Language use and the language user/learner

4.4Communicative language activities and strategies

To carry out communicative tasks, users have to engage in communicative language activities and operate communication strategies.

Many communicative activities, such as conversation and correspondence, are interac- tive, that is to say, the participants alternate as producers and receivers, often with several turns.

In other cases, as when speech is recorded or broadcast or written texts are sent out or published, producers are separated from receivers, whom they may not even know and who are unable to respond. In these cases the communicative event can be regarded as the speaking, writing, listening to or reading of a text.

In most cases, the user as speaker or writer is producing his own text to express his own meanings. In others, he/she is acting as a channel of communication (often, but not necessarily, in different languages) between two or more persons who for one reason or another cannot communicate directly. This process, mediation, may be interactive or not.

Many if not most situations involve a mixture of activity types. In a school language class, for instance, a learner may be required to listen to a teacher’s exposition, to read a textbook, silently or aloud, to interact with fellow pupils in group or project work, to write exercises or an essay, and even to mediate, whether as an educational activity or in order to assist another pupil.

Strategies are a means the language user exploits to mobilise and balance his or her resources, to activate skills and procedures, in order to fulfil the demands of communication in context and successfully complete the task in question in the most comprehensive or most economical way feasible depending on his or her precise purpose. Communication strategies should therefore not be viewed simply with a disability model

– as a way of making up for a language deficit or a miscommunication. Native speakers regularly employ communication strategies of all kinds (which will be discussed below) when the strategy is appropriate to the communicative demands placed upon them.

The use of communication strategies can be seen as the application of the metacognitive principles: Pre-planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Repair Action to the different kinds of communicative activity: Reception, Interaction, Production and Mediation. The word ‘strategies’ has been used in different ways. Here what is meant is the adoption of a particular line of action in order to maximise effectiveness. Skills that are an inevitable part of the process of understanding or articulating the spoken and written word (e.g. chunking a stream of sound in order to decode it into a string of words carrying propositional meaning) are treated as lower-level skills, in relation to the appropriate communicative process (see section 4.5).

Progress in language learning is most clearly evidenced in the learner’s ability to engage in observable language activities and to operate communication strategies. They are therefore a convenient basis for the scaling of language ability. A suggested scaling is given in this chapter for various aspects of the activities and strategies discussed.

4.4.1 Productive activities and strategies

Productive activities and strategies include both speaking and writing activities.

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment

4.4.1.1 In oral production (speaking) activities the language user produces an oral text which is received by an audience of one or more listeners. Examples of speaking activities include:

•public address (information, instructions, etc.)

•addressing audiences (speeches at public meetings, university lectures, sermons, entertainment, sports commentaries, sales presentations, etc.).

They may involve, for example:

•reading a written text aloud;

•speaking from notes, or from a written text or visual aids (diagrams, pictures, charts, etc.);

•acting out a rehearsed role;

•speaking spontaneously;

•singing.

Illustrative scales are provided for:

•Overall spoken production;

•Sustained monologue: describing experience;

•Sustained monologue: putting a case (e.g. in debate);

•Public announcements;

•Addressing audiences.

OVERALL ORAL PRODUCTION

C2

Can produce clear, smoothly flowing well-structured speech with an effective logical structure which helps the recipient to notice and remember significant points.

C1

Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on complex subjects, integrating sub-themes, developing particular points and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.

Can give clear, systematically developed descriptions and presentations, with appropriate highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail.

B2

Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on a wide range of subjects related to his/her field of interest, expanding and supporting ideas with subsidiary points and relevant examples.

B1

Can reasonably fluently sustain a straightforward description of one of a variety of subjects within his/her field of interest, presenting it as a linear sequence of points.

A2

Can give a simple description or presentation of people, living or working conditions, daily routines, likes/dislikes, etc. as a short series of simple phrases and sentences linked into a list.

A1 Can produce simple mainly isolated phrases about people and places.

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment

Note: The descriptors on this sub-scale have not been empirically calibrated.

ADDRESSING AUDIENCES

Can present a complex topic confidently and articulately to an audience unfamiliar with it, structuring C2 and adapting the talk flexibly to meet the audience’s needs.

Can handle difficult and even hostile questioning.

Can give a clear, well-structured presentation of a complex subject, expanding and supporting points of C1 view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples.

Can handle interjections well, responding spontaneously and almost effortlessly.

Can give a clear, systematically developed presentation, with highlighting of significant points, and relevant supporting detail.

Can depart spontaneously from a prepared text and follow up interesting points raised by members of the audience, often showing remarkable fluency and ease of expression.

B2

Can give a clear, prepared presentation, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Can take a series of follow up questions with a degree of fluency and spontaneity which poses no strain for either him/herself or the audience.

Can give a prepared straightforward presentation on a familiar topic within his/her field which is clear

B1

enough to be followed without difficulty most of the time, and in which the main points are explained with reasonable precision.

Can take follow up questions, but may have to ask for repetition if the speech was rapid.

Can give a short, rehearsed presentation on a topic pertinent to his/her everyday life, briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions, plans and actions.

Can cope with a limited number of straightforward follow up questions.

A2

Can give a short, rehearsed, basic presentation on a familiar subject.

Can answer straightforward follow up questions if he/she can ask for repetition and if some help with the formulation of his/her reply is possible.

A1 Can read a very short, rehearsed statement – e.g. to introduce a speaker, propose a toast.

Note: The descriptors on this sub-scale have been created by recombining elements of descriptors from other scales.

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Language use and the language user/learner

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:

•in what range of oral production (speaking) activities the learner will need/be equipped/be required to engage.

4.4.1.2 In written production (writing) activities the language user as writer produces a written text which is received by a readership of one or more readers.

Examples of writing activities include:

•completing forms and questionnaires;

•writing articles for magazines, newspapers, newsletters, etc.;

•producing posters for display;

•writing reports, memoranda, etc.;

•making notes for future reference;

•taking down messages from dictation, etc.;

•creative and imaginative writing;

•writing personal or business letters, etc.

Illustrative scales are provided for:

•Overall written production;

•Creative writing;

•Reports and essays.

OVERALL WRITTEN PRODUCTION

C2

Can write clear, smoothly flowing, complex texts in an appropriate and effective style and a logical structure which helps the reader to find significant points.

Can write clear, well-structured texts of complex subjects, underlining the relevant salient issues,

C1 expanding and supporting points of view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples, and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.

B2

Can write clear, detailed texts on a variety of subjects related to his/her field of interest, synthesising and evaluating information and arguments from a number of sources.

B1

Can write straightforward connected texts on a range of familiar subjects within his field of interest, by linking a series of shorter discrete elements into a linear sequence.

A2

Can write a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’.

A1 Can write simple isolated phrases and sentences.

Note: The descriptors on this scale and on the two sub-scales which follow (Creative Writing; Reports and Essays) have not been empirically calibrated with the measurement model. The descriptors for these three scales have therefore been created by recombining elements of descriptors from other scales.

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment

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Language use and the language user/learner

Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:

•for what purposes the learner will need/be equipped/be required to engage in which writing activities.

4.4.1.3 Production strategies involve mobilising resources, balancing between different competences – exploiting strengths and underplaying weaknesses – in order to match the available potential to the nature of the task. Internal resources will be activated, possibly involving conscious preparation (Rehearsing), possibly calculating the effect of different styles, discourse structures or formulations (Considering audience), possibly looking things up or obtaining assistance when dealing with a deficit (Locating resources). When adequate resources have not been mobilised or located the language user may find it advisable to go for a more modest version of the task and, for example, write a postcard rather than a letter; on the other hand, having located appropriate support, he or she may choose to do the reverse – scaling up the task (Task adjustment). In a similar way, without sufficient resources the learner/user may have to compromise what he or she would really like to express in order to match the linguistic means available; conversely, additional linguistic support, perhaps available later during re-drafting, may enable him or her to be more ambitious in forming and expressing his or her thoughts (Message adjustment).

Ways of scaling down ambitions to fit resources in order to ensure success in a more limited area have been described as Avoidance strategies; scaling up and finding ways to cope have been described as Achievement strategies. In using achievement strategies the language user adopts a positive approach with what resources he or she has: approximating and overgeneralising with simpler language, paraphrasing or describing aspects of what he or she wants to say, even ‘foreignising’ L1 (first language) expressions (Compensating); using highly accessible pre-fabricated language he or she feels sure of – ‘islands of reliability’ – to create stepping stones through what for the user is a novel situation or concept he or she wants to express (Building on previous knowledge), or just having a go with what he or she can half remember and thinks might work (Trying out). Whether or not the language user is aware of compensating, skating over thin ice or using language tentatively, feedback in terms of facial expression, gesture and subsequent moves in the conversation offer him or her the opportunity to monitor the success of the communication (Monitoring success). In addition, particularly in non-interactive activities (e.g. giving a presentation, writing a report) the language user may consciously monitor linguistically as well as communicatively, spot slips and ‘favourite’ mistakes and correct them (Self-correction).

•Planning Rehearsing;

Locating resources;

Considering audience;

Task adjustment;

Message adjustment.

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment

•Execution Compensating;

Building on previous knowledge; Trying out.

• Evaluation Monitoring success.

•Repair Self-correction. Illustrative scales are provided for:

•Planning;

•Compensating;

•Monitoring and repair.

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