Communicative Competence in a Second Language

Matthew Kanwit is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. His research on communicative competence and functional approaches to L2 acquisition has appeared in Applied Linguistics, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Learning, The Modern Language Journal, and the Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics.Megan Solon is Lecturer in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University, USA. She researches the acquisition of phonetics/phonology, including sociolinguistically variable features. She is co-editor of the Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics book series and co-author of The Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language: Foundations and New Developments.

"This volume achieves unprecedented levels of coherence, epistemological complementarity, and currency in the exploration of communicative competence. It offers a vibrant tour de force through theories, methods, and diverse spheres of application. A must read for all interested in understanding this construct at the heart of the field of second language acquisition!"Lourdes Ortega, Georgetown University, USA"The notion of communicative competence is so deeply entrenched in our collective understanding of L2 development. Yet many of us, if prompted on the topic, might respond like the fish that asks "What is water?". Flounder no longer! Kanwit and Solon bring together in this volume works by a world-class cast of contributors that deftly address the theory-methods-practice trifecta as it pertains to communicative competence. The editors’ and authors’ various takes on this topic are as refreshing as they are informed, as current as they are diverse in perspective."Luke Plonsky, Northern Arizona University, USA"This engaging, original, scholarly, and insightful book updates the concept of communicative competence, clarifying and deepening the definition, description, and analysis of this crucial concept in second language acquisition. It covers a multiplicity of aspects of the area and deftly and authoritatively presents theories, methodologies, and applications. This is a significant contribution to the field, and a must read for both established scholars and those new to the field, with contributions from distinguished researchers from a wide variety of research areas."Vera Regan, University College Dublin, Ireland

• Table of ContentsList of contributorsAcknowledgements1. Introduction: Historical overview, key constructs, and recent developments in the study of communicative competence Matthew Kanwit and Megan SolonPart 1: Theoretical overviews of communicative competence2. Generative considerations of communicative competence Alan Juffs3. Sociolinguistic approaches to communicative competenceKimberly L. Geeslin and Stacey Hanson4. Sociocultural considerations of communicative competenceMatthew E. PoehnerPart II: Methodological tools for researching communicative competence5. Investigating communicative competence in ethnographic researchRebecca Lurie Starr6. Real-time psycholinguistic measures of communicative competenceJill Jegerski and Sara Fernández Cuenca7. Corpus-linguistic and computational methods for analyzing communicative competence: contributions from usage-based approachesStefan Th. GriesPart III: Applications: How do learners show communicative competence?8. Interlanguage pragmatics as communicative competenceMinh Thi Thuy Nguyen9. Applying a communicative competence framework to the study and teaching of second language writingCharlene Polio and D. Philip Montgomery10. Computer-assisted language learning and communicative competenceGlenn Stockwell and Yurika Ito11. Assessing communicative competenceLuke Harding, Susy Macqueen, and John Pill12. Looking forward: Future directions in the study of communicative competenceMegan Solon and Matthew KanwitIndex