Abstract
The existence of high demand for English Language is due to the consideration of English a language of knowledge, a window to the world, a language of liberal and modern thinking and a library language of the era (Reddy, 2012). Linguistic competence is the capacity to communicate information effectively and easily understood by diverse audiences including persons with limited English proficiency and low literacy skills (Goode & Dunne, 2004). World’s half of the technical and scientific periodicals, 80% of the world’s information storage, Mails and official communications are preferably done in English (Mohanty, 2012). For a child, English is an imperative subject to learn as a second language without any exception (Sindkhedkar, 2012). The medium of instruction at all levels of higher education system is English. The condition of the students studying at Government and Government aided schools at rural areas needed a lot of overhauling. Hence the study attempted to ascertain the Linguistic Competence of the rural students from Government and Aided schools for which ‘Linguistic Competence Assessment Scale’ (LCAS) was developed and validated. The scale had been administered with a sample of 300 students. The results revealed that LC of students needs a lot of overhauling.
Keywords: Linguistic Competence, English Language Teaching (ELT), Linguistic Competence Assessment.
