Communicative Competence of the Fourth Year Students: Basis for Proposed English Language Program

Abstract

This study on level of communicative competence covering linguistic/grammatical and discourse has aimed at constructing a proposed English language program for 5 key universities in Vietnam. The descriptive method utilized was scientifically employed with comparative techniques and correlational analysis. The researcher treated the surveyed data through frequency counts, means and percentage computations, and analysis of variance/t-test to compare two main area variables. The respondents was 221 students from 5 universities randomly chosen. The major findings of the study generally reveal that the students’ level of communicative competence is a factor of their parents’ academic influence. Their linguistic/grammatical and discourse competence is helped by their chance for formal and intensive learning, conversing with a native speaker of the English language, rich exposure to social media networks, and reading materials written in English. Moreover, the students’ greatest strength along linguistic competence is on the use and function of noun, pronoun and preposition, while their weaknesses are on the use and function of conjunction, adverb, interjection, and verb. It is a general finding that the 4th year students who are linguistically competent on the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general (consisting of syntax, morphology, inflections, phonology and semantics) have the tendency to speak or write authoritatively about a topic or to engage in conversation. Basing on the findings from this study, an enhancement program was proposed with the certainty that this proposed English language program would bring the best efficiency in the second language acquisition.

English Language Proficiency of Senior High School Students

“…The result of the present study was strengthened by Freeman and Murcia (2010) in their Grammar Book in which research on L2 morpheme acquisition has shown that the third person singular present tense-s inflection causes persistent problems for learners even at more advanced stages of proficiency. The findings of the study corroborate also the study made by Tuan (2017) in Vietnam that the weakest point of students in grammar is the use of verbs. The weakness of the respondents relative to verb indicates that they have low knowledge, ability, and skill in determining the function of verb that is to describe an action, state, or occurrence.…”

“…In the study conducted by Tuan (2017) entitled 'Communicative Competence of the Fourth Year Students: Basis for Proposed English Language Program in Vietnam', he found that the strengths and weaknesses of the respondents relative to linguistic competence are along with nouns, pronouns, and preposition. On the other hand, their weaknesses are along with verb, adverb, and interjection.…”

A Syntactical Analysis of Fresh Graduates’ Job Interview Responses

“…The above studies concur with the findings of Singh and Shamsudin (2009); Housen et al (2012), Kuiken and Vedder (2012), Lintunen and Makila (2014), and Tuan (2017) that competence in grammar should be equally emphasised in spoken and written forms.…”

“…In line with Halliday (2014), Tuan (2017) noted that a speaker or a writer should be good at grammar both in writing and speaking. As mentioned earlier, Radford (2009) noted that the use of a combination of sentence structures is not only used in good writing skills but it is also applied in speech to express one's thoughts.…”

“…The finding of the present study is also supported by the study of Housen et al (2012) that a proficient speaker or writer expresses clearly in correct grammatical language. Halliday (1989) and Tuan (2017) also pointed that equal importance should be given to written and spoken sentence structures to portray ones proficiency. Extract 2-Compound Sentences C3 uttered compound sentences 'at the … myself' to explain what C3 was doing and the reason for looking for a job.…”