A Description of Communicative Competence in the English of Kenyan University Freshmen and its Implication on their Proficiency in English

Abstract

Abstract Language curricula often cite communicative competence as the goal for teaching language. This study describes communicative competence and proficiency in the English of Kenyan university freshmen. The study also establishes how communicative competence influences students’ proficiency in English. The focus on the communicative competence of university students was prompted by the global debate on university students’ apparent inability to competently communicate in English. Consequently, they may be unable to meet language demands in the workplace. This work was aimed at measuring how far Kenyan university freshmen had acquired communicative competence, and how this influenced their proficiency in English. The study was guided by four objectives: to describe communicative competence in the English of Kenyan university freshmen; to describe their proficiency in English; to establish how far their communicative competence impacted their proficiency in English; and finally, to compare their levels of communicative competence in written English with those in their spoken English. To describe communicative competence, this research used Canale and Swain’s model of communicative competence, which identifies grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse components of communicative competence. To describe levels of proficiency, the common European framework of reference for languages was used. The study is a descriptive/diagnostic research with a sample of 405 Kenyan university freshmen drawn from 15 public and private universities in Kenya in 2021. Random and purposive sampling techniques were used to select study subjects, while written and spoken tests were used to collect data. In-depth content analysis of the data was done to establish the students’ levels of communicative competence and proficiency in English. A t-test was carried out to determine the impact of communicative competence on proficiency. Another t-test was used to compare the students’ oral communicative competence with their competence in written English. Measured on a scale of 1 to 5, the study sample’s average score for communicative competence was found to be 2.612 for written texts and 3.1525 for spoken texts. The proficiency level for both the spoken and the written English was found to be B1 (threshold). The study also found that for grammatical, discourse and sociolinguistic competence, the level of proficiency increases with increasing communicative competence. Additionally, the level of communicative competence for the spoken study data was found to be higher than that of the written texts. Findings of the current study are of benefit to educational policy makers and teachers of English since it exposes areas that need improvement in order to realize the goal of communicative competence in the teaching of English in Kenya. The study also adds to the existing body of knowledge in second language acquisition, particularly the acquisition of English by Kenyan second language learners of the language. This work analyzed productive language skills: written and spoken language. Future researchers can analyse communicative competence and proficiency in the receptive skills: listening and reading.