PLLT Chapter.

9 summary
CHAPTER9.COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

“Communicative competence” became a household word in SLA, and still stands an

appropriate term to capture current trends in teaching and research.

DEFINING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Dell Hymes referred to communicative competence as that aspect of our competence that
enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally
within specific contexts.
James Cummins proposed a distinction between cognitive/academic language proficiency
(CALP) and basic interpersonal communicative skills (BICS). Cummins later modified his
notion of CALP and BICS in the form of context-reduced and context-embedded
communication with the added dimension of considering context in which language is
used.
In Michael Canale and Merrill Swain’s and later in Canale’s definition, four different
components, or subcategories, make up the construct of communicative competence:
grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, strategic competence. Strategic competence
includes communication strategies that may be called into action either to enhance the
effectiveness of communication or to compensate for breakdowns.
Lyle Bachman places grammatical and discourse competence under one node, which he
appropriately calls organizational competence. Canale and Swain’s sociolinguistic
competence is now broken down into two separate pragmatic categories: functional
aspects of language and sociolinguistic aspects. Bachman adds strategic competence as an
entirely separate element of communicative language ability, which almost serves an
executive function of making the final decision.

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS
Functions are essentially the purposes that we accomplish with language, e.g., stating,
requesting, responding, greeting, etc. Functions can not be accomplished without the forms
of language, e.g., morphemes, words, grammar rules, etc. Functions are sometimes directly
related to forms. But linguistic forms are not always unambiguous in their function.
Michael Halliday (1973) outlined seven different functions of language.
1. Instrumental function
2. regulatory function
3. representational function
4. international function
5. personal function
6. heuristic function
7. imaginative function

FUNCTIONAL SYLLABUSES
The most apparent practical classroom application of functional descriptions of language
was found in the development of functional syllabuses, more popularly notional-functional
syllabuses. “Notions” referred both to abstract concept such as existence, space, time,
quantity, and quality and to what we also call “context” or “situations,” such as travel,
health, education, shopping, and free time. Van Ek and Alexander’s exhaustive list of
language functions became a basic reference for notional-functional syllabuses, now simply
referred to as functional syllabuses.

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
The analysis of the relationship between forms and functions of language is commonly
called discourse analysis, which encompasses the notion that language is more than a
sentence-level phenomenon. In so many of our everyday exchanges, a single sentence
sometimes contains certain presuppositions or entailments that are not overtly manifested
in surrounding sentence-level surface structure, but that are clear from the total context.
Without the pragmatic contexts of discourse, our communications would be extraordinarily
ambiguous. Only the formal aspects of learner language overlooked important discourse
functions. Formal approaches have also tended to shape our conceptions of the whole
process of second language learning. Of equal interest to second language researchers is
the discourse of the written word, and the process of acquiring reading and writing skills.

Conversation Analysis
Conversations are excellent examples of the interactive and interpersonal nature of
communication.
Very early in life, children learn the first and essential rule of conversation: attention
getting. Once speakers have secured the hearer’s attention, their task becomes one of the
topic domination. Once topic is nominated, participants in conversation then embark on
topic development, using conventions of turn-taking to accomplish various functions of
language. Aside from turn-taking itself, topic development involves clarification, shifting,
avoidance, and interruption. The final stage is the topic termination.
H. P. Grice once noted that certain conversational “maxims” enable the speaker to nominate
and maintain a topic of conversation;
1. Quantity
2. Quality
3. Relevance
4. Manner.

PRAGMATICS
Pragmatic constraints on language comprehension and production may be loosely thought
of as the effect of context on strings of linguistic events. SLA becomes an exceedingly
difficult task when these sociopragmatic or pragmaliguistic constraints are brought to bear.
Pragmatic conventions from a learner’s first language can transfer both positively and
negatively.

Language and Gender

There are some differences between male speaker and female speaker. Tannen and others
have found that among American English speakers males place more value, in
conversational interaction, on status and report talk, competing for the floor, while females
value connection and rapport, fulfilling their role as more cooperative and facilitative
conversationalists, concerned for their partner’s positive face needs. In English, another
twist on the language and gender issue has been directed toward “sexist” language:
language that either calls unnecessary attention to gender or is demeaning to one gender.

STYLES AND REGISTERS

Styles depend on the context of a communicative act in terms of subject matter, audience,
occasion, shared experience, and purpose of communication. They vary considerably
within a single language user’s idiolect. Martin Joos provided one of the most common
classifications of speech styles using the criterion of formality: oratorical, deliberative,
consultative, casual, and intimate style. Categories of style can apply to written discourse as
well. Styles are manifested by both verbal and nonverbal features, difficult enough to
learn.Registers are commonly identified by certain phonological variants, vocabulary,
idioms, and other expressions that are associated with different occupational or
socioeconomic groups.The acquisition of styles and registers poses no simple problem for
L2 learners. Cross-cultural variation is a primary barrier—that is, understanding
cognitively and affectively what levels of formality are appropriate or inappropriate. The
acquisition of both styles and registers thus combines a linguistic and culture-learning
process.

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
Nonverbal communication is so subtle and subconscious in a native speaker that verbal
language seems, by comparisons, quite mechanical and systematic. The expression of
culture is so bound up in nonverbal communication that the barriers to culture learning are
more nonverbal than verbal.

Kinesics
Every culture and language uses body language, or kinesics, in unique but clearly
interpretable ways. But as universal as kinesic communication is, there is tremendous
variation cross-culturally and cross-linguistically in the specific interpretations of gestures.

Eye Contact
Cultures differ widely in this particular visual modality of nonverbal communication. Not
only is eye contact itself an important category, but the gestures, as it were, of the eyes are
in some instances keys to communication.

Proxemics
Cultures vary widely in acceptable distances for conversation. Sometimes objects—desks,
counters, other furniture—serve to maintain certain physical distances. Again, however,
different cultures interpret different messages in such objects.

Artifacts
The nonverbal messages of clothing and ornamentation are also important aspects of
communication. In a multicultural conversation group, artifacts can be a significant factor
in lifting barriers, identifying certain personality characteristics, and setting a general
mood.
Kinesthetics
Touching, sometimes referred to as kinesthetics, is another culturally loaded aspect of
nonverbal communication. Knowing the limits and conventions is important for clear and
unambiguous communication.

Olfactory Dimensions
Our noses also receive sensory nonverbal messages. A penchant for perfumes, lotions,
creams, and powders is acceptable and even necessary; natural human odors, especially
perspiration, are thought to be undesirable.