and syntactic competencies Teachers’ assessed that freshmanstudents did not frequently used or practice their lexical and syntactic skills

as indicated by their mean score of 3.0 There exists a relationship betweenteachers’ assessment and the level of students’ lexical and syntacticcompetencies The drill exercises formulated contains activities gearedtowards improving freshman students’ lexical and syntactic competencies.The study recommended that English teachers handling the subjects maybegiven more trainings and workshops in teaching content areas of the course;that the proposed drill exercises maybe presented to school administratorsfor review, suggestions and evaluation; and that follow up studies maybeconducted on aspects related to the variables of the study

Dr Amada G Banaag, her adviser, for the genuine concern, guidanceand encouragement that led the completion of this research;

Dr Myrna G Sulit, external representative, for her very insightfulsuggestions;

Dr Felix M Panopio, statistician, for his kindness in sharing hismathematical expertise;

Dr Maria Luisa A Valdez, panel member for her comments andencouragement;

Dr Remedios Magnaye, recording secretary, for writing down all thesuggestions of the panel for the improvement of this work;

To the participants in this study and colleagues at Thai NguyenUniversity, who rendered help in the collection of data for this study;

To her family whom she selflessly and unconditionally love; her motherfor believing that she can accomplish anything she sets out to do; her sisters,who have always given her a lot of encouragement and her beloved husbandfor his steadfast love, patience and support for making sure that she coulddevote all her time to this research endeavor.

Finally, the researcher is entirely indebted to all her friends for theirgenerosity Thank you!

This humble work is wholeheartedly dedicated to my loving and eversupportive husband, my sons, to my family and to all my colleagues in ThaiNguyen University

Nguyen Thi Thanh Hong

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE i

APPROVAL SHEET ii

ABSTRACT iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT vi

DEDICATION viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

LIST OF TABLES xii

LIST OF FIGURES xiv

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction 1

Statement of the Problem 8

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study 9

Significance of the Study 10

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE Conceptual Literature 13

Research Literature ……… 51

Synthesis ……… 59

Theoretical Framework……… .62

Conceptual Framework ……… 68

Hypothesis ……… .69

Definition of Terms ……… 69

III RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE Research Environment 71

Research Design ……… 76

Subjects of the Study ……… 77

Data Gathering Instrument ……… 78

Data Gathering Procedure ……… 80

Statistical Treatment of Data ……… 81

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA……… 82

V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings ……… 153

Conclusions……… 163

Recommendations ……… 164

BIBLIOGRAPHY……… 165

A Questionnaire for Students……….173

B Questionnaire for Teachers… 184

. C Validation Letters……… 198

D Request Letters 201

E Documentations (1) Validation of Questionnaires in Batangas State University 205

(2) Photographs of the Research Sites 206

(3) Photograph of the Researcher with the Heads of Institutions for the Approval for the Conduct of the Study 207

(4) Photographs of the Teacher Respondents 208

(5) Photographs of the Student Respondents 209

F Psychrometric Conversion Table ……… … 210

CURRICULUM VITAE

LIST OF TABLES

1 Distribution of the Respondents of the Study 77

2 Student Skills Evaluated as to Strategic Competencies 83

3 Student Skills According to the Frequency of Use…… 86

4 Student Skills According to the Degree of Importance 88

5 Performance of Student Respondents on Lexical Competence 90

6 Performance of Student Respondents on Syntactic Competence 94

7 Relationship Between Each Pair of Students’ Lexical Competence 100

8 Relationship Between Each Pair of Students’ Syntactic Competence 101

9 Relationship Between Each Pair of Students’ Lexical and Syntactic Competence 103

10 (a) and (b) Student Skills on Lexical and Syntactic Competencies 105

11 Students’ Lexical and Syntactic Skills According to the Frequency of Use 109

12 Students’ Lexical and Syntactic Skills

According to the Importance 110

13 Bases for the Design of Drill Exercises 113

LIST OF FIGURES

1 Research Paradigm on Strategic, Lexical

and Syntactic Competencies in English

of Freshman Students 68

CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction

English language is considered a significant tool for communication inthe 21st century as the world becomes global business It is also thelanguage that plays an important role in government diplomacy, science,medicine and other profession In the world also connected by bits andbytes, English language is also important as it emerged as a common vehiclefor communication

In globalization where English language and communication play acrucial role, the ability to communicate in English is now a necessity Peoplewith different linguistic background believe that if one communicates inEnglish fluently and proficiently he has an edge over the others since English

as the language of the global village serves as a neutral language to all

In many countries, English has become the language of power andprestige As a gatekeeper to social and economic progress, many countriesgive importance to English language as it serves as a pathway towardsprogress and learning Understanding and communicating English is a factorfor a person to learn and progress faster because most of the information isavailable in the English language and for that reason to be globally competitive,

communicating effectively in that language is a must.

As an international language, English is spoken in many countries both

as native and as a second or foreign language It is the world’s dominantlanguage because aside from being designated as an official languageamong sixty two nations, it has the greatest number of speakers In mostinternational organization, English is the official and working language asidefrom being the most taught foreign language across the globe People withknowledge in English language have better career and pay as well ascommunication with the outside world

Further, often referred to as the world’s language, English is spokenwidely In a number of jobs, professions and fields, a working knowledge ofEnglish becomes a need Knowledge also of the English language toenhance educational attainment through improved communication ability isalso important

English as the lingua franca of the modern times of business and ofpopular culture is also the language of computers and internet aside frombeing the language of globalization of international business, politics anddiplomacy It enables people of different countries to converse and dobusiness with each other As a language that serves as a common link forinternational and inter cultural communication in a global society, its use

minimizes cultural diversity and expands cultural convergence.

The narrowing of cultural linguistic diversity, expansion of cultural andlinguistic divergence as well as information and media advancement aresome of the contribution of English language to globalization One of thebiggest advantages of a country in a global job market is the proficiency ofthe skilled workers in the English language In the field of education,proficiency in the English language also improves academic performance ofstudents

Proficiency in the English language has been identified as a requisite inthe globalized economy with countries having a large number of itspopulation capable of communicating in English being rewarded witheconomic advantages In Asian countries, this trend has been realized byboth governments and individuals and are thus pushing the wide interest inEnglish language study in the last ten years Vietnam is no exemption to thistrend considering that it is one of the non-native speakers of the Englishlanguage In the 2011 study of the organization EF Education First Ltd.,Vietnam was shown to have an EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) of44.32 or very low proficiency close to Thailand that is 39.41

This EF EPI is the first of its kind index comparing the Englishproficiency of non-native English speaking countries calculated from

2,368,730 test takers across 42 countries and two territories, accumulatedfrom 2007 to 2009 In the following year that is in 2012, Vietnam showed and

EF EPI of 52.14 or low proficiency, an improvement from the previous year incomparison with Thailand which got a value of 44.36 or very low proficiency.Vietnam issued the Government Decision 1400 in 2008 whose goal is

to renovate thoroughly the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languageswithin the national educational system and through its Ministry of Educationand Training (MoET) National Foreign Language 2020 Project, or Project

2020 which aims to embark on an ambitious education reforms where allschool levels will be required to have a minimum level of English by 2020.Under this program, Vietnam does not only want majority of its students

to be able to use a foreign language especially English confidently in theirstudy, daily communication and work by 2020, but demands that its highschool teachers are competent on the second highest skill level (C1), theelementary school teachers on the fourth highest level (B1) and middleschool educators the third-highest (B2)

According to Dr Diana l Dudzik, a senior fellow at an education ministry

project on foreign language improvement, students who have studied English for

seven years beginning in grade six are often not able to use English beyondsimple greetings and questions This problem is magnified when the students

enter the tertiary level as freshman students when they definitely will behandicapped to tackle more advanced tasks in learning the English languagebut also in other subjects such as Science and Mathematics where English isthe medium of instruction Second language learners (L2) undergodevelopmental stages in their language process and are characterized to belongitudinal and sequential in nature Only when the L2 leaner hadcompletely passed the stages and undertook the maturation process thatcommunicative competence emerged.

As an applied component of language, communicative competence isthe ability of the speakers to use different functioning rules of the system Itinvolves speaker’s grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology andphonology It also includes the social knowledge of the speaker in theappropriate use of language Knowing English involves speaking, writing,listening and reading Producing the language correctly as well as using thelanguage for a particular purpose is part also of communication in English.When speakers are able to perform the needed communicative functions,they achieve communicative competence in the language

A person’s knowledge of the language and his ability to use thatlanguage in order to interpret and produce meaningful texts appropriate tothe situation in which they are used manifests that person’s language

competence This can be developed through activities or tasks utilized in realsituations or practical applications In the case of students, they can developtheir language competencies through meaningful classroom activities andlanguage use in contexts based on their needs, interests, and experiences.

As students are involved in various aspects of the task itself not inisolation, it is necessary to teach practice and assess the vocabulary,grammatical structures, text forms, and social conventions important to carry

on this task Thus, the objective of the Vietnamese L2 learners is to achieve

a certain level of communicative competence in the areas of grammatical,socio linguistic, strategic competence and discourse competence

Thai Nguyen University (TNU) is known as one of the three regionaluniversities in Vietnam, and a unique university in the Northern MountainousArea of Vietnam Since its establishment in 1994, TNU has become one ofVietnam’s leading regional Universities It is a conglomeration of collegeswhich were established earlier as separate institutions of learning Theunification of these colleges into a university system continues the longhistory of Thai Nguyen being a center of learning in the region

For 20 years, TNU has grown and blossomed in the performance of itsfunctions with a vision to move towards the future with dynamism in thepursuit of excellence TNU has seven universities with more than twenty

thousand students coming from different remote provinces in the North ofVietnam Under the program of the national foreign language 2020 project,TNU also becomes one of the centers for human resource development forforeign language studies and has to face a lot of difficulties and challenges inimproving quality of English teaching and learning to enhance the languageproficiency of the students Those difficulties come from both teachers andstudents, and sometimes from some other factors such as, government’spolicy on English in school education or facilities for English teaching andlearning.

In Thai Nguyen University most of the students who are hailed fromrural areas consider English always as a really difficult subject and they donot often like English lessons Although they have different backgroundknowledge and different level of learning, students learn English in large andmixed ability classes normally with 60 or even up to 80 students in a class.Moreover, according to the policy of the Vietnamese Ministry ofEducation and Training even though English has become a `compulsorysubject in high schools and has been one of the three main subjects besidemathematics and literature, students have no competence for a simpleconversation in English because students learn basic grammar at schoollevel for the purpose of passing a test or examinations and not to face any

real life situations They pay more attention on subjects for entranceexamination to be admitted in the universities.

Based on the researcher’s observation and as an English teacherteaching the subject for several years, most of the students encounterdifficulties along grammar and vocabulary as well as their inability to usevaried communication strategies Through this study, student problemsalong these areas would be identified and remedied through drill exercisesdesigned to enhance their strategic, lexical and syntactic competencies

Statement of the Problem

This study assessed the strategic, lexical and syntactic competencies

in English of Freshman students in Thai Nguyen University

This sought answers to the following questions:

1 What are the strategic competencies of Freshman students?

2 What is the level of students’ lexical competence relative to:

2.1 vocabulary;

2.2 idioms;

2.3 word formation; and2.4 antonyms/synonyms?

3 What is the level of students’ syntactic competence in terms of:

3.1 subject verb agreement;

3.2 verb tenses;

3.3 direct and indirect speech;

3.4 phrases and clause; and3.5 pronoun references?

4 Are there significant relationships between pairs of students’ lexical

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

The study assessed the strategic, lexical and syntactic competencies ofthe 382 freshman students selected randomly from five different universities

in Thai Nguyen as well as the responses of 57 English teachers whoexperienced teaching freshman students The lexical competencies testedwere in the areas of vocabulary, idioms, word formation, andantonyms/synonyms while the syntactic competencies included were in the

areas of subject- verb agreement, verb tenses, direct and indirect speech,phrases and clause, and pronoun references Significant relationships werealso compared between pairs of students’ lexical, and syntacticcompetencies Teacher respondents made also assessments along thesetwo competencies.

Out of these data analyses drill exercises were the output of the studyfor freshman students’ communicative competence improvement Theresponses of the students to the validated test and teachers’ responses tothe validated questionnaire were gathered and statistically analyzed Thestudy was conducted in an urbanized setting covering a period of six monthsfrom July to December 2013 The students and teachers demographicbackground were not included in this study nor the identity of therespondents were gathered Stratification of the students and teacherrespondents was not done nor their genders considered The respondentsincluded freshman students who are currently enrolled in an English course

in the University The teacher respondents also include those who arecurrently teaching freshman English courses

Significance of the Study

This study is significant to the following: Freshman students, Englishteachers, administrators and policymakers, current and future researchers

Freshman Students. Being one of the respondents of this study,students will largely benefit from the findings of this work as it will establishtheir current level of lexical and syntactic competencies and thus identify theirareas of handicap which will be used as basis for the design of remedialstrategies.

English Teachers They will be provided with a rationale and

understanding regarding the students’ language performance and wouldinstill in them a deep appreciation of the remedial strategies that will bedesigned This is also important to both the students and the teachers as thiswill generate awareness and sensitivity to the specific lexical and syntacticstandards of the English language

Administrators and Policymakers This study is important to them as

they will appreciate the need to institute teaching reforms and insure theimplementation of innovative strategies towards the improvement of Englishlanguage teaching that is geared towards generation of personal benefit Thecollege leaders, college managers of the universities in Thai Nguyen ingeneral and in the foreign languages departments in particular may refer tothe results of this study to enhance the training quality of faculty and improvethe students’ competencies in English to meet the demands of the NationalForeign Language 2020 Project

Current and Future Researchers: Result of this study may motivate

researchers to develop other form of exercises that will improve students’

strategic, lexical and syntactic competencies.

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter presents the relevant conceptual and research literaturewhich have bearing to the present study It also presents theoretical andconceptual frameworks of this study, synthesis and definition of terms

Conceptual Literature

The following concepts which focused on English languagecompetence, strategic competence, lexical competence, syntacticcompetence and drill exercises in language teaching were reviewed tosubstantiate the study

English Language Competence. The state or quality of beingadequately or well qualified is referred to as competence It also refers tothe cluster of related abilities, commitments, knowledge and skills thatenable a person to act effectively in a job or a situation This concept ismeaningful as it explains how a competent person applies his abilities interms of technical skills and other defined traits

One area where the concept of competence can be applied is onlanguage, particularly the English language competence Chomsky (1965)first used the term competence to account for the unconscious knowledgespeakers have of their language and considered it the ideal language system

that makes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an infinitenumber of sentences in their language and to distinguish grammaticalsentences from ungrammatical sentences This unconscious knowledgewas elaborated by Fromkin and Rodman (1983) to constitute as whatsomeone knows about the languages and the mental representation of thelanguage Thus, the English language competency is broadly subdivided intotwo areas, namely, linguistic competence and communicative competence.Kroy (1974) stated that competence aside from being referred to as anidealized capacity, is also the ideal speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his or herown language as well as the mental reality which is responsible for all thoseaspects of language use which can be characterized as linguistics.

O’Grady et al (1996) defined linguistic competence as the ability thatspeakers have to produce and understand an unlimited number ofsentences, including many that are novel or familiar As the language usersnormally speak a language without a conscious knowledge of the rulesgoverning it, some authors often refer to linguistic competence asgrammatical competence

Evans et al (2006) on the other hand referred linguistic or grammaticalcompetence as a set of language rules that is represented mentally andmanifested based on the individuals’ understanding of acceptable usage in a

given idiom It also pertains to the innate knowledge of rules rather thanknowledge of item relations, as one does not have to be trained to developcompetence and will still be able to apply it in an infinite number of unheardexamples (Phillips, 2010).

Linguistic competence as emphasized by Fernandez et al (2011)constitutes knowledge of language that is tacit and implicit which means thatpeople do not have conscious access to the principles and rules that govern thecombination of sounds, words and sentences but do recognize when those rulesand principles have been violated So that according to Kac (1992), linguisticcompetence of a human being should accordingly be identified with that ofindividual’s internalized program for production and recognition

In linguistic or grammatical competence, there are five identified maincomponents namely: phonological, syntactic, semantic, lexical andmorphological competencies Jaimes (2006) pointed out that the knowledgespeakers have of the sounds and possible sound combinations of alanguage is termed as phonological competence Here, the speakers areable to recognize the words of their language through simple listening that isthe speaker of English would know whether a word belongs to English or toanother language by mere listening Syntactic competence on the otherhand is the knowledge the speakers have about the possible syntactic

combinations of their language It consists of the ability to determine themeaning of a particular string of words Speakers are knowledgeable ofmost if not all of the possible combinations of the English language.

In addition, the knowledge speakers have of the meanings of words intheir languages is known as semantic competence It consists of the ability

to determine the meaning of a particular syntactic structure This wouldmean the knowledge regarding the relationship of the word and the reality itrepresent even if there is no apparent natural connection that exists betweenthem

Relative to lexical competence, this refers to the extensive amount ofwords speakers have in their language This would also refer to theknowledge and skill in the use of words in the appropriate context.Morphological competence on the other hand refers to language wordstructure The word formation skills of the speakers in this language enablethem to create words, for fun or fashion, sounding like English language, butare not necessarily a part of the official lexicon

Communicative competence as emphasized by Canale (1983) involvesnot only the structural features of language but also its social, pragmatic andcontextual characteristics As it refers to the ability of the speakers to usethe different functioning rules of the system of their language, this would

constitute the applied component of the language.

As an underlying competence system of knowledge and skill requiredfor communication, communicative competence recognizes four areas whichinclude grammatical competence which is concerned with the mastery of thelanguage code, vocabulary and linguistic semantics; socio linguisticcompetence which is involved in decisions about appropriacy of language tocontext; discourse competence which refers to the ability to construct andmaintain in negotiation properly coherent talk and text; and strategiccompetence which involved decisions about how to repair breakdowns thatoccur in communication or to enhance the message Thus, the ability to uselanguage properly in productive and receptive situations for real communication

is termed communicative competence

There are three models identified in communicative competence.These are the model of Canale and Swain, the model of Bachman andPalmer and the description of components of communicative languagecompetence in the Common European Framework (CEF) In the model ofCanale and Swain, there are three components in the fields of knowledgeand skills These are grammatical, socio linguistic and strategiccompetence This was later revised where some elements were transferredfrom socio linguistic competence into discourse competence Grammatical

competence on the other hand is equivalent to that of Chomsky’s linguisticcompetence It refers to the mastery of the linguistic code either verbal ornon- verbal which includes vocabulary knowledge as well as knowledge ofmorphological, syntactic, semantic, phonetic and orthographic rules Thiscompetence would enable the speaker to use his knowledge and skills forunderstanding and expressing the literal meaning of utterances.

In relation to socio linguistic competence, it includes knowledge ofrules and conventions which underlie the appropriate comprehension andlanguage use in different socio linguistic and socio cultural contexts.Discourse competence is referred to as the mastery of rules that determineways in which forms and meanings are combined to achieve a meaningfulunity of spoken or written text Text unity is achieved by cohesion in formand coherence in meaning Cohesion devices are used to achieve cohesion

to link individual sentences and utterances to a structural whole Coherence

is achieved through repetition, progression, consistency, relevance of ideas

to enable the organization of meaning to establish a logical relationshipbetween groups of utterances

As for strategic competence, it is the knowledge of verbal and verbal communication strategies that are recalled to compensate forbreakdowns in communication due to insufficient competence in one or more

non-components of communicative competence This competence is important

in enhancing the effectiveness of communication It differs qualitativelyfrom the other three components of communicative competence as itincludes non-cognitive aspects such as self- confidence, readiness to takerisks Its interaction with other components enables learners to dealsuccessfully with a lack of competence in the other fields

Communicative language ability was proposed by Bachman (1996).According to this model language knowledge is composed of two maincomponents These are organizational knowledge and pragmaticknowledge which complement each other in achieving communicativelyeffective language use Organizational knowledge consisted of abilitiesinvolved in the control over formal language structures such as grammaticaland textual knowledge

Grammatical knowledge in particular includes several independentknowledge areas like knowledge of vocabulary, morphology, syntax,phonology and graphology which enable recognition and production ofgrammatically correct sentences as well as comprehension of theirprepositional content Textual knowledge promotes comprehension andproduction of spoken or written texts and covers the knowledge ofconventions for combining sentences or utterances into texts that is

knowledge of cohesion or ways of masking semantic relationships amongtwo or more sentences in a written text or utterances in a conversation andknowledge of rhetorical organization which is a way of developing narrativetexts, descriptions, comparisons, classifications and others or conversationalorganization such as conventions for initiating, maintaining and closingconversations.

Pragmatic knowledge on the other hand which refers to the abilities forcreating and interpreting discourse includes two areas of knowledge;namely: the knowledge of pragmatic conventions for expressing acceptablelanguage functions and for interpreting the illocutionary power of utterances

or discourse or functional knowledge and knowledge of socio linguisticconventions for creating and interpreting language utterances which areappropriate in a particular context of language use or socio linguisticknowledge

The model or description of communicative language competence inthe CEF (2001) is intended for the assessment as well as for learning andteaching of languages In this model, communicative competence isconceived only in terms of knowledge and includes three basic componentssuch as language competence, sociolinguistic competence and pragmaticcompetence This model emphasizes that each component of language

knowledge must include knowledge of its contents and the ability to apply it;thus for language competence or linguistic competence, the requiredknowledge and ability would be on the use of language resources to formwell- structured messages.

The subcomponents of language competence are lexical, grammatical,semantic, phonological, orthographic competences Sociolinguisticcompetence involves the possession of knowledge and skills for appropriatelanguage use in a social context It includes the language elements thatmark social relationships, rules of appropriate behavior, and expressions ofpeoples’ wisdom, differences in register and dialects and stress

Pragmatic competence as the last component of this model consists oftwo subcomponents: discourse competence and functional competence.Both these competences include planning competence which refers tosequencing of messages in accordance with interactional and transactionalschemata Strategic competence as a component of CEF is involve in thediscussion of communicative language use and is conceived as a strategyuse in the broadest sense Thus, in this model the emphasis is placed notonly on the use of communication strategies which can help to overcome thelack in a particular area of language knowledge but on the use of all types ofcommunication strategies

Strategic Competence This is one of the dimensions or components

comprising communicative competence It is that ability to compensate forcommunication breakdowns and for imperfect knowledge of rules like coping

or survival strategies and further referred to as the mastery of verbal andnon-verbal communication strategies in L2 used when attempting tocompensate for deficiencies in the grammatical and socio linguisticcompetence or to enhance the effectiveness of communication

Dornyei and Thurrell (1991) defined strategic competence as the ability

to get one’s meaning across successfully to communicative partnersespecially when problems arise in the communicative process while Taroneand Yule (1989) stated that it deals with the ability to select an effectivemeans of performing a communicative act In strategic competence,students feel comfortable and have confidence in using the language forpossessing this type of competence their oral communication is enhanced

It determines the learner’s fluency and conversationalists’ skills and this can

be developed through communicative strategies

Techniques in coping with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectlyknown second language are called communicative strategies These areemployed in order to repair breakdowns in spoken communication and toimprove effectiveness of communication (Gallagher, 2001) The use of

communication strategies is conducive to language learning and that trainingalong this line should be incorporated in the school syllabi (Maleki, 2010) Forlearners to have language attainment and communicative strategies they musttake an active part in actual communication This will help them to have practiceand gain new information as to what is appropriate regarding the correct usage

of the language

Further, conveying unknown language between communicationpartners and assisting in maintaining conversational flow are facilitated bycommunication strategies It is beneficial to teach communication strategies

as it leads to strategic competence in the language The best way toachieve strategic competency is by the use of games focusing oncommunication The role of communication strategies in teaching andlearning English is of importance as learners are provided with sense ofsecurity in the use of second language In addition, communicationstrategies facilitate learners in times of difficulty in communication therebyachieving their communicative goal

Two types of communication strategies are identified These areavoidance or reduction strategies which include message abandonment andtopic avoidance and the other is achievement or compensatory strategieswhich include circumlocution, approximation, use of all-purpose words, word

coinage, use of non-linguistic means, literal translation, foreignizing, codeswitching, appeal for help and use of fillers or hesitation devices.

At the beginning, Richards (1983) emphasized that stages ofcommunication strategies are very crucial as they are seen as part ofcommunicative competence and identified as strategic competence whichmeans how to cope in an authentic communicative situation as well as how

to keep the communicative channel open (Ellis, 1985) Communicativestrategies exist as part of the language user’s communicative competence.Since communication strategies are potentially conscious and serve assubstitutes for production plans, learners are unable to implement them.There are four aspects to learning the language These are listening,speaking, reading and writing The best way for teaching strategiccompetence is to constitute the traditional bottom-up approach to languagelearning, as it gives an emphasis to writing It provides also the learners thetime to process their ideas and language use, before being asked to use itorally to increase learner’s motivation

As a component of communicative competence, strategic competencekey goals include learning how to handle breakdown in communication,learning how to properly and effectively clarify meaning and learning, andhow to ensure and maintain understanding Parbakht (1993) maintained

that both native and non-native speakers used various strategies to expressthemselves and to ensure understanding For classifying, simplifying andchecking meaning, language users need to develop strategies and systems.

In this way, negotiating communication collaboratively can be done bypeople involved in discourse

Bachman (1990) on the other hand stated that strategic competencerefers to the general ability which enables an individual to make the mosteffective use of available abilities in carrying out a given task, whether thattask be related to communicative language use or to non-verbal tasks such

as creating a musical composition, painting or solving a mathematicalequations A broader theoretical model was provided for viewing strategiccompetence This comprises of an assessment component whereby thespeakers set communicative goals, a planning component whereby thespeakers retrieve the relevant items from their language competence andplan their use and an execution component whereby they implement theplan.The speakers may perform again the assessment to evaluate the extent

to which the communicative goal was achieved

In the assessment phase, the language users identify the informationrequired and the language resources identify the information required andthe language resources available through a particular communicative goal in

a given context in mind They also form ideas about the interlocutors as totheir abilities and knowledge To check whether its goal has been reached,the communicative event is evaluated at the end.

The language users extract information from language competenceduring the planning process and for a plan in order to reach thecommunicative goal In the execution phase, the psycho physiologicalmechanisms such as auditory, visual and neuromuscular skills are employed

by language users to carry out their plan in the mode such as receptive andproductive and the channel which include auditory and visual that is required

by the communicative goal and the context

As central to all communication, strategic competence is achieved bycarrying out a mediating role between meaning intentions, the meaningwhich is to be conveyed, underlying competencies, background knowledgeand context of situations It carries out the role of determiningcommunicative goals, assessing communicative resources, planningcommunication and executing this communication

Along with grammatical and socio linguistic competence Canale andSwain (1980) expound to adapt their use of verbal and non- verbal language

to compensate for communication problems caused by the speaker’s lack ofunderstanding of proper grammar use and or insufficient knowledge of social