Communicative competence in an ESL task

This ethnographic study is of an eleven-minute segment of an English as a Second Language lesson in a Year 8 class in Torres Strait. It focuses on a tandem activity where students are asked to get information from each other in ‘proper English sentences.’ Though the aim is laudable, the task is structured more to get the information than to practise the process of talking. Furthermore, it is not situated in a social setting despite student attempts to context it socially. The students have difficulty understanding the complex language used to introduce the task, but ultimately engage in it for a substantial time, practising communicating with each other and with the teacher. However, the neophyte teacher’s goal of grammatical competence plays down the importance of sociolinguistic competence.