Grammar and

Linguistic Competence
Prepared by: Louella Joy R. Alabat (BEED 301)
 Grammar Competence
• The mastery of the linguistic code. It is the ability to recognize lexical,
morphological, syntactical, and phonological features of a language and to
use these features effectively to interpret, encode, and decode words and
sentences.
• Grammatical competence is the ability to understand and express meaning
by producing and recognizing well-formed phrases and sentence.
 Nature of Grammar Competence
• It can be assumed that the grammatical competence in the context of
learning a foreign language is a set of theoretical knowledge (rules) and
language skills that are necessary and sufficient for students to construct
correct sentences, to understand them, to monitor grammatical errors, to
pass judgments about right and wrong linguistic forms, and to perform
language testing tasks.
 Example of Grammar Competence
“Once there was a boy who loved climbing trees in the forest. One afternoon
he slipped and fell to the ground. He picked himself up and went home. That
night when he had bath, he saw a big bruise on his arm. He said Dad, “I
must have hurt myself when I fell this afternoon.”
 Linguistic Competence
• The term linguistic competence refers to the unconscious knowledge of
grammar that allows a speaker to use and understand a language. Also
known as grammatical competence or I-language. Contrast
with linguistic performance
• Linguistic competence is the system of linguistic knowledge possessed by
native speakers of a language. It is distinguished from linguistic
performance, which is the way a language system is used in
communication.
 Nature of Linguistic Competence
• Produce an unlimited number of grammatical sentences that he/she has
not said or heard before.
• Understand an unlimited number of sentences belonging to his/her native
language encountered before.
Example of Linguistic Competence