Chapter 8: Communicative Competence

Chapter 8: Communicative Competence

1. (1) Defining Communicative Competence (CC)

   • Coined by Dell Hymes (1972)
     • Refers to our competence that enables to convey/interpret/negotiate any messages within contexts.
   • Proposed by James Cummins (1979,1980)
     • Basic interpersonal communicative skills. (BICS ) also known as context-embedded
       • Communicative capacity we use in daily lives for interpersonal exchanges.
       • Language used in friendly/casual exchanges
         • informal settings
         • often with friends/peers
         • Slang/conversational metaphors
           • Ex: (a) Hey what's wrong? Are you ok? (b) Nothing...I'm fine or (a) Eat my dust, loser!
     • Cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP) also known as context-reduced
       • More sophisticated or formal usage of language.
         • Eamples
           • Manage classrooms ("Please be seated!", "Ali come to the front and write down you answer."
           • Convey information academically ("The following data analysis indicated that....")
           • Frame test questions like objective questions ('According to the reading passage, do you feel John is (a) guilty (b) innocent? Choose (a) or (b).
           • Engage in classroom discourse ('I see you poijnt, but I think...")

2. (2) Canale and Swain' Framework (1980)

   • Four components in relation to CC
     • 1. Grammatical Competence
       • Knowledge of lexical items (rules of morphology, syntaxm sentence-grammar semantics and phonology.)
     • 2. Discourse Competence
       • Ability to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful utterances. (articles,books,journals)
     • Sociolinguistic competence
       • ability to follow sociocultural rules of language. Understand social context, participants' roles, interactions
     • Strategic Competence
       • Ability to use verbal/nonverbal communicative techniques.
         • Manipulate the language in order to meet our communication goals. Ex: politicians, salesperson.

3. (3) Later Modifications of CC Models

   • Lyle Bachman (1990)
     • Language Competence (with strategic competence as an 'executive function)
       • (A) Organization Competence
         • 1.Grammatical Competence
         • 2. Discourse Competence)
       • (B) Pragmatic Competence
         • 3. Illocutionary (Functions of language)
         • 4. Sociolinguistics

4. (4) Language Functions

   • Functions and Forms work hand in hand
     • Functions: The purposes that we accomplish with language eg: stating, requesting, greeting etc
     • Forms: morphemes, words, grammar rules, discourse rules
   • Speech Acts / Communicative Acts
     • An utterance defined by the speaker's intention and the effect it has on the listener
     • 6 Components of Speech Acts (Hymes 1974)
       • 1. Sender 2. Message Channel 3. Language form 4. topic 5. receiver 6. context
     • 3 different meanings of Speech Acts (Austin 1962)
       • Locutionary Meaning
         • Basic or literal meaning of utterances/written texts
       • Illocutionary Force
         • The intended effect on the hearer/reader
       • Prelocutionary Force
         • The actual effect the utterance has on the hearer

5. (5) Halliday's 7 Functions of Language (Micheal Halliday 1973)

   • -These functions overlaps  -Narrowed down to  1. Apologizing and thanking 2.Complaning politely 3. Confirming and correcting 4. Expressing a wish; making suggestions 5. Giving advice 6. Giving commands 7. Making small talk
   • 1. Instrumental
   • 2. Regulatory
   • 3. Representational
   • 4. Interactional
   • 5. Personal
   • 6. Heuristic
   • 7. Imaginative

6. (6) Functional Approaches to Language Teaching

   • Notional-Functional Syllabuses / Functional Syllabuses
     • 1. Introducing self and other people 2. Providing personal information 3. Identifying and describing people 4. Acceptiing and declining an invitation 5. Ordering from a menu 6. Giving directions 7. Booking travel services
     • Eclectic blend of interactive group work, grammar, vocab, pronunciation, listening, writing