Noam Chomsky introduced the concept of communicative competence through his generative grammar theory. Communicative competence refers to a speaker's subconscious ability and ideal capacity for language in terms of grammar, as if they knew a language perfectly without external influences. Performance is the actual production of language in real situations, which can be affected by things like memory limitations or distractions. According to Chomsky, competence is a speaker's internal linguistic knowledge, while performance is the observable use of language. His transformational-generative grammar model uses rules to generate grammatically correct sentences, demonstrating the underlying principles of a language.

1. COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE
NOAM CHOMSKY -
GENERATIVE MODEL
Students: Valentina Espinosa
- Miguel Sanhueza - Gonzalo
Vega
Course: Discourse Analysis
Date: April 24th 2017

2. WHAT IS COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE?
The term “communicative competence” is comprised
of two words, the combination of which means
“competence to communicate”

3. NOAM CHOMSKY
USA Linguist and author of the Universal
grammar, contrary to behaviorism
theories, he establishes that language
acquisition is an inherent competence
where every human since they born have
the capacity to acquire linguistic
knowledge.
This ability, which Chomsky called the
language acquisition device (LAD) provides
the basis to assimilate the structure of a
language.

4. Communicative Competence
Communicative
According to Chomsky,
“competence” is the
monolingual speaker-listener’s
knowledge of language”
Performance
According to Chomsky,
Performance is “the actual use
of language in real situations”.

5. COMPETENCE
Chomsky introduced this concept through his generative grammar
theory and contrasts it from competence as elements of the linguistic
competence.
Competence refer to…
• subconscious ability and the ideal language capacity in the area of
grammar, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by
such grammatically irrelevant conditions.
Memory
Limitations
Distractions Errors
Shift of
attention
and interest

6. PERFORMANCE
Whereas competence refers to the potential knowledge in the
language that a speaker-learner holds, the performance is the actual
production of the language in a real situation.
Chomsky highlights that performance…
• does not consider any potential or capacity in the speaker/learner
it is affected by
possible grammar
It is not affected by
necessary conditions.

7. TRANSFORMATIONAL -
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR MODEL
It generates grammatically correct sentences of a language since it is meant to
create the rules and principles which are in the mind or brain of a native speaker.
These rules and principles are, by definition, about the language itself.
Chomsky believed that grammar has recursive rules allowing one to generate
grammatically correct sentences over and over.

8. EXAMPLES
Grammatically correct:
•“Colorless green ideas sleep
furiously”
Grammatically incorrect
•“Girl the bit apple the”

9. REFERENCES
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its nature, origin, and
use. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Chomsky, N. (2014). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (Vol. 11). MIT
press.
Searle, J. R. (1974). Chomsky's revolution in linguistics (Vol. 18, pp.
12-29). New York Review of Books.
De Villiers, J. G., & De Villiers, P. A. (1974). Competence and
performance in child language: Are children really competent to
judge?. Journal of Child Language, 1(01), 11-22.