Emosensory Competence, as an Undisclosed Construct of Communicative Competence, Predicts L2 Speaking Ability

Abstract

Given the undeniable significance of communication in language education, different models have been proposed to render communicative competence (CC) and its constructs. However, there seems to be an undisclosed construct which considers individuals’ real-world knowledge and sensory experiences essential in initiating and maintaining communication. To have an update on the existing models, this study introduces the emosensory account to the underlying competence of CC. Specifically, the study pursued to, first, develop and substantiate the emosensory competence (ESC) questionnaire and, then, to investigate the extent to which ESC predicts L2 speaking ability. To this end, 254 EFL learners filled out the ESC questionnaire in phase 1. In phase 2, the degree of ESC of 184 participants was analyzed in relation to their IELTS speaking scores. Results revealed that the ESC questionnaire enjoys psychometric properties and that, unlike socioemotional and sensory domains, cognitive topics are negative predictors of L2 speaking ability.