Development of Oral Communicative Competence: A Teachers’ Perspective

This study was an attempt to determine the point to which the English language textbook, “English for Class 8” prescribed by the Punjab Textbook Board fulfills the learners ‘language learning needs of English as foreign language in Pakistan. The study aimed to explore as to what degree the suggested textbook increases the likelihood of learning the language and the diligent effort to development oral communicative competence (OCC) among the target learners. A quantitative approach enabled the researcher to comprehensively answer the research question. The results indicate that the relevant course book fails to facilitate the target learners to acquire English as foreign language to enable them to use the language for communicative purposes.  The tasks presented in the textbook, do not focus on sociolinguistic and extended verbal expression in speech of the target language. By including tasks that challenge the learners to engage themselves in producing meaningful utterances, the present English language textbook can become even better a tool to develop speech proficiency.