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Developing A Test Of Communicative Competence For English As A Second Language Students At The College Level, Kristen Kern

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the research was to develop a test of oral communicative competence for English as a Second Language (ESL) students at the college level.

This research first reviewed the current literature on the topic of communicative competence from the perspectives of linguistics and sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and speech communication. The 1iterature on testing for communicative competence within the ESL and foreign language teaching fields was also reviewed. A 7-minute oral semi-direct taped test was then developed and administered to a trial group of 5 ESL students and a final group of 25 ESL students at Portland State University. …