Communicative Competence – Quick Review

Communicative Competence

• Coined by Dell Hymes ($1966$) as a reaction to Noam Chomsky’s concept of linguistic competence ($1965$), emphasizing real-world language use beyond grammatical knowledge of an ideal speaker.

• Defined as intuitive, functional knowledge & control of language use principles, encompassing both knowledge of language rules and the ability to use them appropriately in various social and cultural contexts.

Core Components (Canale & Swain, $1980$–$1983$)

• **Linguistic / Grammatical Competence**

  • Mastery of language code for accurate, well-formed messages, including knowledge of syntax (sentence structure), morphology (word formation), phonology (sound system), and lexicon (vocabulary).

  • Language = rule system (grammar), sound system (phonology), & vocabulary (lexicon).

• **Sociolinguistic Competence**

  • Ability to choose socio-culturally appropriate language for a given context (appropriacy), considering factors like formality levels, politeness conventions, social roles, and register.

  • Encompasses understanding social meaning and cultural context.

• **Discourse Competence**

  • Skill in producing coherent & cohesive texts (fluency), applying organizational patterns and linking devices to construct meaningful discourse that flows logically.

  • Involves understanding how sentences and utterances combine to form unified texts, such as conversations, narratives, or essays.

• **Strategic Competence**

  • Use of strategies to prevent, avoid, or repair communication breakdowns (efficacy), and to enhance the effectiveness of communication, especially when linguistic obstacles arise.

  • This includes both compensatory (achievement) and avoidance (reduction) strategies.

Coherence vs. Cohesion

• **Coherence = Logical organization of ideas**

  • Thematic, Chronological, Sequential, Inductive, Deductive, Spatial patterns.

  • Refers to the overall sense of unity and logical progression of ideas within a text.

• **Cohesion = Surface links between sentences**

  • Repetition of key words.

  • Reference (pronouns, substitutes).

  • Ellipsis (omission of understood words).

  • Parallelism (consistent structures).

  • Consistent point of view.

  • Transitional devices (however, therefore, etc.).

  • Refers to the grammatical and lexical ties that connect the sentences within a text.

Strategic Competence – Key Tactics

• **Achievement Strategies** (compensatory strategies to overcome linguistic deficiencies and maintain communication)

  • Circumlocution: describe/define unknown word; use euphemisms (e.g., "the place where you buy books" for "bookstore").

  • Approximation: use near-equivalent term (e.g., "ship" for "sailboat").

  • All-purpose words: "thing", "stuff", "do" etc., to fill lexical gaps.

  • Appeals for help: directly asking for clarification or the correct term (e.g., "What's the word for…?", "Could you rephrase that?").

  • Code-switching: using words or phrases from another language if the listener understands.

• **Reduction Strategies** (avoidance strategies to simplify the message or avoid difficult structures/words)

  • Message abandonment: simply stopping the message if too difficult to formulate or if the speaker feels they cannot convey the intended meaning.

  • Message reduction: simplifying the message by omitting certain details or complex structures.

  • Topic avoidance: steering the conversation away from topics or concepts that are difficult to express.