Communicative Competence

GRACE I. MAIT

Noam Chomsky

The idea was originally derived from Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance .

Competence: shared knowledge of ideal speaker-listener set in a completely homogenous speech community.

Performance: process of applying underlying knowledge to actual language.

Communicative Competence

Dell HymesHymes: Chomsky’s view is too narrow to describe language behavior as a whole.

>Sociocultural factors or differential competence in a heterogeneous speech community

>Social life affects outward performance and inner competence itself.

>Social factors interfere with or restrict grammar use because the rules of use are dominant over the rules of grammar

Hymes concludes that a linguistic theory must be able to deal with a heterogeneous speech community, differential competence and the role of sociocultural features

Performance, he defines it as the actual use of language in a concrete situation, not an idealized speaker-listener situation in a completely homogeneous speech community

Dell Hymes

Hymes’ two kinds of competence: linguistic competence, and the communicative competence

Linguistic competence that deals with producing and understanding grammatically correct sentences

Communicative competence that deals with producing and understanding sentences that are appropriate and acceptable to a particular situation.

Dell Hymes

Hymes coins a term “communicative competence” and defines it as “a knowledge of the rules for understanding and producing both the referential and social

meaning of language”.

Dell Hymes

Widdowson knowing a language is more than how to understand, speak, read,and write sentences, but how sentences are used to communicate.

Henry G. Widdowson

TEACHERS should provide linguistic and communicative contexts.

Linguistic context focuses on usage to enable the students to select which form of sentence is contextually appropriate

Communicative context focuses on use to enable the students to recognize the type of communicative function their sentences fulfill

ORIGIN

Michael Canale & Merrill Swain

(Canale & Swain, 1980 ) They strongly believe that the study of grammatical

competence is as essential to the study ofcommunicative c ompetence as is the

study of sociolinguistic competence.Theory of communicative competence:a. Grammatical b. Sociolinguistic c. Strategic d. Discourse Competence

Theory of communicative competence:

a. Grammatical Competence- is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language .

Grammatical competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

Canale & Swain

b. Sociolinguistic Competence- is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating.

Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

Canale & Swain

c. Strategic competence- is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context.

Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?

Canale & Swain

d. Discourse Competence- is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.

Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

Canale & Swain

Canale & Swain

4

Grammatical

Competence

•Lexical items•Morphology•Syntax•Semantics•Phonology

Discourse Competenc

e

Sociolinguistic CompetenceStrategic Competence

•Ability of connecting sentences•Intersentential Relationships

•Sociocultural rules•Understanding social context

Verbal/nonverbal strategies to compensate for breakdowns due to performance variables or insufficient competence

Lyle F. Bachman (1990) Language Competence

Lyle F. Bachman (1990)

Language Competence

Organizational Competence

Grammatical Competence

Textual Comptence

Pragmatic competence

Illocutionary Competence

Sociolinguistic

competence

Lyle F. Bachman (1990)

Language Competence

Organizational Competence

Pragmatic Competence

Grammatical Competence

Textual (Discourse) Competence

Illocutionary Competence

Sociolinguistic Competence

Voc

abul

ary M

orph

olo

gy Syn

tax

Pho

nolo

gy G

raph

olo

gy

•Cohesion•Rehtorical Organization•Manipulative Functions

•Heuristic Functions

•Imaginative Functions

•Dialect

•Register

•Naturalness

•Cultural ReferencesREMEMBER

Locutionary act: Performance of an utterance

“It’s cold in here.”Illocutionary act: Intended meaning

[The windows is open. So I should close it.]

Perlocutionary act: Consequences of the utterance (whether intended or not)

[Someone closes the window.]

Lyle F. Bachman (1990)Grammatical Competence

>Linguistic code: grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Textual Competence>Coherence and cohesion

Illocutionary Competence>Language functions

Sociolinguistic competence>Adaptation to context: register, paralinguistic features,

cultural differences

Language Functions

Purposes we accomplish with language:

statingREQUESTING

greetingrespon

ding

Discourse Analysis

The examination of the relationship between forms and functions of language. It’s language beyond the

sentence.

Without the pragmatic contexts of discourse our communications would be ambiguous.

PragmaticsSociopragmat

icsThe interface

between pragmatics and social

organization.

e.g.American: What an unusual necklace. It’s

beautiful.Samoan: Please take

it!

Pragmalinguistics

The intersection of pragmatics and linguistic forms.

e.g.Tu and vous in French. In

English there’s only “you” for both formal and informal. But in

French they use plural “you” to address an individual politely.

Pragmatics

- Girls produce more “standard” language than boys.

- Men Interrupt more than women.- Men and women use different

syntactic and phonological variants.

Language and Gender

Discourse Styles

Sets of conventions for selecting words, phrases discourse, and

nonverbal language in specified contexts.

Discourse StylesORATORICAL Style

The language of speaking for a large audience. There may be some interactions sometimes.

DELIBERATIVE StyleThe language of speaking for a

larger audience in which the magnitude of the crowed doesn’t

let interaction.

CONSULTATIVE StyleA formal dialog with careful choice of words, such as a doctor-patient conversation.

CASUAL StyleLanguage of friends, colleagues,

and family members.

INTIMATE StyleComplete absence of social inhibitions usually between very close friends.

Nonverbal Communication

Kinesics

Body

Language

Eye Contact

ProxemicsPhysical Distance

Artifacts

CLOTHES

Kinesthetics

Touching

Olfactory

Smelling