The document discusses the origins and evolution of the concept of communicative competence. It begins by describing Chomsky's distinction between competence and performance, and how Hymes expanded on this to argue that competence must account for sociocultural factors and differential abilities within heterogeneous communities. Hymes coined the term "communicative competence" and defined it as knowledge of linguistic and social meaning. Later theorists like Canale and Swain, and Bachman further developed the model of communicative competence to include grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competencies. The document concludes by summarizing the current understanding of these four competencies that make up communicative competence.