DEFINING

COMMUNICA
TIVE
COMPETENCE
 Communicative
competence
Communicative competence is the ability to
achieve communicative goals in a socially
appropriate manner. It is organized and goal-
oriented, it includes the ability to select and
apply skills that are appropriate and effective
in the respective context.
 The linguist Noam Chomsky
introduced the notion of
competence and performance as
part of his foundations for his
Generative Grammar (1965)
 Hymes(1967)
referred to communicative
competence as that aspect that
enables us to convey and
interpret messages and to
negotiate meanings
 Savignon(1983) noted that
communicative competence is
relative, and depends on the
cooperation of all the participants
involved
 IN THE 1970S, RESEARCH ON
"COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE"
DISTINGUISHED BETWEEN
LINGUISTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE TO HIGHLIGHT THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
KNOWLEDGE "ABOUT" LANGUAGE
James Cummins (1979) -- proposed a distinction
between CALP (cognitive/academic language
proficiency) and BICS (Basic interpersonal
communicative skills)- these notions are later
modified in the form of context- reduced and
context-embedded communication
 MICHAEL CANALE AND MERRILL SWAIN (1980)

Communicative competence is defined to consist of for different

subcategories:

1. Grammatical competencE
2 .DISCOURSE competence
3.Sociolinguistic competence
4. Strategic competence
 GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE

-IT IS THE
ASPECT OF COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE THAT ENCOMPASSES
KNOWLEDGE OF LEXICAL ÍTEMS AND
OF RULES OF MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX,
SENTENCE - GRAMMAR SEMANTICS,
 DISCOURSE COMPETENCE

-IT IS THE ABILITY WE HAVE TO

CONNECT SENTENCES IN STRETCHES
OF DISCOURSE AND TO FORM A
MEANIGFULWHOLE OUT OF A SERIES
OF UTTERANCE DISCOURSE MEANS
EVERYTHING FROM SIMPLE SPOKEN
SOCIOLINGINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

-IT IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE

SOCIOCULTURAL RULES OF
LANGUAGE AND OF DISCOURSE. THIS
TYPE OF COMPETENCE REQUIRES AN
UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIAL
CONTEXT IN WHICH LANGUAGE IS
USED: THE ROLES OF THE
 STRATEGIC COMPETENCE

-IT DESCRIBES THE NONVERBAL

COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES THAT
MAY BE CALLED INTO ACTION TO
COMPENSATE FOR BREAKDOWNS IN
COMMUNICATION DUE TO
PERFOMANCE VARIABLES, OR DUE
Thank you!