Sunday, October 9, 2011

module 3 Communicative Competence

Module 3 Communicative Competence

Although the definition of communicative competence has been changed and theoreticians have stated different names and concepts about what the two words entail, they have always kept in mind the terms “knowledge” and “skills”. So what this competence keeps and considers relevant is the individuals’ knowledge (information, understanding, etc) and how they use that knowledge (through skills) for real communication.

In my personal experience I have had students with different reasons to learn English, so the term “competence” in these cases will depend on their expectations, needs and interests. Some learners want to be competent to understand technical readings like articles, therefore they will just pay attention to the abilities involved in developing this skill, other learners need to be able to speak and interact with others to exchange information on a trip, so they will focus their attention on speaking, etc. as teachers we should consider our learners’ interests and needs to plan learning goals. Communicative competence is not an absolute term that is why authors have stated this is relative and dynamic.

According to what I said below, the types of language tasks would depend on these students’ interests and demands, if they need to be skillful in speaking they should reach goals considered important and useful to do so.

Communicative competence development in children or young students happens totally different, in this case they are not the ones who decide what is useful for them to become a competent user of the target language, teachers and administrators make the decisions and adjust the programs according to their age, but the point here is nobody knows what the kid’s purpose is to learn a language, so adults are the ones who select the most “effective” approaches in order to help children improve their four skills simultaneously.


5. What types of social or cultural knowledge might they need in addition to structural and functional knowledge about the language?

Based on the social nature of language, the need of communication must be fulfilled; no matter the professional profile learners have they should develop and improve socio-cultural skills according to the contexts.





Theorists have contributed with the understanding of communicative competence by clarifying the terms, or giving more precise definitions in order to avoid misunderstanding about the purpose of this competence. As teachers we should have clear basic concepts’ definitions: Grammatical competence: mainly defined by Chomsky’s view, based on the linguistic code which involves Vocabulary knowledge, Knowledge of morphology, syntax, semantics, phonetics rules. This competence enables the speaker to use their language knowledge to understand and to be understood. Sociolinguistic competence: according to Hymes’s, it is the knowledge and repertoire to face different social situations, like cultural conventions. Discourse competence: the knowledge of rules and ways in which forms and meanings are combined. Strategic competence: knowledge of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that are used to compensate breakdowns in communication due to lack of competence.


According to Bachman and Palmer language ability comprises language knowledge and strategic competence. Language knowledge is the organizational knowledge that involves grammatical knowledge (vocabulary, morphology, syntax, phonology, and graphology and textual knowledge), and Textual knowledge (comprehension and production of spoken or written texts, knowledge of cohesion and knowledge of rhetorical organization and conversational organization.


The CEF model of 2001 manages the balance between knowledge about language and ability to use language through stating specific skills to carry out that knowledge. Thorough this model people can develop and assess their language, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment