Widdowson's Model of Communicative Competence and the Testing of Reading: An Exploratory Study.

Abstract This paper considers the validity of Widdowson's discourse model of communicative competence and performance (Widdowson, H., 1983. Learning Purpose and Language Use. Oxford University Press, Oxford) as the basis for developing tests of reading. The article describes the basic structure of the model, and attempts to add to the original description in such a way that it is possible to design an operational test of the model components. The purpose of the operational test is only to investigate the adequacy of the model as a theoretical basis for test design, but successful model validation is potentially very important for the interpretation of test scores. The results suggest that there is some empirical support for the position that one level of the model is valid for the stated purpose.

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