Assessing Social and Cultural Awareness: The Sociolinguistic Competence of Arts Students

Sociolinguistic competence is the understanding of social and cultural usage and discourse norms that apply to various languages. The study aimed to assess the respondents’ level of social and cultural awareness to know their level of sociolinguistic competence. The descriptive correlational research method was used to determine their level of social awareness, cultural awareness, and their sociolinguistic competence awareness. The result revealed that there is a significant difference between the respondents’ sociolinguistic competence awareness in year level and age, however, no significant difference in terms of course, there is a significant difference between the respondents’ level of social awareness in year level and course, however, no significant difference in terms of age, and it is indicated that there is a significant difference between the respondents’ level of cultural awareness in year level and course, however, no significant difference in terms of age. Hence, the level of sociolinguistic competence awareness depends on the level of awareness to social and cultural aspects of language. With this, there is a need for the students to be aware of their differences in social and cultural aspects of language to develop their level of sociolinguistic competence awareness. Students have to recognize how they use language, adjust their linguistic terms to connect with different culture, and address others with socially appropriate language.