Communicative competence of the saudi learners of english at the faculty of languages and translation, king khalid university

Abstract

Saudi students of English at the tertiary level King Khalid University, encounter so many difficulties in real communicative situations due to the influence of the traditional methods of teaching English at the intermediate and secondary schools. The researcher conducted a questionnaire consists of eight questions in order to find out the main difficulties of the learners. The sample of the pilot study was ten students and the actual population of the study was ninety students from level four and eight. The learners' responses indicate that they lack the needed skills of communication strategies which usually lead to communication breakdown. For example, they change the topic when they feel there are some gaps in their speech. This literally means that students resort to risk-avoiding instead of risk-taking. The findings of the study point out the extent to which the Saudi students' first language influences their tendency of using some of the target language communication strategies. It is recommended that the linguistic competence should be taught implicitly whereas the functional competence should be taught explicitly during spoken English classes which may compensate for their lack of exposure to the target language.