Chapter 1

Republic of the Philippines
NEGROS COLLEGE, INCORPORATED

College of Education
Tampocon II, Ayungon, Negros Oriental, 6210, Philippines
LEVEL OF ENGLISH COMPETENCIES AND PROBLEMS

OF ENGLISH STUDENTS IN NEGROS COLLEGE,
INCORPORATED, PHILIPPINES
A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Presented to
the Faculty of the College of Education
Negros College, Incorporated
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Course
BACHELOR IN ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
by
Adorna, Prince Mark

Emperado, Geliza Marie
Enesio, Janel E.
Fausto, Cyrill G.
Gador, Reda N.
Isok, Niña Mae D.
April, 2021
CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE
Rationale of the Study
English language cannot be denied and ignored since it is the most common
language spoken everywhere. It plays a pivotal role in our everyday life. Being a country
with so many languages, Filipinos are expected to be fluent and efficient in English.
Language is our primary source of communication; it is our way of sharing our thoughts
and ideas to others. Some people may use English language just to communicate.
English language is one of the major languages in the world, and it is more valuable. It
is the universal language and we can easily communicate to other people. It is the
language that truly connects the whole world of best way of communication for people
all around the world. It has been playing a major role in many sectors like medicine,
engineering and in education. It serves as the most important arena where English is
needed. The benefit of a person gains when committing to learn English language, is
the ability to communicate with the language itself and to create connections with a
wider range of the world‟s population. English language need not be boring at all and
show how the languages has drawn inspiration from some very interesting and unlikely
places. English language learning showed an increase in memory capacities to

understand other foreign people. This is a huge benefit because it allows the brain for
longer durations while thinking processes (Albert Jack, 2011).
English language is very useful in many ways just like when you seek a job and in
an interview. A high quality jobs need good understanding ability and speaking English.
Companies can easily open out to other countries, and these companies generally
employ graduates whose English is fluent and orderly because it facilitates accessing
information. English language should be the medium of instruction in school and in
universities, and there are larger numbers of books that are written in English language.
Students have different expectations in life. When they decide to learn English, they
want to improve their academic development to enable them to achieve excellent
working and to perform professional – the biggest goals of anyone, especially for the
young student. English language helps students find a high quality job, communicating
with the international world, and accessing scientific sources in the student‟s major field.
We want quality education to be liberating from intellectual, social and even

material poverty. Students who have so much difficulty with their communication skill in
English language may not function effectively, not only in English language but in their
academic. With this, the researchers are conducting a study regarding to the
competency of the English Students. The study will test the Level of Competencies and
Problems of English Students in Negros College, Inc. The test hopefully come up a
positive result since the researcher will be giving a grammatically test questionnaire and
use the random sampling way to the English Students. The data gathered by the
researchers will be analysing in order to determine if there is a positive result of English
competency of the students.
Statement of the Problem
This study aims to determine the Level of Competencies of English Students in
Negros College, Incorporated, including the problems encountered in learning.
To undertake this investigation, the following specific questions are raised:
1. What is the profile of the English Students in terms of:
a. Age
b. Year Level
c. Civil Status
2. What is the extent of the level of competencies of the English students with
regard to:
a. Knowledge of the Subject Matter

b. Fluency in Speaking and Writing
3. What is the extent of the problems encountered by the English Students

classified under:
a. Student Factor
b. Teacher Factor
c. Administrative Factor
4. What suggestions are given by the English Students to solve or minimize the
problems they encountered to improve their level of learning competencies.
Assumptions of the Study
In conducting the study on the Level of English Competencies and Problems of
the English Students in Negros College, Incorporated, the following assumptions were
made:
1. Student respondents were accurate in expressing their perception about
Level of Competencies and Problems of English language.
2. The Negros College, Incorporated English Students have varying amounts of
knowledge and skills in speaking and writing.
3. There is a room for improvement as far as knowledge and fluency in
speaking and writing the English Language.
4. Proper levelling of competencies of the English Students can assess the
strength and weaknesses.

Significance of the Study
This study will be beneficial tool in the academia specifically for:
Students. They are the primary consumer of knowledge in the school. They
highly motivated to learn about the English language even if this means a stretch in the
efforts or a big challenge of the educators. They are the one who will take the place of
the teachers when time comes, and they must be prepared especially in English Level
of Competency because this is an essential tool for their academia and post-academic
life. The career opportunities are more likely given to young people who are efficient
and competent in English.
Teachers. Being the star of the class, the motivators, instructors and the
educators of the students. They are the ones who promote good moral lessons and how
to balance and manage behavior of students. Teachers are the one who can make and
break the English Proficiency chain of this country. They are the front-liners in
promoting English proficiency in the classroom.
Administrators. Facilitates better curriculum in the English Department in
order to cater the needs of the students in the specific subject.

Scope and Limitations of the Study
This study is confined to the English Students of Negros College, Incorporated in
Tampocon II, Ayungon, Negros Oriental during the school year 2018-2021.
A total number of 60 English Students in Negros College, Incorporated chosen
through specified random sampling and have been utilized as the respondents of this
study.
The researchers used a questionnaire-checklist as the instrument to assess the
Level of competencies of the English Students.
The major concern was on finding the profile of the English Students, the extent
of their Level of Competencies, problems met by them and their suggestions to solve or
minimize problems so as to achieve competence.
This study has also its own limitation in determining the Level of English
Competencies and Problems encountered by the English students in Negros College,
Incorporated.
Operational Definition of Terms
Terms here are conceptually and operationally define for better understanding of
the readers.
Competency. In this study, this pertains to how efficient and effective are the
students in speaking, reading and writing using English Language.
English. This refers to language used by the students in speaking and in writing.
Grammar. This refers to the ability of the students in constructing sentences
using English Language.
Students. These are the English Students in Negros College, Incorporated who
are the subject or respondents of the study.
Instructors. This pertains to the teachers handling English subject who provide
information and give knowledge and lessons to the students.
Vocabulary. Refers to the stock of words we know and used by the students as
their basic means of communication.

Theoretical Framework
Theorists and practitioners bring their own experiences and perspectives to
the situation thus, the definition of speaking skills have many versions.
Speaking means expression of metaphor, which illumines many aspects of our
foreign language situation. Speaking is vehicle of delivering meaning which people do
not realize they are using it. Language is also a tool to deliver thinking, emotion and
feeling and need in order to communicate with each other (Rivers, 1972).
In the theory of Michael Canale and Merrill Swain, the notion of communicative
competence as a synthesis of an underlying system of knowledge and skill is very much
needed for communication. In their concept of communicative competence, „knowledge‟
refers to the conscious or unconscious knowledge of an individual about language and
about other aspects of language use. According to them, there are three types of
knowledge: knowledge of underlying grammatical principles, knowledge of how to use
language in a social context in order to fulfil communicative functions and knowledge of
how to combine utterances and communicative functions with respect to discourse
principles. In addition, their concept of skill refers to how an individual can use the
knowledge in actual communication. According to Canale (1987), skill requires a further
distinction between underlying capacity and its manifestation in real communication or
performance (Bagariü and Djigunoviü, 2007). Canale and Swain, as cited by Ohno
(2011) believe that the sociolinguistic work of Hymes is important to the development of
a communicative approach to language learning. Their work focuses on the interaction
of social context, grammar, and social meaning. Although Hymes said that there are
values of grammar that would less be useless without rules of language, Canale and
Swain maintain that there are rules of language use that would be useless without rules
of grammar. They strongly believe that the study of grammatical competence is as
essential to the study of communicative competence as is the study of sociolinguistic
competence. Canale and Swain‟s four components of communicative competencies are
grammatical competence, discourse competence, sociolinguistic competence and
strategic competence (Canale and Swain, 1987).
Ohno (2011) in his theory further pointed out that grammatical competence is the
ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language
and to use them effectively in communication and the ability to use the forms of the
language such as sounds, words, and sentence structure. It concerns the mastery of
the language code itself – lexicon, syntax and semantics. Canale and Swain (1987,
cited in Ohno, 2011) pointed out that grammatical competence will be an important
concern for any communicative approach whose goals include providing learners with
knowledge of how to determine and express accurately the literal meaning of
utterances. They believe that knowledge of these rules will be crucial in interpreting
utterances for social meaning, particularly when there is a low level of transparency
between the literal meaning of an utterance and the speaker‟s intention.

While discourse competence concerns the mastery of how to combine grammatical
forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different genres, the
cohesion and coherence of utterances or sentences. It is used to refer to two related,
but distinct abilities. Textual discourse competence refers to the ability to understand
and construct monologues or written texts of different genres, such as narratives,
procedural texts, expository texts, persuasive (hortatory) texts, descriptions and others.
These discourse genres have different characteristics, but in each genre there are some
elements that help make the text coherent and other elements which are used to make
important points distinctive or prominent.
Learning a language involves learning how to relate these different types of
discourse in such a way that hearers or readers can understand what is going on and
see what is important. Likewise it involves being able to relate information in a way that
is coherent to the readers and hearers. Whereas, sociolinguistic competence,
addresses the extent to which utterances are produced and understood appropriately in
different sociolinguistic contexts depending on contextual factors. On the other hand,
Cascallar and Henning (2011) said that strategic competence is a set of strategies
devised for effective communication and put into use when communication breaks
down. It is said to involve the ability to recognize, assess, infer and compensate for
deficiencies.
Another explanation of Canale and Swain, as mentioned by Ohno (2011), strategic
competence is made up of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be

called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance
variables or to insufficient grammatical competence. It is composed of the mastery of
verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action for two
main reasons: (a) to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting
conditions in actual communication or to insufficient competence in one or more of the
other areas of communicative competence; and (b) to enhance the effectiveness of
communication.
Ohno (2011) pointed out that the idea of communicative competence is originally
derived from Chomsky‟s distinction between competence and performance. By
competence, Chomsky means the shared knowledge of the ideal speaker-listener set in
a completely homogeneous speech community. Such underlying knowledge enables
the user of a language to produce and understand an infinite set of sentences out of a
finite set of rules. The transformational grammar provides for an explicit account of this
tacit knowledge of language structure, which is usually not conscious but is necessarily
implicit. Hymes says that the transformational theory carries to its perfection the desire
to deal in practice only with what is internal to language, yet to find in that internality that
in theory is of the widest or deepest human significance.
Moreover, Ohno (2011) mentioned Widdowson‟s view, saying that language learning
is not merely acquiring the knowledge of the rules, but also acquiring the ability to use
language to communicate. He says that knowing a language is more than how to
understand, speak, read, and write sentences, but how sentences are used to
communicate. Widdowson (1983, cited in Ohno, 2011) added the idea that once
competence is acquired, performance will take care of itself is false. He states that six
or more years of instruction in English does not guarantee normal language
communication. He suggests that communicative abilities have to be developed at the
same time as the linguistic skills; otherwise the mere acquisition of the linguistic skills
may inhibit the development of communicative abilities. Widdowson‟s idea seems to be
influenced by Hymes‟ thought that children acquire not only the knowledge of grammar,
but also the knowledge of appropriateness. Hymes points out that children acquire
knowledge of sociocultural rules such as when to speak, when not to speak, what to talk
about with whom and in what manner, at the same time as they acquire knowledge of
grammatical rules. With this, Widdowson (1983) strongly suggests that communicative
competence be taught alongside with linguistic competence.
To make the decision of teaching both linguistic and communicative competence
clear, Widdowson distinguishes two aspects of performance: “usage” and “use”. He
explains that “usage” makes evident the extent to which the language user
demonstrates his knowledge of linguistic rules, whereas “use” makes evident the extent
to which the language user demonstrates his ability to use his knowledge of linguistic
rules for effective communication. He also distinguishes two aspects of meaning:
“significance” and “value”. Significance is the meaning that sentences have in isolation
from the particular situation in which the sentence is produced. Value is the meaning
that sentences take on when they are used to communicate. Accordingly, acquisition of
linguistic competence is involved in use. Widdowson suggests that the classroom
presentation of language must ensure the acquisition of both kinds of competence by
providing linguistic and communicative contexts. Linguistic context focuses on usage to
enable the students to select which form of sentence is contextually appropriate while
communicative context focuses on use to enable the students to recognize the type of
communicative function their sentences fulfill. He suggests that the selection of content
should be made according to its potential occurrence as an example of use in
communicative acts rather than as an example of usage in terms of linguistic structure.
Grammar must be based on semantic concepts and must help a learner to acquire a
practical mastery of language for the natural communicative use of language.
The communicative competence model emphasizes the importance of the four
language skills since they are viewed as manifestations of interpreting and producing a
spoken or written piece. With this framework as the basis and taking the intercultural
component as the point of departure, a variety of activities in the four language skills are
presented for teaching learners intercultural communicative competence.
Communicative competence is the interaction of the grammatical (formally possible),
psycholinguistic (implementationally feasible), sociocultural (contextually appropriate),
and probabilistic (actually done) systems of language. All these, according to Hymes,
show that communicative competence refers to the psychological, social and cultural
rules which discipline the use of speech in social settings. It includes not only linguistic
forms of language but also its social rules.

An outline is provided of the contents and boundaries of three areas of
competence, or systems of knowledge, that are to be minimally included in a theory of
communicative competence: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and
strategic competence. Grammatical competence is concerned with the rules of
sentence grammar and sentence grammar semantics. Sociolinguistic competence
includes sociocultural rules for determining the social meaning and appropriateness of a
single sentence or utterance; it also includes discourse rules for determining the
cohesion and coherence of groups of utterances. Strategic competence is composed of
verbal and nonverbal communicative strategies that are used to compensate for
breakdowns in communication due to performance factors or to insufficient grammatical
or sociolinguistic competence. It is suggested that the value of such a theoretical
framework for second language learning is that it provides a clear initial statement, or
construct, of communicative competence. Such a statement is helpful not only for the
purposes of second language teaching but also for those of second language testing.
Grammatical
Competence Discourse
Competence
Lexis Cohesion
Syntax Rhetorical Organization
Morphology Register and Dialect
Phonology Cultural references and

Figures of Speech
Naturalness
Strategic Competence Sociolinguistic

Competence
Figure 1. Model of Communicative Competence by Canale and Swain (1987), cited in

Ohno (2011)
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of the study is presented based on the statement of
the problem.
The first box contains the primary independent variable in the study which is the
level of competencies and problems of English students in Negros College,
Incorporated, Philippines.
The second box contains the secondary independent variable which is the
students‟ profile. It contains the age, civil status and year level. Another variable is the
knowledge of the subject matter and the fluency in speaking and writing. The third are
the problems encountered by the English students classified under student factor,
teacher factor and administrative factor.
In the third box, it contains the dependent variables in the study which is the
suggestions of the English students to solve or minimize the problems they encountered
to improve their level of learning competencies.
Next page shows the schematic diagram of the study which focuses on the level
of competencies and problems encountered of English students in Negros College,
Incorporated.
Primary Independent Variable:
LEVEL OF COMPETENCIES AND PROBLEMS OF ENGLISH STUDENTS IN
NEGROS COLLEGE, INCORPORATED, PHILIPPINES
Secondary Independent Variable:
1. Students profile in terms of their:
a. Age
b. Civil Status
c. Year Level
2. English Students Level of Competencies with regard to:

a. Knowledge of the subject matter
b. Fluency in speaking and writing
3. Problems encountered of English Students classified under:

a. Student Factor
b. Teacher Factor
c. Administrative Factor
Dependent Variable:
Suggestions given by the English students to solve or minimize the problems
encountered to improve their level of learning competencies.
Figure 2. Schematic Diagram of the study

Review of Related Literature
It is important to recognize that second language reading is a new and different
literacy. As such it is a complex social and psycholinguistic process that cannot be
separated into reading components and language components. Indeed, it can be
hypothesized that second language reading is in part dependent of first language
literacy and other language operations (Bernhardt, 2000 p.32).
Effective speakers of English have communicative oral competence. This particular
type of competence, according to Scarcella and Oxford (1992), consists of
l i n g u i s t i c / g r a m m a t i c a l competence in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation;
pragmatic/sociolinguistic competence inappropriate use of language for the
context; discourse competence in coherence and cohesion; and strategic competence
in using communication strategies. Hedge (2000) adds fluency to the list, which is most
relevant to speech production Fluency is defined by Ellis and Sinclair (1989) as
speaking spontaneously and meaningfully with no extensive pauses or excessive
repetition.
Dr. Hermelo Cervantes, HACKSI chief executive consultant stressed that said study
showed why many Filipinos fail to obtain foreign jobs that require passing English
proficiency certification tests. “That is why no one knows how the English proficiency of
Filipinos stands against the global standard, not until now,” Dr. Cervantes said. Free
copies of the HACKSI study will be given to business schools/educational institutions,

including private sector & government entities upon request, by contacting: 6337734;
6366964, and thru: HA Cervantes Knowledge Systems, Inc. 4 th Flr. AB Sandoval Bldg.,
Oranbo Drive, corner Shaw Blvd., Pasig City.
Jana mentioned that, graduating college students, particularly those taking up
business/education courses must take note of a recent study that revealed their English
language proficiency at only the level of basic working proficiency. This particular level
of proficiency indicates that “the person hardly understands native English speakers, or
speakers of English is international meetings, or could they sustain fluency & accuracy,
plus discuss topics of general interest using non-elaborate structures.” Grammar lays
the groundwork for effective communication. Just as an improperly configured
telephone wire can cause static during a phone conversation, improper grammar can
likewise affect the meaning and clarity of an intended message. Grammar skills are
useful in every aspect of life from education to leadership, and social life to employment
opportunities. They are equally important at home where children learn their
grammatical patterns from their parents and family. This puts the next generation at an
immediate disadvantage if learning incorrectly. Grammar skills are important to be an
effective leader. Communication skills are indispensable to effectively give direction
and provide assurance of leading ability. In addition, if continuing education is desired,
grammatically correct papers will be expected from college professors.
Proper grammar is also essential for understanding English as a second language
as well as for learning a new language, since all languages follow grammatical
patterns. With the United States being a melting pot of nationalities and foreign
language speakers, hearing proper, consistent English is extremely helpful to
encourage any newcomers in becoming fluent. This, in turn, aids native English
speakers in understanding other dialects as well. From persuasive papers to resumes,
grammatical errors immediately take away the intended strength necessary to acquire
an ally on an issue or an invitation for a job interview. In both situations, grammatical
inconsistencies make influential words less poignant.
While correct grammar is a valuable tool for success in many areas of life, it is not
used to create a gap in the social world. It is not a tool for segregation, but a tool to
opening doors by being heard and understood more clearly. While correct grammar will
offer an edge in a job interview it won‟t be so obvious as to cause a separation from the
masses in casual conversation (Jana Johnson, 2001).
Vocabulary is the key to communication for a large majority of learners; the ultimate
goal of studying is to be able to communicate in a new language. The experienced
second language teacher and scholar Keith S. Folse has reviewed prevailing myths
about vocabulary. The very first of these myths is that “Vocabulary is not as important in
learning a foreign language as Grammar or other areas”. Debunking this very common
misconception, Folse points out that his worst breakdowns in communications have
happened when he did not know the appropriate vocabulary. Folse tells an anecdotic
story about him trying to buy flour in a small store in Japan without knowing the word
”flour” in Japanese.
Review of Related Studies
A number of studies are presented in order to serve as background of the
present study and to provide a wide areas of comparison.
Arshad studies revealed that English has become a lingua-franca language, thus
to promote the English language's interest in the people with the teachings of English
literature is regarded as the competence of the learners in the Target Language (TL).
Thus, it aims to investigate the effectiveness of English literary elements in improving
English language at undergraduate level. The qualitative method was preferred for
collecting the data in which 15 participants were involved, 5 of them were university
lecturers and rest of them were the students of English Department of Shaheed Benazir
Bhutto University, Sanghar Campus. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from
the participants and the data was analyzed by the thematic process. The findings of the
research indicated that the English literary elements are helpful in the favor of improving
English language. It was also declared that movies and dramas affect the English
language more effectively. English literary elements affect the learners' language
competence in the different areas as; Listening and speaking. These elements help the
learners to learn the language more effectively, and these elements play important role
in improving the comprehensions of the learners. The study suggests that there should
be integration of movies and dramas in the favor of students as they could get more
fluency in English and the study also suggests that the material in the class should be
used related to the learning area of the students (Arshad, v13 n6 p127-132 2020).
The study of Arshad which is the effectiveness of English literary in improving
English language at undergraduate level is related to the present study which is the
level of competencies of English students in Negros College, Incorporated. It is
indicated that English literary elements are helpful in the favour of improving the level of
competencies of the English students. It is related in the sense that English literary
elements affect the learners‟ language competence in the different areas; listening,
writing and speaking.
The study of Ellis refers to Second Language Acquisition as a non-uniformed as
well as an unpredictable phenomenon. This view immediately signifies the complexity
and diversity of acquiring or learning a second language. The complexity of SLA as a
process leads Beebe (1988) to suggest that a multiple interdisciplinary approach can be
used to view SLA in order to achieve a full understanding. Included in this multiple
interdisciplinary perspective are: the psycholinguistic perspective which stresses the
central role played by the mental processing in second language acquisition; the
sociolinguistic perspective which puts an emphasis on the role of social context in the
acquisition of linguistic code and how the social context influences the development of
communicative competence in second language; and the neurolinguistic perspective

which seeks to establish relationships between the brain and acquiring, knowing and
using a second language (Ellis, 1986).
Beebe suggests further that second language acquisition be looked at from: a
classroom research-based perspective which concentrates not only on the ways in
which second language instruction affects the processes, rate and ultimate level of
second language attainment but also the interactions and activities that are going on in
the classroom; and a bilingual education perspective which generally focuses on the
role of first language (L I) on the acquisition of the second language (L2).
The studies of Ellis and Beebe are related to the present study, it refers to the
second language acquisition which stressed that the learner‟s knowledge of a second
language (interlangauge) have a dynamic character which relates to the present study
about the level of competencies of English students. Students must have the knowledge
of the second language so that they will know how to improve their level of
competencies.

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Republic of the Philippines

NEGROS COLLEGE, INCORPORATED

LEVEL OF ENGLISH COMPETENCIES AND PROBLEMS

Adorna, Prince Mark

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

Rationale of the Study

places. English language learning showed an increase in memory capacities to

longer durations while thinking processes (Albert Jack, 2011).

information. English language should be the medium of instruction in school and in

want to improve their academic development to enable them to achieve excellent

We want quality education to be liberating from intellectual, social and even

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the Level of Competencies of English Students in

Negros College, Incorporated, including the problems encountered in learning.

To undertake this investigation, the following specific questions are raised:

1. What is the profile of the English Students in terms of:

a. Knowledge of the Subject Matter

3. What is the extent of the problems encountered by the English Students

Assumptions of the Study

In conducting the study on the Level of English Competencies and Problems of

1. Student respondents were accurate in expressing their perception about

Level of Competencies and Problems of English language.

2. The Negros College, Incorporated English Students have varying amounts of

knowledge and skills in speaking and writing.

3. There is a room for improvement as far as knowledge and fluency in

speaking and writing the English Language.

4. Proper levelling of competencies of the English Students can assess the

strength and weaknesses.

Significance of the Study

This study will be beneficial tool in the academia specifically for:

and competent in English.

promoting English proficiency in the classroom.

Administrators. Facilitates better curriculum in the English Department in

order to cater the needs of the students in the specific subject.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study is confined to the English Students of Negros College, Incorporated in

A total number of 60 English Students in Negros College, Incorporated chosen

The researchers used a questionnaire-checklist as the instrument to assess the

Level of competencies of the English Students.

minimize problems so as to achieve competence.

Competencies and Problems encountered by the English students in Negros College,

Operational Definition of Terms

students in speaking, reading and writing using English Language.

Grammar. This refers to the ability of the students in constructing sentences

using English Language.

are the subject or respondents of the study.

information and give knowledge and lessons to the students.

their basic means of communication.

Theorists and practitioners bring their own experiences and perspectives to

Speaking means expression of metaphor, which illumines many aspects of our

foreign language situation. Speaking is vehicle of delivering meaning which people do

competence as a synthesis of an underlying system of knowledge and skill is very much

needed for communication. In their concept of communicative competence, „knowledge‟

refers to the conscious or unconscious knowledge of an individual about language and

knowledge: knowledge of underlying grammatical principles, knowledge of how to use

language in a social context in order to fulfil communicative functions and knowledge of

how to combine utterances and communicative functions with respect to discourse

knowledge in actual communication. According to Canale (1987), skill requires a further

distinction between underlying capacity and its manifestation in real communication or

a communicative approach to language learning. Their work focuses on the interaction

of grammar. They strongly believe that the study of grammatical competence is as

essential to the study of communicative competence as is the study of sociolinguistic

competence. Canale and Swain‟s four components of communicative competencies are