Developing communicative competence in university language programmes

  1. Helena Šajgalíková 2
  2. Ruth Breeze 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Navarra
    info

    Universidad de Navarra

    Pamplona, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02rxc7m23

  2. 2 University of Economics in Bratislava
    info

    University of Economics in Bratislava

    Bratislava, Eslovaquia

    ROR https://ror.org/0310h1546

Revista:
Language Learning in Higher Education

ISSN: 2191-6128,  2191-611X

Año de publicación: 2013

Volumen: 2

Número: 2

Páginas: 339 - 351

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.1515/CERCLES-2012-0018 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Language Learning in Higher Education

Resumen

This article deals with university language teaching in the perspective of its shift from linguistic competence towards communicative competence, and presents some aspects of the underlying process. It analyses the findings from a survey conducted within the Leonardo project "Transparency in the Acquired Language Competences" (TALC; SK/05/B/F/LA-177427). This survey was organised using a genre-based approach to identify language needs in real professional contexts. Its results point to the need to focus on integrated skills in course design. Ideally, learning should model the processes linked to the genres typically used by in-group members of an academic/professional field, which generally involve coordinated use of two or more skills. This integrated skills model of professional language use provides a sound basis for language programme design. The article presents examples of language programmes of various different lengths.