The document discusses the concept of communicative competence as proposed by sociolinguists in the 1960s-1970s. It defines communicative competence as having grammatical knowledge as well as pragmatic knowledge about how to vary language use appropriately based on social context. The document outlines four components of communicative competence according to Canale and Swain: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. It also discusses the work of other researchers like Hymes, Halliday, and Austin who contributed to the theory of communicative competence.