UNIT 4 1.

INTRODUCTION
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE. ANALYSIS OF ITS The aim of this unit is to offer a broad account of the
COMPONENTS concept of communicative competence, and its importance in
society, and especially, in the language teaching community.
Firstly we will account for what is considered one of the most
1. INTRODUCTION adequate theoretical frameworks for the understanding of
communicative competence –that developed by Canale and
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING Swain. We will do this by considering first, the nature of
THE CONSTRUCT “COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE” communication and we will then move on to consideration of
2.1. The term communicative competence in historical communicative competence versus actual communication. In a
perspective. following section will deal with the analysis of the different
2.1. The nature of communication components of communicative competence. Finally, we will
2.2. Communicative competence and actual communication outline some pedagogical considerations, trying to analyze how
this framework is relevant for foreign language teaching and how
3. THE COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATIVE it can be integrated in a communicative approach of foreign
COMPETENCE language teaching. The information we will use is taken from
3.1. Grammatical competence Richards, Halliday, Hymes and Canale.
3.2. Sociolinguistic competence
3.3. Discourse competence 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING
3.4. Strategic competence THE CONSTRUCT “COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE”

4. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR A COMMUNICATIVE 2.1. The term communicative competence in historical
APPROACH TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING perspective.
4.1. Coverage of competence areas. During the past twenty-five years, communicative
4.2. Communicative needs. language teaching has been the dominant approach to the
4.3. Interaction. teaching of foreign and second languages. Much of its importance
4.4. Learner’s native language skills. is due to the sociolinguist Dell Hymes (1972) who developed the
4.5. Curriculum-wide approach. notion of communicative competence in a series of articles.
Hymes was convinced that Chosky’s (1965) notion of linguistic
5. CONCLUSION competence was too narrow. N. Chomsky’s Aspects of the Theory
of Syntax emphasised the distinction between competence and
performance. He defines competence as a speaker’s intuitive
knowledge of the rules of language and performance as the actual
message produced by applying those rules. Instead, Hymes
defines this notion not only in terms of grammatical competence, - it is judged as successful or not on the basis of actual
but also in terms of the knowledge of the appropriateness of the outcome.
message to the context of communication.
2.2. Communicative competence and actual communication
2.1. The nature of communication In Canale and Swain (1980), communicative competence
The construct communicative competence presupposes a is understood as the underlying system of knowledge and skill
model of communication due to the fact that it is a concept basic required for communication (eg. knowledge of vocabulary and
to understanding social interaction. For Canale, communication is skill in using the sociolinguistic conventions for a given
understood as the exchange and negotiation of information language). Furthermore, in Canale (1983) a distinction is drawn
between at least two individuals through the use of verbal and between communicative competence and actual communication –
non-verbal symbols, oral and written. Furthermore, as pointed out the realization of such knowledge and skill under limiting
by Haley (1963) and others, such information is never psychological and environmental conditions such as memory and
permanently worked out nor fixed but it is constantly changing perceptual constraints, fatigue, nervousness, distractions and
and qualified by such factors as further information, context of interfering background noises.
communication, choice of language forms, and non-verbal It is important to stress that communicative competence
behaviour. In this sense, communication involves the continuous refers to both knowledge and skill in using this knowledge when
evaluation and negotiation of meaning on the part of the interacting in actual communication. Knowledge would refer to
participants. Finally, it is assumed that authentic communication what one knows (consciously or unconsciously) about the
involves a “reduction of uncertainty” on behalf of the language and about other aspects of communicative language use;
participants. skill refers to how well one can perform this knowledge in actual
Following Widdowson (1978) the nature of this communication.
communication process is understood to have general Both knowledge and skill underlie actual communication
characteristics: in a systematic and necessary way, and are thus included in
- it is a form of social interaction communicative competence. Furthermore, this vies is not only
- it involves a high degree of unpredictability and creativity. consistent with the distinction between communicative
- it takes place in discourse and sociocultural contex. competence and actual communication but depends crucially on
it; in particular, this notion of skill –how well one can use
- it is carried out under limiting psychological and other
knowledge in actual situations- requires a distinction between
conditions such as memory constraints, fatigue and
underlying capacities (competence) and their manifestation in
distractions.
concrete situations (actual communication).
- it always has a purpose (to establish social relations, to Now that we have clarified a few important points in
persuade, etc) relation to the very nature of communication, let us deal with the
- it involves authentic, as opposed to text book-contrived different subcompetences gathered under communicative
language competence. It is important to realise that these subcompetences
are laid out in the Spanish curriculum as being relevant to the differences. So going beyond the sociolinguistic use of the
teaching of a foreign language, and have been adapted from the language, we have the sociocultural subcompetence: This is the
work by Canale and Swain, (1983). degree of familiarity with the cultural and social context in which
a language is used. The speaker must also know the different
3. THE COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATIVE norms of conversation that are used by native speakers.
COMPETENCE Discourse competence refers to the mastery of how to
The most important study on developing the notion of combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified
Communicative Competence from Dell Hymes work has been spoken or written text in different genres or types of text (a
done by Canale and Swain (1980). Here the notion of scientific paper, an argumentative essay, and oral and written
communicative competence is divides up into four narrative among others) according to the purpose of the
subcomponents, or areas of knowledge and skill, which have been communicative exchange and the interlocutors involved. The
mentioned before, thus, grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic unity of a text is achieved through cohesion in form and
and strategic competence are glossed below. coherence in meaning. It points to how the different utterances
Grammatical competence simply refers to the mastery of are linked structurally and how they must be understood as a text.
the language code itself. That is to say, the knowledge of the Strategic competence is referred to the mastery of verbal
linguistic signs needed in order to communicate through and non-verbal communicative strategies to solve problems
language. It takes into account the need for the speaker to be able during communication. The main goal to attain with this
to make correct use of language features such as morphology, competence is first, to compensate for breakdown in
syntactics, semantics, phonology and lexis. This aspect is communication, and secondly, to enhance the effectiveness of
important for students to attain a higher level of proficiency communication. To initiate, terminate, maintain, repair, and
where accuracy is important. redirect communication may be achieved by paraphrase,
Sociolinguistic competence is the appropriate use of circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, guessing as well
utterances in different sociolinguistic contexts. There are different as shifts in register and style.
factors that the participants will have to take into account in order With the changes to the curriculum, as established by
to successfully reach that appropriateness: the status of the Royal Decree 937/2001 3rd August, we can find the addition of
participants, the purpose of the interaction and the different norms Linguistic Competence which deals with syntax, morphology and
and conventions shared between the people involved in the semantics.
exchange will have to be taken into account. They will also need
to show appropriateness of meaning (eg. communicative 4. GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR A COMMUNICATIVE
functions, different ideas or attitudes which are proper in a given APPROACH TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
situations, like inviting or commanding) and form (proper verbal The theoretical framework presented in this unit can be
and non-verbal forms in a sociolinguistic context). This applied to foreign language teaching through a communicative
competence is particularly difficult to achieve as the skilled use of approach. Today, Communicative Competence is the central aim
appropriate registers requires sensitivity to cross-cultural of foreign and second language teaching, providing a number of
suggestions as to how teacher can give students optimum second language. In addition, learners should be taught about
frameworks for acquiring a good communicative competence. language and about the foreign language culture. It is believed
Canale (1983) presents five principles that would guide that such a curriculum-wide approach may facilitate a natural
this communicative teaching approach, especially relevant for the integration of knowledge of the second language, knowledge of
present discussion: the second language culture and knowledge of language in
Coverage of competence areas. Communication is general.
intended to involve the integration of the four areas of knowledge
and skills mentioned before. There is no evidence for the analysis 5. CONCLUSION
that grammatical competence is any more or less crucial to As we have seen, reaching communicative competence is
successful communication than the other subcompetences. The the main aim of language teaching, and it is laid out as such in the
primary goal of a communicative approach must be to facilitate curriculum. For over twenty five years, many researchers have
the integration of these types of competence for the learner. concentrated on the development of the notion of communicative
Communicative needs. A communicative approach must competence. Theories of this type imply that teachers must do
be based on and respond to the learner’s (often changing) more than just supply learners with a number of language
communication needs and interests. These must be specified with structures to manipulate, that foreign language teachers must
respect to all the subcompetences. There is an emphasis on focus on the sociolinguistic and cultural aspects of language for
fluency rather on linguistic accuracy, since learners need many students to be familiar with. Therefore matching what is taught in
different opportunities to communicate without having to the classroom and what they will find outside is of utmost
concentrate on structure and form. importance. This means that language teaching has to place the
Interaction. There is an emphasis on authentic and students in different communicative situations, the kinds of which
meaningful communication which should be the goal of they could find in day to day life.
classroom activities. Learners need to have opportunities to take
part in realistic communicative situations.
Learner’s native language skills. The use of native
language skills is essential in early stages. More arbitrary/less
universal features in L2 must be practiced in less arbitrary/more
universal contexts. Learning is view as a process of creative
construction which involves testing and error. Students should be
tested in communicative interactions rather than in particular
areas of competence.
Curriculum-wide approach. The primary objective of a
communication-oriented foreign language programme must be to
provide the learner with information, practice and much of the
experience needed to meet their communication needs in the