Hymes' Communicative Competence Theory

1. Communicative Competence Theory
of Hymes

2. Communicative Competence is a term which was
appeared firstly in Hymes’ article, “on
communicative competence”

3. Communicative Competence is coined by Hymes to
criticize the Linguistic Competence of Chomsky
(1965)
 In Chomsky’s interpretation, the linguistic theory
was divided into two parts: linguistic competence
and linguistic performance
 The linguistic competence refers to underlying
linguistic knowledge, while the linguistic
performance refers to actual linguistic ability

4. Based on Chomsky’s linguistic theory, the goal of
learning language is composing grammatically correct
sentences, i.e. learning of the accuracy of language
For Hymes, Chomsky’s linguistic theory which only
stressed on the grammatical accuracy of a language is
insufficient – it lacks the consideration of using language
as communication in real life
Hymes argued that grammatical competence is only a part
of a language, in which communication and culture
should be also concerned - language should be taught
and learnt as communication.

5. Communicative competence is what a language
speaker needs to know in order to be
communicatively competent in a community
In Hymes’ communicative competence,
 It emphasizes on the language-in-use
 An ideal language speaker needs not only to
know the structure of sentences of a language
correctly, but also the use of these sentences in a
specific social context appropriately
 Appropriateness becomes a very key word

6. Hymes’ communicative competence has huge impact
on language teaching and learning
 Before Hymes raised the notion of communicative
competence, the language was seen as only the
grammatical matter by linguistics and educational
practitioners
 In 1970s, under the influence of Hymes’ notion of
communicative competence, the dimension of
language was extended and considered to include
aspects of communication and culture
 A new teaching approach named ‘communicative
language teaching’ was developed

7. Communicative Language Teaching (Teaching and
learning in CLT )
Whenever possible, ‘authentic language’ – language
as it is used in a real context – should be introduced
 The language as it is used in authentic
communication may be coached on strategies for
how to improve their comprehension.
 The target language is a vehicle for classroom
communication, not just the object of study,
while judicious use of the students’ native
language is permitted

8. Students are expected to use the language a great
deal through communicative activities
- Learning to use language forms appropriately
is the essential part of communicative
competence
- Therefore, students should be given an
opportunity to express their ideas and
opinions
- Activities that are truly communicative, have
3 features in common – information gap,
choice and feedback

9. Communicative Language Teaching (Information Gap)
- An information gap exists when one person in an
exchange knows something the other person does not
- Games are important because they have certain
features in common with real communicative events –
there is a purpose to exchange
- Errors are tolerated and seen as a natural outcome of
the development of communication skills
- The students’ errors may not be corrected when an
activity is working on fluency, but returned to at a
later point

10. Communicative Language Teaching (Choice)
- In communicating, a speaker has a choice not only about
what to say, but also how to say it
- One function can have many different linguistic forms;
also a linguistic form may serve different functions in
different situations
- The social context of the communicative event is essential
in giving meaning to the utterances
- Since the focus of the course is on real language use, a
variety of linguistic forms are presented together The
grammar and vocabulary that the students learn follow
from the function, situational context, and the roles of the
interlocutors

11. Communicative Language Teaching (Feedback)
- True communication is purposeful – a speaker
can thus evaluate whether or not his purpose has
been achieved based up the information he
receives from his listener
- Just as oral communication is seen to take place
through negotiation between speaker and
listener, so too is meaning thought to be derived
from the written word through an interaction
between the reader and the writer
- Being able to figure out the speaker’s or writer’s
intentions is part of being communicatively
competence

12. Communicative Language Teaching (Teacher and
Learners)
The teacher acts as a facilitator in setting up
communicative activities and as an advisor during
the activities
The teacher may be a ‘ co-communicator ’ engaging
in the communicative activity along with students
Students are communicators who are actively
engaged in negotiating meaning – in trying to make
themselves understood and in understanding others

13. Communicative Language Teaching (Classroom
Interaction)
When the teacher acts as a facilitator, he may not
always himself interact with students
When the teacher is a co-communicator, he may
interact with students in establishing and promoting
communication between and along the students
Students interact a great deal with one another in
various ways – pairs, triads, small groups, and whole
group

14. Thank you