Investigating the process of acquiring communicative competence by an LEP adult in a natural setting

Abstract

The area of interest in this study is in acquiring communicative competence by an adult with Limited English language Proficiency (LEP). As such, this study aspired to investigate the process involved in the development of achieving communicative competence by an LEP adult in a socially constructed environment. The data in this study were divided into two categories: spoken and written. The spoken data was collected by recording selected meetings involving the researcher, the subject, and several participants from the generic English-speaking society in which the subject socialises in. The spoken data were analysed based on a checklist and a scoring rubric that were both developed based on the test specifications of the speaking component in Malaysian University English Test (MUET), with features of interactional modifications by Pica & Doughty (1985). The written data were collected using authentic journal entries and analysed using a checklist and a scoring rubric that were developed based on the test specifications of the speaking component in MUET. Findings from the spoken and written data revealed that by being in a socially constructed environment, communicative competence can be acquired by an individual with limited English proficiency. One of the recommendations that can be made from this study is to integrate such method in English classes in a country’s institutes of higher education.