Rethinking Communicative Competence And Competence Standards In EFL

The rapid globalization of English brings with it a number of varieties of English which exerts a very strong impact on EFL in the global context. This means that a number of English varieties have been commonly accepted across the world, and it also means that the language of English will be no longer the private ownership of Britain or America. It has been instead a commonwealth among other non-native speakers'countries. The communication across nations with different varieties of English therefore becomes a heated topic in terms of both theory and practice.Since Hymes coined the term communicative competence, many scholars rebuild its notions and models. The theory of communicative competence has a strong influence on English teaching and learning. China's Ministry of Education in the year of 2002 issued the New English Curriculum Standard for High Schools which puts that"the overall goal of English education is to cultivate the students'comprehensive competence in using English. Comprehensive English competence is based on five parts: language skills, language knowledge, culture awareness, emotion and attitude, and learning strategies. Language skills and language knowledge are bases for comprehensive English competence; culture awareness guarantees proper use of target language, students'learning and self-development are deeply affected by their affect and attitude towards the language learned; learning strategies can make learning more effective and ensure development of autonomous learning as well. These five aspects work together to achieve overall course goal". The so-called comprehensive English competence is communicative competence. Communicative competence is developed in overall development of students in it.Communicative competence as a goal of second language acquisition provides standards for language teaching and learning. The notions and standards of communicative competence in English education are based on native speakers'communicative competence. But the problem along with the linguistic change arises that language, the tool to communicate is with variation in the global context. So interlocutors to communicate with have no longer been as the same as they were. With the globalization of English, many varieties of non-native English occur. Non-native speakers outnumber native speakers. Millions of learners are learning English for international communication all over the world. Therefore, it is demanded to reconsider both the notions and standards of communicative competence. The author of this paper, through serious thinking and analysis, holds that a number of varieties are shaped by local cultural and social values, local norms of use develop consistent with these values, norms that specify what, when, and how something can be said at all linguistic levels from the phonological to the pragmatic. In English teaching and testing, it is not appropriate that standards are based on the native speakers'without accounting for local norms of the users of English in a particular socio-cultural setting.Within the framework of critical theory and linguistic variation theory, this thesis explores communicative competence and its standards, discusses their problems in globalization context.