Academic vs. interpersonal competence
المؤلف:
Muriel Saville-Troike
المصدر:
Introducing Second Language Acquisition
الجزء والصفحة:
C6P143
2025-11-18
21
Academic vs. interpersonal competence
Book: Introducing Second Language Acquisition
Author: Muriel Saville-Troike
Page: c6, 143
L1 competence ideally involves the broad repertoire of knowledge which people need to communicate appropriately for many purposes within their native language community. L2 competence is typically, perhaps unavoidably, much more restricted, especially when SLA takes place in a foreign language setting. For most people, their second language often serves a much more limited range of needs than their first language, depending on the situation they are in. For example, native speakers of English in the USA might learn Spanish L2 because their jobs require engaging in cross-national sales and services, or because they are in social service roles which involve daily communication with native Spanish speakers, or because they have academic interests in New World history and need access to archival records and scholarly publications that are available in Spanish. Native speakers of Chinese in China, on the other hand, might need to learn English L2 to prepare for an influx of English-speaking visitors, to serve on international committees that use English as a common language for proceedings, or to pursue graduate degrees in an English-dominant country. Native speakers of Turkish might learn German L2 to engage in information exchange on technological topics, to provide guide services for German tourists in Turkey, or to work for a company in Germany. Each of these motivations for learning an L2 entails very different combinations of linguistic and cultural knowledge and different levels and types of proficiency.
Priorities for L2 use
In considering the purposes for which people learn second languages, we must make a distinction between at least two fundamental types of communicative competence: academic competence and interpersonal competence. Academic competence would include the knowledge needed by learners who want to use the L2 primarily to learn about other subjects, or as a tool in scholarly research, or as a medium in a specific professional or occupational field. Learners with such a goal should concentrate above all on acquiring the specific vocabulary of their field or subject area, and on developing knowledge that enables them to read relevant texts fluently in that subject area. If language learners plan to study the subject at an L2-medium university, beyond specific vocabulary knowledge and reading ability, they must also put a high priority on processing oral L2 input during lectures and class discussions: i.e. on developing the ability to engage successfully in academic listening. Further, they are likely to need proficiency in L2 academic writing in order to display their knowledge in examinations that may be required for university admission and to earn academic degrees. Many students need to develop L2 writing proficiency for the academic purposes of producing term papers or theses, and researchers may need to do so for publishing articles for international information exchange. Developing L2 academic reading, listening, and writing proficiency, however, does not necessarily require fluent speaking ability, particularly for learners studying the L2 in a foreign language context.
Interpersonal competence encompasses knowledge required of learners who plan to use the L2 primarily in face-to-face contact with other speakers. As with academic competence, vocabulary is the most important level of language knowledge for these learners to acquire, although the domains of vocabulary involved are likely to be very different. Knowledge which enables them to participate in listening and speaking activities merits the highest priority for interpersonal contexts; they must be able to process language rapidly “online” (without the opportunity to review or revise text that is possible in reading and writing), as well as possess strategies for achieving clarification and negotiation of meaning during the course of face-to-face interaction. Depending on the situation, the level of language to be used may be formal or informal. Writing and reading activities are required in some interpersonal situations, but speaking and listening are much more likely to play dominant roles in interpersonal production and interpretation.
The contrast in priorities for L2 communicative activities depending on academic versus interpersonal needs is shown in Table 6.1. The key differences are that reading is typically much more important for academic than for interpersonal needs, and that speaking is usually much more important for interpersonal than for academic purposes.
As shown in Table 6.2, the four areas of activity involving language use that are listed in Table 6.1 may be classified along two dimensions: as receptive versus productive, and as conveyed by written versus oral modes of communication. The activities that have highest priority in academic competence are receptive (reading and listening), which function primarily in processing input; the activities with highest priority for interpersonal competence are oral (listening and speaking), which function in processing both input and expression. While all four areas of communicative activity draw on an overlapping pool of L2 knowledge at different language levels, they are independent to some extent. Development of receptive ability must normally precede productive ability in any language, but beyond that basic sequence, order of L2 development along these dimensions depends on social circumstances. It is possible for learners to develop a relatively high degree of proficiency for engaging in receptive activities along with only very limited ability for production, or a high degree of proficiency for engaging in either written or oral activities without well-developed ability to engage in activities in the other mode. Many fluent bilinguals around the world are illiterate in one or both of their languages. Learners’ academic and interpersonal competence which underlie their ability to engage in these activities usually develop to different degrees, and there is no necessary reason for one type to precede or outpace the other. It is known, however, that literacy (and schooling) in the L1 facilitates acquisition of competence in an L2 under conditions of formal instruction.
الاكثر قراءة في Linguistics fields
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