Developing language skills and communicative abilities:
Being able to communicate effectively in a foreign language means being proficient in the
various language skills involved in the communication process, but it means more than
being able to perform in each of the four skills separately. It also means being able to use
the skills effectively in various combinations depending on the nature of the interaction.
It is worth analyzing the production or communication stage where the student is given
ample opportunity to practice the functions, vocabulary and structures meaningfully and
creatively.
Much of the practice material in EFL courses is tightly controlled as learners cannot be
expected to manipulate large quantities of language in the early stages of learning. What
we need to look for in course books is whether the practice material stops at the stage
where language practice is there for the sake of language practice or whether one
recognizes that it is only a transitional stage before the learner achieves some degree of
communicative competence, i.e. the ability to use language for its own purpose,
appropriately and confidently.
In order to achieve a degree of communicative ability, the learner needs practice in coping
with communicative situations involving the realistic integration of language skills and the
development of cognitive strategies, e.g. how to deal with the problem of real-time
responses and unpredictability in normal conversation. Communicative activities in the
classroom do not have to be authentic. In fact, any training or learning situation is to some
extent artificial, but they must be representative of and modeled on the process that takes
place in real language use.
