Lecture 7/UP

The Components of Communicative Competence

Coping and Carrying on Coherent Communication in (and outside) the Classroom What is communicative competence? The term communicative competence was coined y ! "ell Hymes (#$7%) in opposition to the Chomskys a stract notion o& ideal speaker competence' (or )ymes! such competence involves
*not only +nowing the grammatical rules of a language ut also what to say to whom in what circumstances and how to say it, that is! the rules o& grammar are useless without the rules o& language use' Thus! the real o -ective o& linguistic research should e the study o& how language is per&ormed in di&&erent conte.ts! with di&&erent people! on di&&erent topics! &or di&&erent purposes'/

0 componential model o& Co1Co was &irst developed y Canale & Swain (#$23) and later re&ined y Canale (#$24)' Celce-Murcia, Drnyei & Thurrell (#$$5) &urther modi&ied the model' 6n their view! CoCo may e seen as a comple. o& +nowledge and s+ills'

1 Linguistic competence 6t is the knowledge of the asic elements of the language code (synta.! morphology! voca ulary! phonology! orthography)' )istorically the most thoroughly discussed/analysed component this competence needs no &urther speci&ication! though distinctions may not e as clear1cut as o&ten assumed (vi7' grammar vs' le.is)' 2 Actional competence 6t is the a ility to understand and con!ey communicati!e intent y interpreting and performing language functions (complimenting! reporting! agreeing/disagreeing! predicting! suggesting! etc')' There is no one1to1one relationship etween linguistic &orms and &unctions! e'g'
Come here8 (&orm) 9 command! threat! tempting! etc' command (&unction) 96 want you to chec+ this'/ Perhaps you can chec+ this:/ ;ou may want to chec+ this

The appreciation o& this +ind o& competence very much underlies the emergence o& &unctional/notional sylla uses in the #$23s (c&' <an =+ #$$3)' 3 Discourse competence 6t is the a ility to com ine language structures into different types of unified spoken and written discourse (dialogue! political speech! poetry! academic paper! coo+ery recipe! etc')' This happens as an interplay o& two levels> microlevel o& grammar and le.is (9 cohesion) macrolevel o& communicative intent and sociocultural conte.t (9 coherence) 0lthough cohesion and coherence are interrelated! it occurs that (6) a cohesive te"t may appear to e non1coherent or (66) that a coherent te.t has no cohesive ties
#' 0> ?esus Christ! the schools on &ire8 @> ;es! it is! isnt it: %' 0> ;esterday was =aster Aonday' Bo 6 C' 0> Thats the telephone8 (Can you answer it! please:) @> DEo! 6 cant answer it ecauseF1 6m in the ath8 0> GH' D6ll answer it'F (#iddowson! #$72)

$ral discourse competence re&ers to a spea+ers a ility to recogni7e and contri ute to regular dialogic patterns' These &ollow a num er o& rules that regulate! e'g' openings! turn1ta+ing! Iuestion and answer seIuences and closings in everyday conversations'

4 Sociocultural competence 6t is the mastery of the sociocultural rules of language use> the appropriate application o& voca ulary! register! politeness! and style in a given social situation within a given culture' Bociocultural varia les are> Bocial conte.tual (age! gender! status! time! place! etc') Btylistic appropriateness (politeness! degrees o& &ormality! etc')
Task #hat might e %pro lematic&in this e"change' Teacher> 0nna> Than+ you! Peter! that was very interesting' 0nna! its your turn to give your tal+' 6 cant do it today ut 6 will do it ne.t wee+'

Cultural (+nowledge o& TL community! regional di&&erences! cross1cultural awareness! etc') Eon1ver al communicative (+inesic! prosemic! paralinguistic! etc') ! Strategic competence 6t is the knowledge of !er al and non-!er al communication strategies which ena le us to overcome di&&iculties when communication rea+downs occur! ie' 6t is the a ility to e.press onesel& in the &ace o& di&&iculties or limited language pro&iciency' Competent language users employ di&&erent types o& strategies in order to cope in real1time interaction! e'g' achie!ement(compensation! self-monitoring or interactional or time-gaining strategies' Task Aatch the communication strategies with the appropriate e.amples'

Compensatory #' Paraphrase> descri ing or e.empli&ying the o -ect or action whose name you dont +now' %' 0ppro.imation> using an alternative term which e.presses the meaning o& the target word as closely as possi le' )nteractional 4' 0ppeal &or help> eliciting the word you are loo+ing &or &rom your communication partner! e'g' y as+ing Iuestions J' 6nterpretive summary> re&ormulating the spea+ers message to chec+ that you understood correctly' Self-monitoring 5' Kepair> correcting something in your own or the other spea+ers speech' Stalling *time-gaining+ L' Using &illers/hesitation devices> to &ill pauses! to stall and to gain time to thin+ when in di&&iculty' a) ) c) d) e) &) Mell'''actually! yes! thats an interesting Iuestion' Lets see''' '''my Lit'Keview! no! sorry! 6 mean! Btatement o& 6ntent''' 6ts a +ind o& little round cage without a roo& &or a a y to play in' Me had to pay some money &or driving too &ast' 6 was drin+ing this'''er'''6 dont +now what its called in =nglish''' Bo are you trying to say that you didnt ring your homewor+ ecause your dog chewed it:

"eferences Canale! A' N Bwain! A' (#$23) Theoretical ases o& communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing' ,pplied -inguistics #! #1J7' "Ornyei! P' N Thurrell! B' (#$$%) Con!ersation and Dialogues in ,ction. )emel )empstead> Prentice )all' Qrice! P' (#$75) Logic and conversation 6n> Cole! P' and ?'L' Aorgan (#$75) Bynta. and semantics <ol' 4> Bpeech 0cts' Eew ;or+> 0cademic Press' )ymes! "' (#$7%) Gn communicative competence' 6n ?'@' Pride N ?' )olmes (=ds') Sociolinguistics' Selected /eadings. )armondsworth> Penguin' van =+! ?'0' N Trim! ?'L'A' (#$$3) Threshold -e!el 0112. Btras ourg> Council o& =urope Press' Middowson! )'Q' (#$72) Teaching -anguage as Communication. G.&ord> G.&ord University Press' "e#uire$ rea$ing Celce1Aurcia! A'! "Ornyei! P' N Thurrell! B' (#$$5) Communicative competence> 0 pedagogically motivated model with content speci&ications' )ssues in ,pplied -inguistics L(%)! 5145'