1.3 Communicative competence as a goal of the flt

Communicative competence is a main objective in communicative teaching.

Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.

The term was coined by Dell Hymes [16] in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's [6] distinction between competence andperformance.

To address N. Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, D. Hymes undertook ethnographic exploration of communicative competence that included "communicative form and function in integral relation to each other”. The approach pioneered by D. Hymes is now known as the ethnography of communication.

Debate has occurred regarding linguistic competence and communicative competence in the second and foreign language teaching literature, and scholars have found communicative competence as a superior model of language following D. Hymes' opposition to N. Chomsky's linguistic competence. This opposition has been adopted by those who seek new directions toward a communicative era by taking for granted the basic motives and the appropriateness of this opposition behind the development of communicative competence.

Language teaching in the United States is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition is communicative competence: the ability to use the languagecorrectly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals [17; 74]. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does.

In the early stages of language learning, instructors and students may want to keep in mind the goal of communicative efficiency: learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message (due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary); to avoid offending communication partners (due to socially inappropriate style); and to use strategies for recognizing and managing communication breakdowns.

Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to good classroom practice. This is in contrast to previous views in which grammatical competence was commonly given top priority.

Communicative competence is made up of four competence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic. (see Appendix A)

· Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

· Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?

· Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole. Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

· Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one's knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context. Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I've misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don't know the name of something or the right verb form to use? [18; 103]

Thus, we can see that the modules in this section identify eight aspects of communicative competence. They are grouped together in two groups of four:

Ш Linguistic aspects:

- Phonology and orthography

- Grammar

- Vocabulary

- Discourse (textual)

Ш Pragmatic aspects:

- Functional aspect

- Sociolinguistic aspect)

- Interactional skills

- Cultural framework [19]

Linguistic aspects

The linguistics aspects of communicative competence are those that have to do with achieving an internalized functional knowledge of the elements and structures of the language.

Phonological competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive meaningful sounds of a language, including:

· consonants

· vowels

· tone patterns

· intonation patterns

· rhythm patterns

· stress patterns

· any other suprasegental features that carry meaning [20].

Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication.

Grammatical competence as defined by Noam Chomsky would include phonological competence.

Learners of French need to learn to understand the different time references of sets of words such as je partais, je parte, je parterai, and to be able to make appropriate time reference when speaking or writing.

Lexical competence is the ability to recognize and use words in a language in the way that speakers of the language use them. Lexical competence includes understanding the different relationships among families of words and the common collocations of words.

Learners learning English need to be able to recognize the concept of chair and what makes it different from a stool, a sofa, or a bench. They also need to know that a chair is a piece of furniture, and that there are various kinds of chairs, including easy chairs, deck chairs, office chairs, rocking chairs and so on. They also need to understand how chair is now used in an extended sense for what used to be termed a chairman, especially when referring to a woman, as in Julie Wright is the chairof the committee [21].

Discourse competence is used to refer to two related, but distinct abilities. Textual discourse competence refers to the ability to understand and construct monologues or written texts of different genres, such as narratives, procedural texts, expository texts, persuasive (hortatory) texts, descriptions and others. These discourse genres have different characteristics, but in each genre there are some elements that help make the text coherent, and other elements which are used to make important points distinctive or prominent.

Learning a language involves learning how to relate these different types of discourse in such a way that hearers or readers can understand what is going on and see what is important. Likewise it involves being able to relate information in a way that is coherent to the readers and hearers.

Consider the following short discourse in English:

Once upon a time there was an old woman named Mother Hubbard, who had a dearly-loved dog named Bowser. Mother Hubbard was very poor and didn't _ractihave enough food for herself and her pet.

One day Bowser came running up and barked hopefully to show his mistress how hungry he was. Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor doggie abone, because she felt sorry for him. But when she got to the cupboard it was bare, and so poor Bowser went hungry.

This story starts with the phrase Once upon a time, which tells us that it is a fairy tale. The first paragraph goes on to introduce the two characters: Mother Hubbard and Bowser. It also tells us the background information we need to know about Mother Hubbard. Even though this is such a short story we need to keep track of the two participants and the props: the cupboard and the bone. Note the words used to refer to Mother Hubbard: an old woman, herself, his mistress, she and those used to refer to Bowser: a dearly-loved dog, her pet, her poor doggie, him, poor Bowser.

The second paragraph starts with the words One day, which introduce an event we expect to be important. (In fact, it is the only episode in our story!) This episode has three main events:

· Bowser ran up and barked hopefully

· Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard

· The cupboard was bare

There is also some further information in subordinate clauses, which are linked to the main clauses by words that show the relationship between them:

· to show his mistress how hungry he was tells us the purpose for which Bowser barked.

· because she felt sorry for him tells us the reason why Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard.

· to get her poor doggie a bone tells us the purpose of going to the cupboard.

· and so poor Bowser went hungry tells us the result of the cupboard being bare.

The words But when she got there introduce the climax of the story: She expected the bone to be there, but it wasn't so poor Bowser went hungry.

So, even in a short story such as this, we can identify cohesive and prominence elements in an English narrative text. Children learn intuitively as they are learning English, but adult learners may be helped by conscious attention to such elements.

Pragmatic aspects

The pragmatic aspects of communicative competence are those that have to do with how language is used in communication situations to achieve the speaker's purposes.

Functional aspect of communicative competence refers to the ability to accomplish communication purposes in a language. Language fulfils the interactional function. It serves to ensure social maintenance, referring to the communicative contact between and among human beings that simply allows them to establish social contact and to keep channels of communication open. Successful interactional communication requires knowledge of slang, jargon, jokes, folklore, cultural mores, politeness and formality expectations and other keys to social exchange [22; 142]. There are a number of different kinds of purposes for which people commonly use language, e. g. g

reeting people is one purpose for which we use language. What we actually say in English could be Good morning, Hi, How ya doin, or Yo, depending on who we are and who we are talking to.

Sociolinguistic aspect of the communicative competence is the ability to interpret the social meaning of the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriate social meaning for the communication situation, e. g. when greeting someone in a very formal situation an American might say, Hello, how are you? OrNice to see you again, but if he were meeting a friend in an informal situation it would be much more appropriate to say Hi, or Hey, whatcha been doing?

Interactional competence involves knowing and using the mostly-unwritten rules for interaction in various communication situations within a given speech community and culture. It includes, among other things, knowing how to initiate and manage conversations and negotiate meaning with other people. It also includes knowing what sorts of body language, eye contact, and proximity to other people are appropriate, and acting accordingly, e. g.

a conversation with a checker at the check-out line in a grocery store in the US or England shouldn't be very personal or protracted, as the purpose of the conversation is mainly a business transaction and it would be considered inappropriate to make the people further back in the queue wait while a customer and the checker have a social conversation. Other cultures have different rules of interaction in a market transaction.

Cultural competence is the ability to understand behavior from the standpoint of the members of a culture and to behave in a way that would be understood by the members of the culture in the intended way. Cultural competence therefore involves understanding all aspects of a culture, but particularly the social structure, the values and beliefs of the people, and the way things are assumed to be done, e. g. it is impossible to speak Korean or Japanese correctly without understanding the social structure of the respective societies, because that structure is reflected in the endings of words and the terms of address and reference that must be used when speaking to or about other people.