Promotion of oral communicative competence in Basic Education

Challenges and proposals

Abstract

Oral communicative competence (OCC) emphasizes the effective use of language in specific communication contexts ruled by sociocultural norms (Hymes 1972). According to Rosales-Lopez (1994a), an individual communicates effectively when he or she masters the different language skills: verbal, paraverbal, and non-verbal. Considering the guidelines of the Ministry of Education for the 7th grade – Portuguese 1st language (Ministério da Educação, 2017, 2018), the programme “Communication and Oral Expression: speaking, listening, and reading in middle school” (COE – 7) was developed to support teachers in defining strategies and activities to be implemented in the classroom for the explicit teaching of oral communication skills. This article presents the results of the quasi-experimental study designed to evaluate the impact of the oral skills training program on learners’ oral communicative competence (verbal, paraverbal, non-verbal skills, and OCC total score), comprising a simple of 122 students attending two public schools in Northern Portugal. From these students, 67 constituted the experimental group, and 55 the control group, with age ranging between 11 and 16 (M = 12,19, DP = 0,84). After controlling for the effects of pre-test results, statistically significant differences were observed at the end of the intervention (Pillai’s Trace = 0,0193, F (3, 115) = 9,196, p <0,001, ηp2 = 0,193). ANCOVA tests corroborate this result, reporting statistically significant differences between groups in the three components of the OCC. The effect size is large for verbal skills, and moderate for paraverbal and nonverbal skills. The infusion approach proved to be achievable, therefore the CEO – 7 will be probably an effective instrument for the explicit teaching of OCC in Portuguese 1st language classrooms.