Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and
discussed and redefined by many authors. Hymes' original idea was that
speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in
order to be able communicate effectively in a language; they also need
to know how language is used by members of a speech community to
accomplish their purposes.
| The modules in this section identify eight aspects of communicative competence. They are grouped together in two groups of four: |
Linguistic aspects
Phonological
competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive meaningful
sounds of a language, including:
Consonants,
vowels, tone patterns, intonation, patterns, rhythm patterns, stress patterns , any other supra segmental features that
carry meaning
Related to phonological competence is orthographic
competence, or the ability to decipher and write the writing system of a
language.
Example
In Korean
there are three kinds of velar stops: aspirated, fortis and lenis. It is
important to be able to distinguish these sounds, because there are a number of
different words that are pronounced the same, except for the difference in
these stops. It is also important to be able to pronounce these consonants
correctly so that Korean speakers can tell which word the language learner
means.
Grammatical
competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical
structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication.
Example
Learners
of French need to learn to understand the different time references of sets of
words such as je partais, je parte, je parterai, and to be able to make
appropriate time reference when speaking or writing.
Lexical competence is the ability to recognize and
use words in a language in the way that speakers of the language use them.
Lexical competence includes understanding the different relationships among
families of words and the common collocations of words.
Example
Learners
learning English need to be able to recognize the concept of chair and
what makes it different from a stool, a sofa, or a bench.
They also need to know that a chair is a piece of furniture, and
that there are various kinds of chairs, including easy chairs, deck
chairs, office chairs, rocking chairs and so on. They also need to
understand how chair is now used in an extended sense for what used to
be termed a chairman, especially when referring to a woman, as in Julie
Wright is the chair of the committee.
Discourse
competence is used to refer to two related, but distinct abilities. Textual
discourse competence refers to the ability to understand and construct
monologues or written texts of different genres, such as narratives, procedural
texts, expository texts, persuasive (hortatory) texts, descriptions and others.
These discourse genres have different characteristics, but in each genre there
are some elements that help make the text coherent, and other elements which
are used to make important points distinctive or prominent.
Learning
a language involves learning how to relate these different types of discourse
in such a way that hearers or readers can understand what is going on and see
what is important. Likewise it involves being able to relate information in a
way that is coherent to the readers and hearers.
Pragmatic aspects
Functional
competence refers to the ability to accomplish communication purposes in a
language. There are a number of different kinds of purposes for which people
commonly use language.
Examples
Greeting
people is one purpose for which we use language. What we actually say in
English could be Good morning, Hi, How ya doin, or Yo, depending
on who we are and who we are talking to.
Sociolinguistic
competence is the ability to interpret the social meaning of the choice of
linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriate social meaning
for the communication situation.
Examples
When
greeting someone in a very formal situation an American might say, Hello,
how are you? or Nice to see you again, but if he were meeting a
friend in an informal situation it would be much more appropriate to say Hi,
or Hey, whatcha been doing?
Interactional competence involves knowing and using
the mostly-unwritten rules for interaction in various communication situations
within a given speech community and culture. It includes, among other things,
knowing how to initiate and manage conversations and negotiate meaning with
other people. It also includes knowing what sorts of body language, eye
contact, and proximity to other people are appropriate, and acting accordingly.
Examples
A
conversation with a checker at the check-out line in a grocery store in the US
or England shouldn't be very personal or protracted, as the purpose of the
conversation is mainly a business transaction and it would be considered
inappropriate to make the people further back in the queue wait while a
customer and the checker have a social conversation. Other cultures have
different rules of interaction in a market transaction.
Cultural competence is the ability to
understand behavior from the standpoint of the members of a culture and and to
behave in a way that would be understood by the members of the culture in the
intended way. Cultural competence therefore involves understanding all aspects
of a culture, but particularly the social structure, the values and beliefs of
the people, and the way things are assumed to be done.
Examples
It is
impossible to speak Korean or Japanese correctly without understanding the
social structure of the respective societies, because that structure is
reflected in the endings of words and the terms of address and reference that
must be used when speaking to or about other people.
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