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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