Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”

Bachelor in Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program

English Linguistics
First Assignment

Objective: To have a clear understanding

of the terms Competence & Performance
based on different authors and the relation
to L2

Resource: “Competence and performance

in learning and teaching: theories and
practices” by David Newby

“Competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories and

practices” examines the different ways in which both competence and
performance have been defined by linguists and how these different
interpretations have influenced foreign language learning and teaching. Read
the article carefully and develop the answers in this workshop.

1. Chomsky’s states the “distinction between competence (the speaker-

hearer's knowledge of his language) and performance (the actual use of
language in concrete situations)” He further states that “Observed use of
language cannot constitute the actual subject matter of linguistics. (1Pt.)

a. Based on Chomsky definition about competence and

performance, describe how this competence could be
clear evident in an L2 classroom. (You can give
examples.)

Referring to Chomsky's famous statement, a distinction is made between

competence and performance. It refers to the knowledge of the speaker -
listener of their language, ossee orador-oyente ideal in a homogeneous way, as
for the real use of language in concrete situations, this hypothesis of the
homogeneity of these concepts refers to all speakers of the same linguistic
community The conception of this process is clearly evident in the classroom as
it is contextualized as flexible, integral guaranteeing the students' transit for
each level or period in a way that integrates the diagnosis of the individual
potentialities of the students and the levels of aid enable the full development of
their personality, all this producing a change in the communicative approach, for
example, these skills are manifested in the dynamics that are generated as a
result of their interaction in the appropriation and application of these skills.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
Competence involves formative aspects that are configured in the subject in a
dynamic and complex way where they are expressed with versatility of the
performance that he performs based on the contextual requirements and norms
of the environment in which he finds himself.

b. Give reasons why performance cannot constitute

matter of linguistics but competence can? Cite at least
an author

In the performance the real language is used only in concrete situations

therefore Chomsky affirms that the observed use cannot constitute in the real
object of the linguistic and this tends to do only one discipline. In the
competition we find that it can be used in various methodological practices that
seek to link the use of language in the real world. Recently the common
European frame of reference CEFR (Council of Europe 2001) extended the
purpose purely to the scope of the competences based on the language to
include the general competences that are those that are not specific of the
language but that are required for actions of all type including linguistic
activities. Given this, competition must always be at the center of linguistic
attention. This linguistic theory deals mainly with an ideal speaker-listener, in a
completely homogeneous way in a speech community, who knows their
language perfectly and is not affected by such grammars. In irrelevant
conditions such as memory limitations, distractions, changes in attention and
interest and errors.

1. “We have to account for the fact that a normal child

acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as
grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires
competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to
what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what
manner (Hymes).” What does this sentence mean? And
how the idea does not necessarily show Chomsky’s idea
about competence and performance? (1Pt.)

This means that within the communicative competence the child has the ability
to behave effectively and appropriately in a given speech community therefore
implies respecting a set of rules, including grammar and other linguistic levels.
Quoting HYMES he is based on sociolinguistics where he describes it as
cultural terms of the regulated uses of language and speech, that is, the rules of
social interaction of a particular group, institution, community or society, based
on this hymes sees as communicative, which represents the social reality

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
underlying real behaviour instead Chomsky represents it as a mental reality.
Similarly, while Searle is best known for the category of "illocutionary act," an
intrinsic part of his speech act theory is what he calls "propositional acts," which
he describes as "referring and preaching" (1969). 2. 3). Halliday's functional
orientation theories include "ideational" meaning as a category core. All these
categories point to the importance of grammar and vocabulary transmitting a
meaning.

2. Halliday states “Can mean is a ‘realization of can do”

this corresponds to the second criticism of Chomsky’s
view of competence and performance and also concern
the functional dimension of a language. Describe the
second criticism and the functional dimension. (1Pt)

The second criticism of Chomsky's opinion about competence referred to the

Dimension of language. For linguists and philosophers such as Halliday
(passim), Austin (1962) and Searle (1969), the very basis of language is
functional in nature. This is reflected in the title of Austin's famous book How to
Do Things with Words. Halliday he affirms this point of view bluntly: "It may
mean that it is a" realization of what he can do "(1978: 39). From various
proposed functional theories, it was Searle's concept of" illocutionary act ".
(1969: 23-24), which was to have the greatest influence on language teaching:
later it became common for "communicative" textbooks to define teaching
objectives in terms of "speech functions". In fact, in the first days of
communicative teaching it was not. It is rare to hear the term "theoretical-
functional approach" that is used synonymously for the teaching of
communicative language.

3. Is language a unit of linguistic analysis? Explain and

cite author(s).(1Pt)

Primary unit of linguistic analysis. Halliday filed the counterclaim that "Language
does not consist of sentences; It consists of text or discourse - the exchange of
meanings in interpersonal contexts of one kind or another "(1978: 2). A
discourse, the perspective of the competition focuses on the continuous choices
that the speakers take while talking or writing, transmitting, adapting and

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
clarifying a message, to make the language be used more and be efficient, to
show the relevance of a fragment of information to another, etc. Categories
such as information structure, dialogue structure, co-text, ellipsis, substitution,
reference, deixis and many more reflect the opinion that linguistic systems not
only work at the level of utterance, but also at the level of discourse. In addition,
the maximum derived from that of Grice. (1975) "cooperative principle," which
attempts to systematically explain how speakers infer and interpret indirect
speech acts, sarcasm, humor, etc., is an important aspect of the discursive
approach. Several aspects of a discourse approach were to influence the
teaching of foreign languages: for example, the term "expression" tended to
replace "sentence", recognizing that both formal and functional terms that
people do not always speak in grammatical sentences. Also, the focus of
attention expanded beyond individual expressions to include sections of
conversation or writing. In his groundbreaking book Teaching Language as
Communication, which provided an important link between linguistics and
language teaching, Widdowson devoted a chapter to the categories of
discourse as 'coherence', 'cohesion', propositional development (1978: 22ff.),
which subsequently came to occupy an important place in the repertoire of
language teachers.

4. What does Chomsky say opposite to the affirmations on

the left? (1Pt)

Langacker, Heine , Tomasello and Chomsky

Jackendoff
 language is not an • Grammar requires linguists to draw
autonomous cognitive faculty a dividing line between linguistic and
 grammar is conceptualization general reality.
• Cognitive, non-linguistic aspects of
 knowledge of language mental reality
emerges from language use
• Chomsky called a "language
acquisition device" but an experience
acquisition device. With regard to
learning foreign languages, the
growing interest in cognitive
knowledge

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 5. What are the schematic constructs? (1Pt)
A category that has attracted considerable attention in cognitive
linguistics and increasingly in the learning of foreign languages and
teaching is the role and nature of what is usually referred to as
schematic knowledge. Reflecting a constructivist vision of language, I
will refer to this as schematic constructions. These constructions, or
mental representations of knowledge, interact with the systemic
knowledge of a language to facilitate the processing, interpretation and
understanding of the schematic language. However, schematic
knowledge is also largely conventional in the sense that speakers of
the speech community will share a common way of perceiving an event
or expression. The schematic constructions take different forms,
ranging from categories that need, few theoretical explanations such
as factual knowledge or the memory of past experiences, largely
declarative, which may or may not be shared by the interlocutors, for
abstract categories of perception, such as mental generalizations
about how human. The experience is structured; it will be described
shortly.
he exchanges of messages between people requires the constant application of
both systemic (language code) and schematic knowledge structures.
Schematic knowledge among linguists. Categories and terms:
• Schemes: a set of ideas, associations, expectations that an individual speaker
or listener can have
in relation to a concept, an object, person, place, action, event, etc.
• Scenario: the internal mental representation of a speaker of a state of affairs,
event, etc. abroad
world.
• Framework: a common and generalizable scenario with which a speaker and a
listener are familiar; a "remembered frame" (see Minsky 1975, cited in Brown
and Yule 1983: 238); lexicon,
The grammatical and pragmatic meaning is to a certain extent predictable in a
specific scenario.
• Script: a framework that extends beyond individual expressions; a
"remembered frame of coherent chains of forms of expression, speech
functions, themes, etc., in which specific speech patterns tend to occur y they
are generalizable (see Schank and Abelson 1977 cited in Brown and Yule 1983:
241; Hoey 1991). Adjacency pairs (for example, "thank you" - "you're welcome")
can be defined as highly predictable, prototypical scripts. Conventional
schemes play an important role in communication and in the coding, decoding
and interpretation of expressions, but their importance in language in teaching
is not generally recognized.

6. In 1980 Canale and Swain provided a description of

competence based on four categories. What are those
categories? Explain. (1Pt)

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 In 1980, Canaled and Swain provided a description of Competition
based on four categories:
1. Grammatical competence: knowledge of lexical items and rules of
morphology, syntax, sentence, semantic grammar and phonology. •
This includes language features and rules such as vocabulary,
word and sentence formation, pronunciation, spelling and
semantics. This competence focuses directly on the knowledge and
skill required to adequately undertake and express the literal
meaning of expressions.

2. sociolinguistic competence: the ability to communicate adequately

in a variety of contexts; This includes both verbal and non-verbal
communication.
 Sociolinguistic competence deals with the extent to which expressions
are adequately produced and understood in different sociolinguistic
contexts depending on contextual factors such as the situation of the
participants, the purposes of the interaction and the norms and
conventions of the interaction.
3. Discursive competence: the ability to use a language that goes
beyond the level of the sentence; This includes aspects such as
cohesion and coherence.
 It is related to the way in which grammatical forms and meanings are
combined to achieve a locked, spoken or written text in different genres.
For example, an oral or written narrative, an argumentative essay, a
scientific article, a business letter and a set of instructions represent
different genres. The unity of a text is achieved through cohesion in form
and coherence in meaning. Cohesion involves the way in which phrases
are structurally linked and facilitates the interpretation of a text. For
example, the use of cohesion mechanisms such as pronouns,
synonyms, ellipses, conjunctions and parallel structures serves to
establish connections between individual sentences and to indicate how
a group of phrases is to be understood as a text (for example, logically
or chronologically). Coherence refers to the relationships between
different meanings in a text, where these meanings can be literal
meanings, communicative functions and attitudes.

4. Strategic competence: adequate use of communication strategies

to overcome or repair.

 This competence is composed of the mastery of verbal and non-verbal

communication strategies. The effective use of the language by a
person to promote communication effectiveness, as to compensate for
failures that may occur in it, arising from gaps in the communication.
knowledge of the language or other conditions that limit communication.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 7. After reading all the competences described in the CEFR
what do you think CEFR perception about competence
and performance? Is it more related to social or
individual? Is it more linguistic? Or not? (1Pt)

After reading all of these competences described in CEFR, it is worth

mentioning that, although the approach of communicative language
teaching tends to have a pragmatic and discursive meaning, rather
than a semantic meaning, by linguists, including Hymes, these types of
meaning are not mutually exclusive but complementary. Both in the
teaching of languages and in applied linguistics an unfortunate
dichotomy is usually promulgated between grammatical and pragmatic
meaning and discourse meaning. This is seen in the fairly unjustifiable
division between "formfocussed"
and the "meaning-based" teaching that is often found in applied
linguistic research (see, for example, Spada 1997: 73). The famous
Hymes statement "There are rules of use
without which the rules of grammar would be useless "(1972: 278) is
often erroneous interpreted by methodologists as a rejection of
grammar. That is why I dare to say that it is more related to linguistics,
focusing on aspects of Chomsky. The publication of Chomsky's
Aspects of the theory of syntax in 1965 led to a fundamental change
regarding the objectives of linguistic analysis. The change of emphasis
- at least in theory, from the structures of language to the human
beings who use language. He caused the focus of the analysis to fall
on the nature of the linguistic competence of the speakers who
directed the generation of expressions. With regard to language
teaching, from the late 70's onwards, at the beginning of in the days of
the communicative approach, "communicative competence" became
the slogan by virtue of which various methodological practices that
sought to link pedagogy with
The use of language.

8. Write your own conclusions about competence and

performance and how these two terms affect the SLA?
(2Pts.)

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
We have seen how different linguists and philosophers have spoken about
certain linguistic competences, which we acquired from the nature of speech,
based on the above I dare to say, that competence and performance have
influenced the learning and teaching of foreign languages whose objectives are
related to the linguistic component, to the pragmatic component, to the
sociolinguistic component, or to all of them at the same time. The first objective
when learning a foreign language can be the domain of the linguistic component
of a language (knowledge of its phonetic system, its vocabulary and its syntax)
without worrying about sociolinguistic aspects or pragmatic efficacy. In other
cases, the objective may be mainly pragmatic in nature and the ability to act in
the foreign language with the limited linguistic resources available and without
any special interest in the sociolinguistic aspect. Options, of course, are never
as exclusive as these and generally harmonious progress is pursued in the
different components, but there are many examples, past and present, of a
particular concentration on one or the other of the components of
communicative competence. Since the communicative linguistic competence
considered as a global competence (that is, it includes the varieties of the native
language and the varieties of one or more foreign languages), it is possible to
affirm that, at certain moments and in certain contexts, the main objective when
teaching a foreign language (although this is not done in an obvious way) has
been to perfect the knowledge and mastery of the native language (for example:
resorting to translation, work on registers, vocabulary appropriate to the
translate to the native language, to elements of semantics and comparative
stylistics). competence and performance, in language teaching, means that
language learning can be seen as a skill development rather than simply the
accumulation of knowledge; Therefore, if we are establishing objectives or
evaluating the language we have to use a dynamic that does not affect the self-
esteem of the learner, for this we must use pedagogical knowledge and didactic
competences that support the development of the competences of the students.
Therefore, the affectation is why we must respond to a level of learning
delimiting a time, and controlling expectations in relation to the abilities of the
learner of those who use these pedagogical tools, where they have to provide a
framework of understanding reducing conflict and favoring dialogue.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz