The area of interest in this study is in acquiring communicative competence by an adult
with Limited English language Proficiency (LEP). As such, this study aspired to investigate
the process involved in the development of achieving communicative competence by an
LEP adult in a socially constructed environment. The data in this study were divided into
two categories: spoken and written. The spoken data was collected by recording selected
meetings involving the researcher, the subject, and several participants from the generic
English-speaking society in which the subject socialises in. The spoken data were analysed
based on a checklist and a scoring rubric that were both developed based on the test
specifications of the speaking component in Malaysian University English Test (MUET),
with features of interactional modifications by Pica & Doughty (1985). The written data
were collected using authentic journal entries and analysed using a checklist and a scoring
rubric that were developed based on the test specifications of the speaking component in
MUET. Findings from the spoken and written data revealed that by being in a socially
constructed environment, communicative competence can be acquired by an individual
with limited English proficiency. One of the recommendations that can be made from this
study is to integrate such method in English classes in a country’s institutes of higher
education.
