SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Multi-competence

OUTLINE FOR PRESENTATION

Multi-competence overview

Chomsky’s view of competence and performance

Difference between mono, bi and multilingual

Emergence of multi-competence

Different definitions

Cook’s model of multi-competence

Implications of multi-competence

OVERVIEW OF MULTI-COMPETENCE

More than one language

Social phenomena

SLA is an umbrella term

COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE

Noam Chomsky, an American Linguist first introduced the concept of

“competence” and “performance”.

Competence is a person’s subconscious ability to create and understand

sentences, include those sentences they have not heard before.

COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE

Performance is real world linguistic output.

Performance may accurately reflect competence, but it may also include

speech errors.

The performance of a speaker may not be fault free, even though his

competence is perfect.

COMPETENCE VS. PERFORMANCE

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LANGUAGE ABILITY

Monolingual.

“able to speak and understand only one language”.

Bilingual.

“able to speak two languages with the facility of a native speaker”.

Multilingual.

“the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a

community of speakers”.

EMERGENCE OF TERM

After discussing the phenomena’s of competence and multilingualism, it shows

that the process for multi-competence has completed its process (monolingual,

bilingual respectively), there comes the interlinked form that is called multi-

competence.

DEFINITIONS OF MULTI-COMPETENCE

Multi-competence is a concept in second language acquisition formulated by Vivian Cook that

refers to the knowledge of more than one language in one person's mind From the

multicompetence perspective, the different languages a person speaks are seen as one

connected system, rather than each language being a separate system. People who speak a

second language are seen as unique multilingual individuals.

It’s a social phenomena.

Coexistence of more then two languages in one mind.

DEFINITIONS OF MULTI-COMPETENCE

The knowledge of more than one language in the same mind

(cook 1994)

The compound state of a mind with two grammars

(cook 1991)

COOK’S MODEL'S CORE POINTS

The L2 user has other uses of language the monolingual such as code-switching and

translation.

The L2 user's knowledge of their first language is in some respects not the same as that of a

monolingual.

L2 users have different minds from monolinguals.

L2 users have slightly different brain structures

COOK’S MODEL OF MULTICOMPETENCE

IMPLICATIONS OF MULTICOMPETENCE

A multicompetence perspective allows for language to be viewed as a part of larger system

then the separate entities in a learner’s mind.