Communicative competence at secondary school level in Westbury and implications for the teaching of English

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)The aim of this study was to throw light on the communicative needs of Afrikaans-speaking pupils at secondary level at Westbury (and by implication, of similar socio-economic communities), and to establish whether the present approach to achieve the level of communication competence expected from them. The investigator's hypothesis is that the current approach ignores the need of the older pupil to gain a cognitive insight into the rule structure of the target language, and proposes that the failure to address this need may very well contribute to poor communicative ability. Current views on second and foreign language acquisition are examined. These are related to present syllabus requirements and current methodologies in the light of the constraints operating in the particular community. Tests are designed to cognitive insight into a English, the Tenses, plays establish' empirically whether poor particular set of syntactic rules in a significant role. In the final chapter the insights: gained from both the theoretical and the empirical investigation are discussed, followed by a recommendation that the need for revising second language teaching methodology be explored in the light of these insights. It is claimed that sufficient evidence exists to suggest that more attention to a cognitive approach in second language teaching at secondary level will have a positive impact on the level of communicative skills achieved