Communicative competence:

Def: To be communicative competent

means, roughly speaking, to be able to
communicate that which you wish to
communicate.
 To be communicative competent
you need skills within the following areas:

Grammatical competence
• the ability to use the rules of the language to understand and produce the
language correctly
Discourse competence
• the ability to understand and produce coherent texts (written and oral) within
various genres
Pragmatic competence
• the ability to understand and produce utterances that are suitable for the
context in which they are uttered
Strategic competence
• the ability to efficiently use the skills available to you to get your message
across - strategies
Fluency

Interrelation between the elements of communicative competence

 Competence – definition:
Competence:
• proficiencies within and knowledge of the
competences described above
• meta-communicative knowledge (knowing
about): language and language usage
and elements which affect various
communication situations
 Communication:

• written and oral communication proficiencies

• sender and receiver
• speaking, listening, writing, and reading
• all communication is unique
• authentic communication is demanding in terms
of collaboration, and it’s unpredictable
• we communicate and understand communi-
cation based on the context in which it takes
place / in which we find ourselves
 Teaching from a communicative
perspective
• focus on both form and content and their
interdependence
• involve all the 4/5 competences – together
NOT separately
• listening, reading, writing and speaking
(the 4 proficiencies)
• authentic language usage
 Grammatical competence
= the linguistic code
• Phonetics
– Pronunciation and prosody
• Morphology
– Word function and inflection
• Syntax
– Structure of language
• Lexis
– Vocabulary and semantics
 Grammatical competence
= the linguistic code
• Lexis
– What does it mean to know a word?
• Semantic networks
• Using context to process input (current lang.acq. theory)
• Interlanguage
– Teaching grammar
• Language acquisition view vs. teaching methods
– Why grammar?
• The rules of the game
– Grammar in practice
• Communicative need – relate form to content
– Correction or reparation?
• Errors are natural
 Interlanguage definitions I

• ”…intersprog består af strukturer, som finpudses

og udvikles cirkulært i retning af målsproget.”
(Sprogfagenes didaktik, p. 48)

• ”Det specielle elevsprog, som man i dag

antager, at en elev udvikler på vejen mod
fremmedsprog – udviklende og dynamisk.”
(Tornberg p. 64)
 Interlanguage definitions II

• “A learner’s developing second language

knowledge. It may have characteristics of the
learner’s first language, characteristics of the
second language, and some characteristics that
seem to be very general and tend to occur in all or
most interlanguage systems. Interlanguages are
systematic, but they are also dynamic. They change
as learners receive more input and revise their
hypotheses about the second language.”
(Spada and Lightbown p.201)
 Interlanguage definitions III
• “Thus interlanguage consists of both the rules about the
target language that have become automatic and of the
language which is still being developed.”
(Tornberg p.66 min oversættelse)

• “Extensive empirical research suggests that grammar

teaching has no direct effect on the pupil’s
interlanguage.
Interlanguage rather seems to develop in sequences that
follow certain rules independent of grammar teaching.”
(Tornberg p.67 min oversættelse)
 Discourse competence
• Oral
– Gambits/samtalemarkører = tools to organize who
says sth. in a conversation /whose turn it is to speak
• Written
– coherence: to do with the content and structure of
the text (global)
– cohesion: more formal, linguistic context (local)
• content related
• logical/ structure related
• Why is discourse important to teach? And is it?
 Pragmatic competence
• Pragmatics: the social context in which the language is
used
– Speech acts
– Culture
• Pragma-linguistics
– how speech acts are realised in the target language
• Socio-pragmatics
– factors in the social context which influences the linguistic
realisation
• Why?
• What about culture and language? How are they linked?
– World Englishes…
 Strategic competence

• AIM: to make available problem solving

strategies on all levels of the communi-
cative competence (communication strategies)
• Why important? (in EFL teaching)
• Strategic competence as problem solving
strategies
– evasive approach
– creative utilization approach
 Strategic competence
continued I

• Utilization strategies as learning strategies

• Communication strategies (utilisation strategies)
– based on native language
– based on interlanguage
– based on interaction
 Strategic competence
continued II

• Which strategies are best?

– most researchers agree that strategies based
on the interlanguage will be more successful
than those based on native language when the
aim is communicative
– conscious knowledge of strategies ―› help
pupils utilize their potentials
• Why teach communicative strategies – is it
necessary?
• Draw backs
 Why teach from a communicative
perspective?
• Karen Lund argues:
• AIM: to achieve as high a degree of correctness as
possible within all levels of communicative competence
(p.8)

• “The core reason for using communicative syllabuses in

teaching is that it drives the acquisition of a new
language forward….” (p.20)
 Why teach from a communicative
perspective?
continued

• “…the central factor in acquisition of a new language lies

in the student’s search for means that enable them to
communicate and interact with the aid of language[…the
student’s search for linguistic means of expression that enables them to
encode and decode communication (p.20)…] It is this search that
drives acquisition forward.” (p.19)

• “…communicative teaching in itself is the means towards

this end…” (p.20)
• “So there are not only one but two good reasons for
communicative teaching: one based on a view of
language, the other on acquisition” (p.20)
 Intercultural competence
• Should it be a separate competence? Why
/ why not?

• Where do you see it in this communicative

competence perspective?
 Intercultural competence
• Grammatical competence: direct translations are
not always possible (i.e. ‘small pizza’ vs. ‘personal pizza’);
connotations (the owl: wisdom – stupidity)
• Discourse competence: genre manifestations;
gambits; pause between utterances
• Pragmatic competence: speech acts in
communication contexts; politeness;
• Strategic competence: might vary which are
most effective
 Literature
• Vivian Lindhardsen og Bjarne Christensen,
Sprogfagenes didaktik, 2. reviderede udgave, Kroghs
Forlag 2006
• Karen Lund, Communicate competence – where do we
stand? Sprogforum nr. 4, 1996
• Ulrika Tornberg, Sprogdidaktik, L&R Uddannelse 2001
• Patsy Lightbown and Nina Spada, How Languages are
Learned, 3rd edition, OUP 2006