Proficiency in the English language has become a key determinant of success for many individuals worldwide. This trend is particularly pronounced in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, and China, where English education is emphasized from an early age, establishing it as the primary foreign language and a mandatory component of school curricula.…

Research on pragmatic competence involving various approaches has received increasing attention since 1980 when interlanguage pragmatics began to flourish. The aim of this systematic review was to examine and categorize contemporary studies on pragmatic competence of EFL and ESL students and to reveal potential moderators, compare results of…

This study is a literature review on the findings of different studies on the dimensionality of language proficiency. It aims to particularly analyze the assumptions and the statistical findings of relevant research since it has always been an endless debate among linguists and language teachers about whether language proficiency is organized as a…

Language for specific purposes (LSP) has a long history in the language testing literature. An outgrowth of the communicative language movement of the 1970s, LSP testing arose out of the practical need to assess individuals' abilities to perform specific tasks in academic and professional settings. This historical review traces the evolution of…

To better understand the factors facilitating or impeding the translation of "promising controversies" (Taylor & Snoddon, 2013, p. 439) of plurilingualism theory into meaningful practices, this article presents a synthesis of 30 empirical studies on plurilingual pedagogy as enacted and experienced by educators and learners in various…

Achieving communicative competency in English classes has been a key goal in contexts where English is taught as a foreign language (EFL). During this process, however, integrating the difficulty and complexity of real life tasks into classroom teaching has often been disregarded. Lack of opportunities for authentic language use often results in…

The necessity of forming foreign communicative competence of adult immigrants has been substantiated. The topicality of this issue for Ukraine has been defined. The experience of Global Talent Bridge, an initiative of World Education Services that is dedicated to helping skilled immigrants fully utilize their talents and education in the United…

This article offers a critical review of the existing literature on gains in a second language (L2) as a result of a study abroad (SA) experience. The aim of this article is (a) to provide an updated overview of the empirical evidence of L2 gains emerging during an SA experience in order to know what the current situation is, and (b) to identify…

Learning a second or foreign language is a long and time-consuming process, and not all language learners may be able to achieve a very high level of proficiency in the target language. It is even rarer to find second or foreign language learners who can use the target language as well as native speakers of the language. Researchers in the field…

Individuals need communicative competence for personal fulfillment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. However, the success of communicative competence within a multicultural environment requires that a system of criteria, indicators and levels of forming communicative competence have to be considered. Aim of the…

The production and understanding of humor calls for a specific competence. It appears that second language learners fail to develop this competence even when they reach native-like proficiency levels. A review of the literature suggests that the notion of humor competence in second language learning has not been examined. Humor competence can be…

This paper discusses the nature of the relationship between grammar and pragmatics--specifically, between the rules of a language and the principles for using language. It argues that knowledge of language itself plays a small, primarily enabling part in people's ability to communicate effectively and that a large share of communicative competence…

An examination of concerns about and suggestions for revising the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Oral Proficiency Guidelines indicates that confirmatory empirical research and determination of the relative absence or presence of components are needed. (CB)

Reviews the various definitions of communicative competence, and argues for a view of communicative competence as language use, a lesser but more readily achievable ambition for both theory and pedagogy. (Author/CB)

A model for describing the oral language competence of bilingual speakers is presented. The model provides for the evaluation of the speaker on the phonological (based on native-speaker judgment), morphological (based on the formal written language), syntactic (based, in part on the complexity of the constructions used) and semantic pragmatic…