PRE-EMPTIVE MEASURES TO ROLL OUT THE ROLE PLAYS IN ESL CLASSROOMS (Pages 273-287) by Mrs. M. Chandrasena Rajeswaran* and Dr. S. Padmasani Kannan** in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Anative speaker of English knows the rules that govern his native language and can apply them without paying attention to them. (Stern 1983:342) The native speaker has an intuitive grasp of the linguistic, cognitive, affective and socio cultural meanings expressed by language forms.(ibid:343) But English as Second Language learner lacks the communicative competence to use the language with its form and meaning. Canale and Swain(1980) have identified the components of communicative competence as (1) grammatical competence (2) discourse competence (3) sociolinguistic competence and (4) strategic competence which account for a whole lot of relationships in socially appropriate contexts among a language community. Lyle Bachman (1990) schematizes the grammatical and discourse competences into organizational competence and socio linguistic and strategic competences into pragmatic competence and labels them as ‘language competence’. Whatever be the confusion in defining the communicative competence one cannot deny the fact that language competence forms the core of communication either oral or written. While the theoretical aspect of the language is intriguing and nerve wrecking the ESL teacher finds a safe and secured entry into the language portal with role play as medium to decode the myth of communicative competence for her students. This article deliberates on the pre-emptive measures to make role plays an effective communication enhancing tool for the adult learners. Key words: communicative competence, language competence, pre-emptive measures, role plays, adult learners.