Communicative competence and communicative approach

Communicative competence and the communicative approach are somehow

connected in terms of communication. Both have the word ‘communicative’ that gives
sense to its function.

On the one hand, the communicative approach is a way of teaching by means of oral
procedure. It is focused on speaking and on the accuracy of the message production.
Within this approach it can be found the communicative competence. It is essential in a
communicative language teaching and it can be defined as the ability to produce a
efficient and comprehensible message. The language used should be clear and direct,
that is, the content in the communication process needs to be as much as flawless as
possible.

Two different views can be found inside this language teaching. Chomsky focused his
attention on the linguistic and strategic side. Students should be able to understand and
use the vocabulary and grammatical aspects properly using different techniques in order
to reach the communicative goal: produce a meaningful message. However, Hymes
supported the idea that communicative approach was linked to socio-linguistic aspects
and discourse production. Interaction is the central point here so children need to
cooperate with each other in order to create a conversation. Regarding discourse, Hymes
claimed that it is indispensable the elaboration of coherent and cohesive ideas.

On this way, it can be said that communicative language teaching requires from
communicative competence in order to create a successful conversation. The use of
realia materials such as magazines, newspapers, websites or documentaries in original
version among others, are an excellent way to keep students in contact with real life
English language. For this reason, contextualization is extremely important in this
approach.

Problem solve activities are quite suitable to practice this way of teaching. The teacher
can create a situation in which students need to find a solution. An example could be: a
group of teenagers have already arrived to an airport in England and there had been a
problem with their baggage. They need to be able to communicate with the airport
workers transmitting the reasons why they are complaining about and also they have to
come to an agreement in order to solve the incident. They must know the vocabulary
they need to manage in such situation so maybe this activity cannot be done without a
previous explanation of specific words.

Communicative language teaching is, under my own point of view, an

appropriate system to teach a foreign language. Communication has the main role in
this approach, although grammar and vocabulary are also needed to be taught. The
teacher becomes a mere guider who helps learners to reach an accurate conversation.
Giving so much importance to error correction prevents students to set their own
confidence and freedom of speech, so every teacher should find the right moment to
correct grammatical, pronunciation or lexical errors.

Carla Martínez Cano