towards an analysis of errors made by university students ... - DSpace

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highest level non-reciproca1 skill for
"it is the ability to process language as
communication and it underlies all language
use. You cannot talk or correspond without
interpreting but you can interpret without
talking or corresponding". 23
Widdowson also states
that
"the ultimate aim in language learning is to
acquire communicative competence, to interpret,
whether this is made overt in talking or
corresponding or whether it remains covert as
a psychological activity underlying the ability
to say, listen, write and read". 24
As to our students' problems in dealing with ngps, weinfer
that they are at a stage at which the recognition
of the
meaning of words and groups of words is necessary so that they can
consequently interpret correctly the message conveyed. Widdowson
says that the "communicative abilities embrace linguistic skills
but not the reverse". 25 i
From this statement we conclude that our students'
'comprehending' skill may be one of the factors which is blocking
comprehension, and the interpreting ability has not been properly
acquired yet. 26 However, we are not entitled to say that our
students are not able to recognize the role which words or
groups of words may have as elements of a particular piece of
discourse. Reading depends on comprehending but comprehending
does not imply the recognition of the signification of a written
sentence in the context of a particular piece of discourse.
Widdowson claims that interpreting is not dependent on
comprehending:
"you can comprehend the signification of a