The Influence of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism on Oral Literacy and Communicative Competence

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of multilingual and multicultural influences on individual oral literacy through semi-structured interviews, as well as to analyse the attributes of the discourse from the interview session by implementing a conversational analysis technique. This research includes a deeper knowledge of the methods implemented throughout the learning and acquisition process, the participants' colleagues and environment, and the aspects of multiculturalism and multilingualism. The results of the research revealed that the participants employed several methods to acquire better communicative competence. The findings also revealed that the participants attained communicative competence by acknowledging the particular structure and attributes of the language (grammatical competence), recognising the historical context of the cultural background associated with the language they learnt (sociolinguistic competence), practising the languages (strategic competence), and ability to understand the language rationally through the act of listening (discourse competence).