Communicative Competence

THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

2ND SEMESTER, SY 2020-2021
Communicative Competence

 Communicative competence is referred to aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and
interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts (Hymes, 1972,
1967)

 Savignon (1983, p. 9) noted that "communicative competence is relative, not absolute, and depends on
the cooperation of all the participants involved." It is not so much an interpersonal construct as we
saw in Chomsky's early writings but rather a dynamic, interpersonal construct that can be examined
only by means of the overt performance of two or more individuals in the process of communication.

 Communicative competence is what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively

competent in a speech community. 
Communicative Competence

 Michael Canale and Merrill Swain (1980)

 Canale's (1983)
 1. Grammatical competence
 "knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics,and phonology" (Canale
& Swain, 1980, p. 29).
 mastering the linguistic code of a language, the "linguistic" competence of Hymes and Paulston
 2. Discourse competence
 complement of grammatical competence in many ways.
 ability we have to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances.
 Discourse means everything from simple spoken conversation to lengthy written texts (articles, books, and the like).
 concerned with intersentential relationships.
Communicative Competence

 3- Sociolinguistic competence
 knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and of discourse.
 "requires an understanding of the social context in which language is used: the roles of the participants, the information they share, and
the function of the interaction.
 Only in a full context of this kind can judgments be made on the appropriateness of a particular utterance" (Savignon, 1983. p. 37).

 4. Strategic competence
 "the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication clue
to performance variables or due to insufficient competence .”(Canale and Swain, 1980, p. 30)

 Savignon (1983, p. 40) paraphrased this as "the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules—or limiting
factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, and inattention.”
 ability to make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through "paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition,
hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in register and style" (pp. 40-41).
Communicative Competence

 Cummins (1981)
 Context-reduced is the dimension of considering the context in which language is used.
E.g. A good share of classroom, or school-oriented language.
 Context-embedded is face-to-face communication with people. By referring to the context
of our use of language, then, distinction becomes more feasible to operationalize.
Communicative Competence

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 Communicative Competence by Strand
Listening
Linguistic Second language listeners must recognize the words they hear.  They need to know the
 Listening is the first Competence basic sounds of letters and syllables, pronunciation of words, intonation and stress.  They
way in which English also need to understand and apply the rules of word formation and sentence formation.
language learners The second language student, who can understand how words are segmented into various
involve themselves in sounds, and how sentences are stressed in particular ways to convey meaning, finds it
easy to understand the meaning of a message.  This too, enhances the students’ reading
the language learning and writing skills.
process. It involves
Strategic Strategic Listening is guessing the meaning by employing the bottom-up skill with top-
hearing, processing Competence down processing. In the bottom-up skill the student gets meaning from discrete sounds,
and interpreting individual syllables and separate words.  In the top-down processing the student gets
spoken words by meaning from broad contextual clues and background knowledge. The ability to use
linguistic and nonlinguistic clues is essential.  This combination of these skills and
distinguishing sound, processes assist the learner to predict accurately and to make adjustments accordingly.
rate, pitch, volume
and tone as part of the Socio-linguistic The listener adjusts responses to an utterance accordingly.  The skilled listener knows
communication Competence when it is appropriate to comment, ask questions or respond non-verbally.
process. The listener is aware of audience, purpose, genre, topic and degree of formality.

Discourse As students listen to oral text they are able to predict and to anticipate what will follow.
Competence
 Reading

 The process of reading Linguistic It includes knowledge of vocabulary, punctuation, phonological awareness
Competence and decoding skills.  It involves the reader’s knowledge of linguistic
involves decoding structures to understand text.
(recognizing and
understanding letters, Strategic A strategic reader has a repertoire of strategies to compensate for missing
numbers and symbols Competence knowledge.  Cueing systems such as graph-phonemic, syntactic, semantic
and how they are used and contextual cues are applied to regain meaning.
to form words and Socio-linguistic It involves the rules and principles that the reader applies to understand
represent ideas) and Competence the author’s purpose, genre, and level of formality, format and topic.  This
comprehension competence includes knowledge of allusion, metaphors, idioms and
figurative language.
(constructing meaning
from words, numbers Discourse Readers identify various connectors such as reference, substitution,
Competence ellipsis, conjunction, repetition and lexical cohesion in order to understand
and symbols in the relationships between ideas to develop holistic comprehension.
different contexts).  
 Speaking
 Speaking is a vital
component of Linguistic Knowing the basic sounds of letters and syllables, pronunciation of
language learning that Competence words, intonation and stress.  It is understanding and applying the
incorporates verbal rules of word formation and sentence formation.
communication
elements such as Strategic Strategic speakers master talk techniques using a range of speaking
intonation, timing, Competence strategies such as paraphrasing, redirecting, clarifying, sustaining,
inflection, speed, stalling and avoiding.
rhythm and pausing, Socio-linguistic A speaker uses appropriate language in order to apologize,
as well as nonverbal Competence compliment, (dis)agree, summarize, and persuade.  There is
elements to support knowledge of context and speech is adjusted accordingly; e.g.,
verbal formal, informal, neutral.
communication, such Discourse Student is able to demonstrate relationships of ideas such as time,
as gesturing and facial Competence cause and effect, contrast and emphasis.
expressions.
 Writing
 The process of writing involves
exploring, shaping and
recording one’s thoughts and
communicating them through
various text forms to particular
audiences using appropriate
tone and voice. Conventions
such as spelling, punctuation,
grammar, as well as syntax
(sentence structure) and word
choice, are elements of the
writing process
Linguistic It includes grammar, vocabulary and the mechanics of the language. 
Competence These performance aspects of written language are highly valued in
judging the quality of a piece of writing.
Strategic A strategic writer creates text appropriate to purpose, voice,
Competence audience, form and occasion.
Socio-linguistic The student is able to vary the use of language in terms of audience,
Competence purpose, genre, topic and degree of formality.  It is through socio-
linguistic competence that writers maintain their credibility with
their audience.
Discourse Knowledge of transitional devices that connect one element in a text
Competence with another.  Transitional devices such as reference, substitution,
ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion.
Language Competence
Sociolinguistic Competence

 Regionally / socially / culturally accepted language ability

 Features of sociolinguistic competence:
 1.  Dialect:  regional OR social differences in Dialect language.  (For example, RP is
social and not regional). 
 2.  Register:  considering ones audience AND social Register context
 3.  Naturalness:  staying in the bounds of what is Naturalness "common" usage of the
language.
 4.  Cultural Aspects:  adhering to cultural Aspects expectations when using the language,
including figures of speech, proper time and place, etc.
The Language Classroom: Discourse,
Socialization and Power

 Classroom learning constitutes a central part of the way most of us develop as both individuals and
social beings.

 “Our personal identities as learners within a group derive much from [classroom] experience. This
is due to the fact that our public learning selves have been moulded by a continual and explicit
evaluation of our worth as learners.” van Lier (2003: 130)
 The classroom is a milieu in which pupils principally learn about the world and engage in identity
work.

 It is also a place where both teachers and students collaborate on common endeavors, or as Mercer
(1995: 6) calls it, a “shared version of educational knowledge.”
 Classrooms are milieus in which students and teachers try to meet specific goals by
working together collaboratively, usually through shared routines.

 Eckert (2006: 1) borrows from Wenger’s (1998) notion of community of practice and
defines the classroom as “a collection of people who engage in an ongoing basis in some
common endeavour.”

 Mercer (1995) calls this process a guided construction of knowledge.

The Language Classroom: Discourse,
Socialization and Power

 In contrast to Mercer’s (1995) vision of classroom discourse as collaborative project, classroom talk has
often been characterized in the literature as rigid and formulaic.
 Fairclough (1992: 154) argues that “many questions in the classroom are ‘closed’, requiring ‘yes’ or ‘no’
answers or minimal elaboration.”
 Mercer (1995) addresses this issue by providing three possible reasons for this said rigidity:
 (1) classroom talk is about teaching and learning,
 (2) teachers have more power to guide such talk and responsibilities to fulfill, and
 (3) teachers must follow a curriculum.

 Classroom talk is more rigid and compartmentalized than everyday discourse simply because it responds to
specific pedagogical objectives.
Techniques or Strategies by which Ts Modify and
Control Interaction (Lynch1996)

 1. confirmation checks (verifying whether the teacher has understood students’ output);
 2. comprehension checks (confirming learners’ understanding of teacher’s output);
 3. repetition;
 4. clarification requests (asking learners to clarify their utterances);
 5. reformulation (putting a learner’s utterance in other words);
 6. completion (of learner’s utterances); and
 7. backtracking (going back to an earlier segment of discourse deemed important).
Initiation-response-feedback

 Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) describe the initiation–response–feedback (IRF) discourse

structure, which has become perhaps the most common model of classroom discourse to date.

 Mercer (1995) labels this conversational structure between teacher and pupil as an example of
the guided construction of knowledge, adding that it “can be used by teachers to narrowly
constrain the contributions of pupils” (p. 38).

 The IRF configuration can therefore be interpreted as a teacher-centered process of classroom

interaction, and as an indication of power imbalance between classroom actors. van Li
The Language Classroom: Discourse,
Socialization and Power

 Although power can be understood as imposing limits on certain forms of communication

and learning, Bloome et al. (2005) provide a more nuanced account of power in the
classroom.

 According to their power-as-caring relationship model, power becomes a structuration of

interpersonal relations, events, institutions, and ideologies. In other words, power also
enables social relationships and processes. This explains how awareness of power
structures is essential for classroom learning and teaching to occur.