1. Optional Lecture: Competency in English for the Moroccan Context Dr. Douglas Fleming Faculty of Education

2. Older second language acquisition models are based on the assumption that the mind has already formed a more or less solid basis for language competency in the first language and that the essential task in learning a second is transference so that full fluency can be developed. SL learners develop an interlanguage between the first and the second languages that has a systematic grammar influenced by both.

3. the learner will transfer aspects of the first language into this interlanguage as transfer occurs, the learner will often make errors that can be: lexical (e.g. choosing the wrong word because it is similar to one in the first language), morphological (e.g. placing correct tense markers in incorrect places) or syntactical (e.g. using incorrect word order)

4. Learning the second language is not just a matter of learning vocab and grammar. The learner must master communicative competence (Hymes,1971), which is the ability to purposely use the L2 in social contexts. In general, competency models are based on criterion or skill-based conceptions of education in which “what you know” is not as important as “how you use what you know”. This learning is measured against a standard.

5. Hymes’ work was adapted by Canale and Swain (1980) into a highly influential four-part language competency model: linguistic: the more purely language elements of structures and grammar socio-cultural: the social and cultural content and assumptions underlying language use strategic: what strategies a user of the language utilizes to overcome difficulties or enhance communication discoursal: what forms of discourse and conventional use frames the communication

6. Competency standards assume that there are abstract, ideal and distinct standard languages. Idealistic conceptions of language imply that there really are things like: full fluency and native speakers. And make abilities with multiple languages problematic.

7. Communicative competence is useful in that it can be used to define minimum standards for language use for various professions and occupations and is thus easily adaptable to testing and assessment. It is in that sense, skill-based. However, skill-based criteria in this context have been criticized as being artificial, product-orientated, and emptying the notion of language of cultural content.

8. However, functional linguists have criticized the way in which these competency models have: arbitrarily divided language into contradictory and redundant subsets; been used to privilege concepts of standardized and idealized discreet languages. Pennycook (2009) has noted that international nature of English makes a standardized model of the language problematic. How does now one judge what is meant by full English fluency?

9. Morocco is an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) environment in which communicative practice is difficult to maintain. For the Moroccan context, this means that the development of full English fluency is almost impossible to achieve. However, is full fluency against a foreign (English or American) standard even desirable?

10. Group discussion: Should full fluency in English be a goal for Morocco ESL programs? Why do students in Morocco want to learn English? What level of English should we expect our students to achieve? What aspects of English (e.g. speaking; writing) should we focus on?