2.1.1 Pedagogical concepts
The guiding concepts for this study are based on the ESL pedagogical
concepts of Zhenhui (1), that the relation between linguistic competence and
communicative competence is important. At the foundation stage, linguistic
competence is the spontaneous, flexible, and correct manipulation of the language
system. Communicative competence involves principles of appropriateness and a
readiness on the part of learners to use relevant strategies in coping with certain
language situations. Linguistic competence, then, is the basis of communicative
competence. Without linguistic competence, there is no communicative competence.
But communicative competence does not automatically result from linguistic
competence. Forms of classroom activities such as role playing, simulations, and
real-life interactions should be used to provide as much practice as possible for
learners to develop communicative competence while practicing linguistic
competence. In other words, linguistic competence helps students acknowledge the
structure of grammatical sentences from English written scripts, autoware
dictionaries, native-speaker pronunciation audios and various interactive
communicative activities that support communicative competence. This, in turn, will
develop their speaking and listening skills to communicate with others when they
have an opportunity for practicing speaking and listening with the help of computerassisted
language learning (CALL). In conclusion, Zhenhui reminded teachers to not
only focus on linguistic competence but also emphasize communicative competence
as both support each other. Linguistic and communicative competence can be built
through learning activities so that students will recognize the language structure to
produce and develop their communicative skills when speaking and understanding
other people’s utterances or messages in communication setting. Moreover, in order
to elevate students’ communicative competence, a variety of learning activities can be
applied with the help of CALL to provide opportunities for students to practice
speaking and listening in virtual communicative situation.