COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Paola Andrea Lizarralde Duque

Communicative competence is concerned not only with how grammar/lexis is managed but also with the socio-cultural rules of appropriate language use.

Sociolinguistic rules

Grammatical rules

Communicative competence was further defined in terms of four components:

1. Linguistic competence

2. Sociolinguistic competence

3. Discourse competence

4. Strategic competence

1. Linguistic competenceLinguistic competence asks:

• What words do I use?

• How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

2. Sociolinguistic competence Sociolinguistic competence asks:

• Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic?

• How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to?

• How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

3. Discourse competence Discourse competence asks: • How are words, phrases and sentences put together to

create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

4. Strategic competence

Strategic competence asks:

• How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then?

• How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?

MODELS OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Three models of communicative competece

1. Canel & Swain

2. Bachman & Palmer

• 3. The common European Framwork

• Grammatical • Sociolingustic• Strategic

competence

• Language competence• Sociolinguistic Competence • Pragmatic competence

• Grammatical competence

• Textual competence

Conclusion• Communicative competences have reached an

agreement that a competent language user should possess not only knowledge about language but also the ability and skill to activate that knowledge in a communicative event.