COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AND IT’S EFFECT ON KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER LEARNING INSTITUTIONS

Florence IndedeMaseno UniversityDepartment of Linguistics Languages & Literature

Introduction The council for higher education

accreditation in its glossary for international quality review states that quality refers to “fitness of purpose – meeting or conforming to generally accepted standards”

Quality assurance is a “planned and systematic review of an institution or program to determine that acceptable standards of education, scholarship, and

infrastructure are being maintained and enhanced (Chea 2001)To cope up with the quality challenge, Universities have established language schools, departments and media centers to;•Conduct research•Promote academic exchange programs•Teach and evaluate communicative trends•Initiate alternative ways of improving the programs This has been enhanced with the expanded use of ICT programs

Primary goal of University education is to promote self directed attitudes and behavior while discouraging dependency.For this talent and creativity to unfold•learners must be empowered through thoughtful interaction activities to acquire the necessary skills to effectively explore their linguistic talents.

Communicative competency and knowledge management

Language is a crucial means of gaining access to knowledge and skills

It is the key to cognitive development and it can promote or impede scholastic success (Lemmer 1993:144)

Communicative competence refers to the capacity of persons to select, recognize and organize the language variety appropriate to the occasion, situation and subject matter at hand.

The overall use and success of knowledge management depends on the users ability.Language competency assists learners to construct and integrate acquired information to own understanding.Encouraging education reforms through core knowledge preschool sequence Dr. Harsh argues that building a strong oral language and early development, results in future academic success in school.The core responsibility of the learning

institution is to identify skills and knowledge competencies in all areas;- physical well being, - motor development- social development, -emotional developmentthrough learning, language development and knowledge acquisition.Setting clear expectations and standards has repeatedly proven to be the most effective way of ensuring that all students gain the knowledge and skills they need for future interaction.

•Some reasons for differences in the ability to learn and use a language competently are; level of education, knowledge, age , motives, skills, intelligence, personality, emotions etc.•Children learn language very fast because of imitation, flexibility of speech memories, less interference from previous experience and lack of self consciousness•Adults experience difficulties in acquiring second language e.g. phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic structures because of age, less motivation, mode of acquisition/teaching.

Linguistic curriculum developers need to restructure and repackage the courses to bear a component that links language as a means of conveying information, ideas, attitudes, experiences and knowledge in related subjects e.g. geography, history, biology, maths etc.•Current constructivists models of education acknowledge that learning involves more than the acquisition of knowledge, facts and technical skills. Learners need to use information to construct own understanding.

Communicative competence and performance•The capacity of persons to select and recognize the language variety appropriate to the occasion is known as their communicative competence •Chomsky’s notion of linguistic competence assesses a person’s linguistic knowledge about words, pronunciation, grammar, syntax etc•Linguistic incompetence focuses on the lack of this kind of knowledge.•Dell Hymes (1971) theory of communicative competence incorporates pragmatic competence

which includes attitudes, values and motivation

concerning language therefore:In general communicative competence include:1. Linguistic competence2. Pragmatic competence i.e.:• The speakers ability to recognize and use the

language appropriate to a given speech event Speakers select options from available linguistic

repertoires to fulfill various communicative needs e.g. addressing a formal gathering, handling examinations, dialogues, speech, report

writing and academic argument.In general communicative competence includes the following aspects:

Language competence

linguistics semantics pragmatics

phon morp synt word Vocab. Speechacts

Implicature

       

Note: It is assumed that learners enter university with a capacity of language needed for learning, however this is not the case.Problems in understanding language will affect almost every aspect of schooling: following directions , understanding instructions, reading, comprehension, interpretation of questions, relating and discussions.Most students have difficulties in expressing thought on paper due to language limitationsExpressive problems can make students unwilling

to participate in classRelationship between knowledge management and communicative competence ;•Linguistic knowledge guides knowledge actions; knowledge action changes linguistic knowledge•Linguistic knowledge illuminate the shape of academic knowledge and discourse•Communicative abilities can enable learners appreciate and implement the different perspectives of information manipulation and organization.•Communicative deficiency affect both student performance, information acquisition,•

information relations and presentation.Examples of research of subject performance; 1. Bernado (1999) studied Filipino –English

bilingual students solving arithmetic problems and found that they did better in solving problems presented in their native language than English

2. Clarkson (1991) studied performance of English among students of Papua New Guinea and found that upto 39% of the errors were language related e.g. reading mistakes and comprehension.

The errors were lesser among native English

speakers. Such problems are associated with difficulties in understanding certain types of problems such as those that use ambiguous and abstract terminologiesThe following table outlines some terms of knowledge specifications at various levels: Definition Interpretation EvaluatingExplanation Generalization CriticizingDescription Summarization JustificationPrescription Drawing conclusion Problem solvingoutlining Analyzing Forming opinion

Vygotsky (1978) view speech as an extension of intelligence and thought, a way to interact with one’s environment.Language is a tool for learning and an aid to understandingLanguage acts as a vehicle for educational development and is important for the apprehension and acquisition of knowledge

Challenges for Quality Assurance in communicative competencies •Linguistic terminologies

•Interaction trends•Foreign languages•Linguistic policies/ Language roles•Language interference •Motivation•Cognitive skills•Age•Instructional systems•Traditional modes of instruction•Evaluation systems

Suggested methods to improve communicative competencies and skills amongst learners Cooperative learning: advantages involve The move from a competitive classroom

environment to a cooperative one Encouragement of students to take a mutual and

active role in the acquisition of knowledge and language skill, thus empowering minority students through a reciprocal interaction model of learning

Group work increases the quantity of student talk, the opportunity to practice language thus decreasing the predominant teacher talk.•Increased student participation•Cultivation of critical thinking: Lipman (1995) relates that critical thinking is skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good judgment.•Holistic approach to learning and teaching that acknowledge the importance of both teachers and learners fulfilling their respective roles in the educational process.

Conclusion Research and knowledge management in particular

with its ability to challenge prevailing skills and technologies require restructuring and rethinking the relationship that exist between communicative competencies and knowledge acquisition.

Need to create novel and creative ways of knowledge and information presentation

Competent instructors in handling subject matter Enhancing linguistic abilities of individual

learners be part and means of achieving quality results in education at institutions of higher learningIncorporate aspect of language acquisition, development into academic researchEvaluate and develop the child’s linguistic cognitive skills at early stages (pre-primary, primary, secondary and University)Language teachers need to utilize a variety of language technologies in delivery, quality assessment and evaluation of courses Educators need to understand linguistic factors that inhibit problem solving among learners.

Recommendations Provide room for language competencies

across the curriculum Consider ways of correcting linguistic

incompetence during discourse and interaction

Encourage individual language assessment and consciousness as a necessary tool to language proficiency

Adoption of audio-lingual technologies

Facilitate interaction through cooperate learning tasksAdequate infrastructure and facilitiesPromote critical thinking skill through capacity building