COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH CLASSES: A CDA APPROACH TO TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTION IN KAZAKHSTAN AND CHINA.

Abstract

Abstract.
          This study examines the development of communicative competence in English language classrooms in Kazakhstan and China through the analytical lens of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Communicative competence, understood as the integration of linguistic, sociocultural, discursive, and strategic skills, remains a central objective of English language education; however, the extent to which it is achieved depends largely on the interactional patterns that shape everyday classroom discourse. Drawing on 255 hours of classroom audio recordings involving 255 students and 30 English teachers—112 students from Kazakhstan and 143 from Beijing—this research analyzes teacher–student exchanges to reveal how participation patterns, power relations, and culturally embedded ideologies influence opportunities for communicative development. The methodological framework is grounded in Fairclough’s multidimensional CDA model and enriched by systemic functional linguistic tools for identifying agency, turn-taking structures, and evaluative meanings.   The scientific novelty of the study lies in its introduction of a comparative CDA-based perspective to the analysis of English classroom discourse across Kazakhstan and China, representing the first research project to employ authentic classroom recordings to systematically explore how power, ideology, and cultural norms manifest through language and influence communicative competence. The practical significance of this work is reflected in the pedagogical implications it generates for teacher education and curriculum design. By revealing how specific interactional patterns facilitate or hinder communicative development, the study provides actionable guidance for integrating reflective, CDA-informed strategies into teacher training, for balancing accuracy-oriented instruction with fluency-building activities, and for designing culturally responsive tasks that support equitable participation. These findings contribute to the ongoing efforts of both countries to enhance the effectiveness of English language education in increasingly globalized, multilingual environments.