1.2.
Statement of the Problem
According to DeSantis (1999, p.10), «The ability to use
language efficiently and effectively requires years of practice and
study». However, Brumfit and Johnson (1979, p.117) say that
«Students, and especially students in developing countries, who have
received several years of formal English teaching, frequently remain deficient
in the ability to actually use the language and to understand its use, in
normal communication, whether in the spoken or the written mode».
Therefore, if the researcher decided to conduct a research
about an evaluation of communicative competence in conversational English among
E.L. Learners in the Literary Option, it is not because English Language has
little time to be taught and practiced in the whole secondary school program in
general and in the Literary Option in particular. The problem is not even that
teachers do not want to see their students using English Language efficiently
and effectively, hence communicatively competent in conversational English.
The problem of the study with respect to the given topic is
what lack of communicative competence in conversational English among E.L.
Learners in the literary Option can cause to the whole Rwandan society in
general and particularly to the learners themselves. For instance, it is known
that the main objective of the language is to facilitate a good communication
between members of the community using it. Hence, if an English Language
Learner is studying without acquiring the communicative competence in that
language, he will also go on studying that language without motivation.
However, Littlewood (1981) says that the learners' motivation is found in the
achievement of their ultimate objective of taking part in communication with
others. In this way, the lack of motivation will lead to the learner's poor
performance in E.L. tests.
Parents whose children are in the literary option can be much
discouraged since they miss what they expected to be the product of their
children. Similarly, the poor communicative competence, which may be generally
due to little and poor use of E.L. in actual communication, can hinder the
implementation of the bilingualism policy in Rwanda. Furthermore, Rwandan
intellectuals missing E.L. communicative competence in conversational English
can be limited on both international job market and studies in foreign
countries especially in English speaking ones.
However, all these consequences: the lack of motivation among
E.L. learners, the discouragement of E.L. learners' parents and the difficulty
of implementing the bilingualism policy in Rwanda, can be faced if people are
not aware of the problem of communicative competence in conversational English
among E.L. Learners especially those of the Literary Option.
1.3. Choice of the
Topic
During the pedagogic internship it was noticed that many
secondary school students were not able to express themselves in English
Language for communicative purposes. This might be mainly due to the fact that
their teachers did not put much emphasis on teaching oral skills to enhance
students' conversational English in actual communication. Therefore, the
researcher's interest was to conduct this research on the evaluative study of
communicative competence in conversational English among English language
learners in the literary option.
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