Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The objective: levels of specificity
- 2 The objective: general characterisation
- 3 The objective: extended characterisation
- 4 The objective: components of the specification
- 5 Language functions
- 6 General notions
- 7 Specific notions
- 8 Verbal exchange patterns
- 9 Dealing with texts: reading and listening
- 10 Writing
- 11 Sociocultural competence
- 12 Compensation strategies
- 13 Learning to learn
- 14 Degree of skill
- APPENDICES
11 - Sociocultural competence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The objective: levels of specificity
- 2 The objective: general characterisation
- 3 The objective: extended characterisation
- 4 The objective: components of the specification
- 5 Language functions
- 6 General notions
- 7 Specific notions
- 8 Verbal exchange patterns
- 9 Dealing with texts: reading and listening
- 10 Writing
- 11 Sociocultural competence
- 12 Compensation strategies
- 13 Learning to learn
- 14 Degree of skill
- APPENDICES
Summary
Items 4 and 6 of the extended characterisation are concerned with ‘sociocultural competence’, the aspect of communicative ability which involves those specific features of a society and its culture which are manifest in the communicative behaviour of the members of this society. These features may be classified as ‘social conventions’ (4a), ‘social rituals’ (4b) and ‘universal experiences’ (6). The degree of familiarity with them which is required for successful communication depends on the circumstances in which the communication takes place. It will probably be higher in contacts with native speakers of the foreign language (especially when the learner is a temporary resident rather than a visitor) than when the foreign language is used as lingua franca. The Threshold Level is designed to suit all these types of contacts. This means, on the one hand, that in attempting to indicate what may be expected of a learner at this level we have to focus on the more predictable type of contact, that with native speakers of the foreign language and particularly with such native speakers in their own country. On the other hand it means that an alertness has to be stimulated in the learners to unexpected sociocultural differences between their communication partners and themselves. This applies particularly when English is in use as a medium of international communication between non-native speakers from different cultures. Learners cannot take it for granted that their interlocutor will share either their own values, attitudes, beliefs and social conventions or those of Anglo-Saxon peoples.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Threshold 1990 , pp. 94 - 102Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998