Linguistic Competence, Discourse Competence, and Language Learning Styles of Fourth-year English Majors

Abstract

Communicative competence and language learning styles are essential factors for a language teacher to be effective in language instruction. This research assessed the communicative competence, with an emphasis on linguistic and discourse competences, of fifteen fourth-year BSED English majors and correlated it with their language learning styles. To gather the data, participants completed three different instruments: writing and speaking prompts to evaluate linguistic competence, discourse completion tasks for assessing discourse competence, and the Strategy Inventory of Language Learning (SILL) to determine their language learning styles. All the collected data were then used to establish any significant relationships between linguistic and discourse competences and the language learning styles. The findings revealed that fourth-year BSED English majors possess moderate proficiency levels in both linguistic and discourse competences. Additionally, all identified learning strategies were employed at a high rate, except for memory. However, it was also found that language learning styles did not significantly impact linguistic and discourse competences. Based on these findings, it is recommended that a similar study be conducted in a face-to-face setting to validate the results obtained through online platforms during the pandemic.