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~ spoken,~ whatwhichincludingand14 MICHAEL P. BREEN AND CHRISTOPHER N. CANDLINto explore them and the sourccs from which they derive. They also need to be enabled tointerpret the expectations which the specific purposes of the curriculum make upon themas learners. They need to interpret ~ at the start of the learning- teaching process andthroughout this process ~ the target repertoire and its underlying competence demandsof them. Howcver vague a learner’s initial interpretation may be, he is not going to learnanything unless he has an idea of what he is trying to achievc. Therefore, a process ofnegotiation between the learner’s contributions ~ expectations ~~ the targetrepertoirc, and the means b? which thesc two are brought together, is likely to bccharacteristic of a communicative methodology. Curriculum purposes inform and guidemethodology, and an account of learner cxpcctations within purposes can enablemethodology to involve these subjective contributions of the learner and, thereby, call uponthc genuine intersubjective rcsponsibility of that learner.4 How are the curriculum purposes to be achieved?4. I Methodology as a communicative processLanguage learning within a communicative curriculum is most appropriately seen ascommunicative interaction involving all the participants in the learning and including thevarious material resourccs on which the learning is cxercised.Therefore, language learningmay be seen as a process which grows out of the interaction lietween learners, teachers,texts and activities.This communicative interaction is likely to engage the abilities within the learner’sdeveloping competence in an arena of cooperative negotiation, joint interpretation, and thesharing of rxprcssion. The communicative classroom can serve as a forum characterised liythe activation of these abilities upon the learners’ new and developing knowledge. Thisactivation will depend on the provision of a rangc of differcnt text-types in different mediawritten, visual and audio-visual ~ the participants can make use of todevelop their competencc through a variety of activities and tasks. The presence of a rangeof text-types acknowledgcs that the use of communicative abilities is not restricted to anyone medium of communication.The earlier distinction we saw between underlying abilitiesand the set of skills which serve and depend on such abilities enables us to perceive that thelearner may exploit any selected skill or combination of skills to develop and refine hisinterpretation, expression and negotiation. Thr learner need not be restricted to thcparticular skills performance laid down by the target repertoire. Because communicativeabilities permeate each of the skills, they can be scen to underlie speaking, hearing, readingand writing and to be independent of any prcscribcd selcction or combination of theseskills. Similarly, just as no single communicative ability can really develop independentlyof thc other abilities, so the developmcnt of any single skill may well drpend on the appropriatedevelopment of the other skills. In other words, a refinement of intcrprctation willcontribute to the refinement of expression, and vice-versa; just as a refinement of the skillof reading, for example, will contribute to the refinement of the skill of speaking and viceversa.Classroom procedures and activities can involve participants in 130th communicatingand metacommunicating. We have rcferrcd to the characteristics of communicating insection 1 of this paper. By metacommunicating we imply the learner’s activity in analysing,monitoring and evaluating those knowledge systems implicit within the various text-typesconfronting him during learning. Such metacommunication occurs within the communicativeperformance of thc classroom as a sociolinguistic activity in its own right.