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There is a clear link between attitudes and motivation. Gardner 2006, p. 241 mentions that motivation and attitudes
affect students‟ performance on test because students with higher levels of motivation will do better than students with
lower levels. Students who are highly motivated to learn have clear reasons for engaging in the relevant activities. They also have good learning attitudes,
including learning effort, persistence in the learning process, attention on learning process, desire to achieve the learning goal, and enthusiasm. The motivated
students are also characterized by their effort to work hard, persevere in facing the difficulties, and satisfaction in the successful accomplishment of a learning task.
Learning goal itself drives motivation Gardner, 1985, p. 61. Students who have clear learning goal will have high learning motivation. Highly-
motivated students have strong desire to achieve the learning goal and make their efforts to succeed, thus have the good attitudes towards the activity to achieve the
goal. Therefore, learning motivation reflects the reason why people learn the language. In order to complete the research on students‟ attitudes, the researcher
can gather information about students‟ perceptions on the test, whether it is meaningful, good or bad, or beneficial French et al, 2005, p. 1826.
2. English Competence
The concept of language competence was first introduced by Chomsky. Chomsky practically defines this language competence as the ability to speak and
understand 1986, p. 9. Then, this concept of competence is developed by many experts to describe the standards or qualities of being able to speak and
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understand a language. Krathwohl comes up with a concept of language competence which includes factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural
knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge 2002. English competence includes proficiency in receiving and producing
language. Being proficient in the target language enables the learners to communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for social interaction,
academic, and professional areas Gottlieb, 2004. Students are considered proficient if they can receive language input and produce comprehensible output
Krashen, 1982, p. 40. Proficient English users should be able to understand what other people say and able to produce language. In other words, the proficient
English users should be able to communicate by using the target language. Gottlieb describes proficient English users as the non-native speakers of English
whose oral and written language approach comparability to that of English native speakers 2004. These non-native speakers should be able to produce language
acceptably and appropriately in the native speakers‟ environment. Speaking is considered as one element of language competence because
there is a connection between communicative competence and proficiency. Being able to speak and listen in the target language can facilitate participation and
engagement critically with their social and physical world through communication Goh Burns, 2012, p. 21-22. Students who have good language proficiency
should be able to initiate and maintain conversation, sustain group discussions, describe feelings, provide reasons in acceptable manner, and ask for more
information Brice, 1992 as cited in Goh Burns, 2012, p. 21. Therefore,
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communicative competence includes speaking skills, knowledge of language and discourse, and communication strategies. Based on the model of speaking
competence, people are considered proficient if they demonstrate grammatical and phonological accuracy, lexical knowledge, and discourse knowledge Goh
Burns, 2012, p. 53. In other words, the proficient language users should be able produce accurate and meaningful sentences, pronounce words correctly, and
demonstrate good understanding of the communicative purpose and social context of the language expressions.
Pronunciation becomes an important part of English proficiency because having a good pronunciation of the target language can promote intelligibility
Nation Newton, 2009, p. 75. Both speakers can understand each other if they can pronounce the words correctly. Another main goal of teaching that should be
achieved as a part of language proficiency is oral fluency. The students should have the ability to express oneself intelligibly, reasonably, and accurately without
too much hesitation Byrne, 1986, p.9. Adding to oral fluency, language proficiency also involves vocabulary knowledge and diction. The students should
be able to use the correct choice of words and inflections in order to convey the right meaning Mackey, 1965, p. 266. Hence, the speakers know what to say and
how to say it in meaningful communication to promote and manage interaction between the speakers as well as to maintain desired relations with others Bygate,
2010, p. 6. In this interaction, communicative proficiency is described as two way tasks, where the speakers should understand the information they receive and
give appropriate response Bygate, 2010, p.65.
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Dimensions Components
Knowledge of language Knowledge on linguistic elements, socioliguistic
skills, communicative strategies, lexicogrammar, and discourse competence.
Language performance Demonstration of language knowledge in actual
language use Actual language use
Real communication
Table 2.1 Dimensions of Language Competence McNamara, 2007, p. 37
In order to understand and speak the language, the students should master
communicative competence including linguistic, socioliguistic, and pragmatic competence. The students are not only able to comprehend and use the linguistic
aspects of language to communicate, but also demonstrate good knowledge on its functions and rules Council of Europe, 2014, p. 160. The standard of language
proficiency requires the students to produce language to convey meaning, message, and purpose comprehensibly and acceptably.
McNamara mentions three dimensions of language competence that the students should acquire, including knowledge of language, language performance,
and actual language use 2007, p. 37. Knowledge of language includes the knowledge on the linguistic elements, sociolinguistics skills,communicative
strategies, lexicogrammar, and discourse competence which helps to produce unified language through cohesion and coherence principles. Having good
knowledge is not enough because the students should be able to make use of their knowledge through their performance. The language performance itself can be
described as the demonstration of knowledge in the actual language performance.
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Last, the students should be able to function in the actual language use. Hence, they can use what they learn in the classroom to communicate in the real
communication using the target language.
Components Sub-components
Elements
Language competence
Organizational competence
Lexicogrammatical competence and textual competence
Pragmatic competence
Knowledge on language functions and sociolinguistic competence
Strategic competence
Communication strategies
Verbal and non-verbal strategies Psychophysiological
mechanism Information
processing in mind Understanding
and producing
information Table 2.2 Components of Communicative Competence Bachman, 1990, p. 87
Adding to the concept of language proficiency, Bachman mentions that proficient language users should also apply grammatical rules and language use or
its communicative functions to achieve communicative goal 1990, p. 83. Communicative competence or language proficiency can be described as
competence or capacity for implementing and executing that competence in appropriate communicative language use. Hence, the students should make use of
the linguistic elements of the target language to communicate accurately. Bachman explains that communicative competence and language proficiency
includes three components; language competence, strategic competence, and pyschophysiological mechanism 1990, p. 87.
Language competence includes organizational competence and pragmatic competence to help the students communicate accurately, meaningfully, and
appropriately. Organizational competence consists of lexicogrammatical
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competence and textual competence. Lexicogrammatical competence requires the students to be able to use the vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and phonology
accurately in producing the language. In order to communicate meaningfully, the students should have textual competence to help them string sentences and unite
utterances through cohesive devices and organizational patterns. The second language competence that the students should master is pragmatic competence.
Pragmatic competence controls the use of language functions and sociolinguistic competence to produce meaningful utterances. The students should understand
and use pragmatic principles which promote the relation between the utterances and the speech acts or that the speakers want to perform through the utterances.
Hence, the speakers can communicate what they intend to do so. Pragmatic competence also helps the students to use appropriate language functions to
perform the speech acts. Besides being able to communicate meaningfully, the speakers should demonstrate good sociolinguistic competence. By having that
competence, they can perform language appropriately based on the context of situation and culture. The speakers will also be able to use the specific registers
appropriate in the context. Strategic competence refers to the communication strategy to use
linguistic systems efficiently and clearly. If the students have the strategic competence, they can function in communication. Therefore, as the users of the
target language, the speakers can speak efficiently, not too much and not too little, to deliver a message. They can also apply the communication strategies to convey
a message, such as the strategies to persuade people, give opinions, describe
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objects, and turn-taking strategies in a conversation. In addition to the mastery of the verbal strategies mentioned earlier, proficient language users should be able to
use nonverbal strategies including gesture, facial expression, and eye contact. Last, the students should apply pyschophysiological mechanisms in the
communication. Psychophysiological mechanisms deal with the cognitive mechanisms in the minds of the speakers which are related to the way they
process information. In the communication process, these mechanisms control the speakers to gain access to information. These determine how well the speakers
understand the questions and give appropriate answers to the questions. Therefore, psychological mechanisms are important for maintaining communication in terms
of the information exchange. Cummins 1980 as cited in Arena 1990, p. 145 mentions that language
proficiency is highly correlated with communicative competence because they are intercorrelated and inseparable. Communicative competence promotes language
proficiency which requires the students to master the interpersonal communicative skills, such as accent, oral fluency, and sociolinguistic competence. Therefore,
proficient language users can be assessed through their performance in real communication. Krathwohl adds that being proficient in the target language
requires the speakers to retrieve relevant knowledge, understand the meaning, apply the knowledge of language, analyze the language, evaluate their language,
and produce the language 2002.
Components Sub-components
Grammatical competence Knowledge of lexical items, morphology, syntax,
semantics, and phonology
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Sociolinguistic competence Knowledge of sociocultural rules and rules of
discourse Strategic competence
Verbal and non-verbal strategies
Table 2.3 Components of Communicative Competence Fulcher Davidson, 2007, pp. 206-207
Fulcher and Davidson summarize those components of communicative competence
into three
competences called
grammatical competence,
sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence 2007, pp. 206-207. Grammatical competence includes knowledge of lexical items and rules of
morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology. Sociolinguistic competence includes knowledge of sociocultural rules and rules of discourse to
help the speakers to understand the social meaning of the utterances and the speakers‟ intentions. Strategic competence helps to build the speakers‟ verbal and
non-verbal strategies to perform communication.
3. Construct of Speaking
