Speaking skills and communicative competence in EFL: relating theory to teachers’ and learners’ perceptions

Abstract

Mastering the art of speaking is an undeniably essential aspect when learning any foreign language. At a functional level, speaking implies communicative competence, which is often seen as the knowledge of how one uses the linguistic system appropriately (Tarone, 1981). However, communicative competence does not stand alone. It requires strategic competence and interactive skills that involve making communication decisions, while maintaining desired relations with others (Bygate, 1987). With the bolstering situation of English as an international language, there is an increasing demand for communicative competence to be addressed more systematically. Taking the importance of developing EFL speaking skills into account, it is vital to understand what is implied in second language acquisition and learning, as well as to understand how the desired language proficiency should be boosted, in order to have learners efficiently conversing in real-life communicative contexts. Therefore, this study will be based on theory related to learning and teaching English as a foreign language and, in particular, on the communicative competence and speaking skills. This will be the basis for analysing the data gathered on the perspectives of Portuguese EFL learners and teachers, as far as speaking skills and oral communicative competences are concerned.