Communicative Competence as Key Objective for and Appropriate Outcome of Language Learning

This chapter on valorizing practice explores the period of language learning in English schools from 1968–2010 and the different methodologies introduced over this time with which the author, as teacher and researcher, has been personally involved. The central theme is communicative competence, the ability to communicate in a foreign language, emphasizing the role of spoken language and the importance attached to productive language skills.

For much of this period, communicative competence is identified as an objective for language learning, an appropriate outcome: the ability to use the language practically. The chapter will trace this theme through the different periods of language learning, describing in turn the three key periods which marked language learning in England over the period starting with the ‘revolution’ of the pioneering audio-visual period of the 1960s, introducing language learning for younger pupils. This is followed by what is described as a consolidation period in the 1980s and finally the monitoring phase associated with the introduction of the National Curriculum in England in the 1990s. This is a way of establishing the importance given to spoken language from its central role in audio-visual language learning, to a less prominent position during the monitoring phase of the National Curriculum.