The relational model of competence (Foss & Reitzel, 1991, p. 132, citing Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984) operates on the premise that judgements of competence are never entirely objective. According to the model, both the speakers self-perceptions and the observer’s perceptions have a pronounced effect on quality judgements of the communication event. As Spitzberg and Cupach explain, this does not discount the importance of traditional objective factors, but is in addition to them.
In terms of self-perception, this model can explain how anxiety plays a enormous role in the perceived success of a speech event. Imposter phenomenon and stereotype threat are two conditions that can limit, sometimes severely, the ability to speak well in a variety of contexts. Imposter phenomenon is the feeling of being unfit or unwelcome in a specific situation and is closely related to, if not the same thing, as stereotype threat, where the biases of others become internalized to the point that we feel they are true evaluations of our identity (ACUE, 2022; Gassam Asare, 2023, p. 122).
In terms of the perception of others, this model can account for all forms of bias that can impact assessment of speech acts in an educational setting. The relational model of competence exposes the issues inherent in assessing with both single and multiple raters. Teachers can do a lot of damage to students if implicit biases (including biases against certain races, genders, accents, and cultural practices) are left unchecked (ACUE, 2022). The influence of the rater’s or raters’ habitus on the assessment of communication cannot be overstated. Inter-rater reliability is always less than ideal because each rater has a different set of exemplars of the variables being assessed. Even despite attempts to normalize exemplars between raters through norming sessions and rubrics, the differences between rater and student habitus are often too many (Inoue, 2022, p. 55), especially in the context of English as a Second Language developmental courses in higher education.
Ultimately, judgements of communication quality say more about the observer’s bias than the quality of the communication. Judgements of language quality in any grading contract give rise to Stoddardian dikes; a racialized grading apartheid. To this point, education is never ideological neutral. The presumption of ideological neutrality in education only serves to support the current worldview of the ones giving the grades (Inoue, 2022, p. 11, 60).