Proficiency-Based Outcomes

Communicative competency is one of the main goals of additional language programs. Communicative competence is the ability to use a language to function in a variety of basic language use contexts and situations offered by the Dene language.

These functions involve listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. Levels of communicative competence can be described in terms of such characteristics as the degree of accuracy in the communication of meaning, the variety of topics that can be dealt with, and the amount of spontaneity and abstraction involved in various language use situations. In this curriculum, these characteristics have been used as a guide in specifying five areas of language outcomes in communicative language development. While these outcomes are based on widely held criteria for additional language development, there has been an attempt to adapt the outcomes to incorporate the values that are held toward the Dene language learning and cultural understanding.