The term communicative competence refers to both the tacit knowledge of a language and the ability to use it effectively. It's also called communication competence, and it's the key to social acceptance. Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.

1. Introduction to Communicative Competence
Boutkhil Guemide
University Mohammed Boudiaf, M’sila
Algeria

2. Lecture Outline
 INTRODUCTION
 Communicative competence: Definition
 Communicative competence: Characteristics
 Communicative competence: The Elements
 Communicative competence & English Language
Teaching
 Developing communicative competence: The roles
of teachers and learners
 ICTs and communicative competence development

3. INTRODUCTION
Communication is an essential tool to both human beings and animal species; It
is used on a dailybasis to interact and connect with other individuals.
In the case of human beings, the communication by means of language is
probably one of the most frequent and relevant actionsof the daily life.
Nevertheless, the use of language itself and of the parallel resources for the
enrichment of its meaning depends on factors that are external to language, for
instance, knowing the interlocutor, keep clear in mind the purpose of the
discourse.
Communicating effectively in a language requires the speaker’s good
understanding of linguistic, sociolinguistic and socio-cultural aspects of that
language.
This understanding will enable him to use the right language in the right context
for the right purpose and then he can be referred to as communicatively
competent.

4.  Communication is an essential tool in order to be able to
establishrelationshipsamong humans.
 Halliday (1975) distinguished between verbal and non-
verbalcommunication.
 When the act of communication is verbal, the code is the
language,whether writtenor spoken.
 Non- verbal communication refers to visual and tactile
modes, such asgestures, facialexpressions.
 Halliday (1975): ‘language may be defined as an
instrument of social interaction with a clear
communicativepurpose.’

5. THE NOTION OF COMPETENCE
Competence is indispensablyreferred to the theory of transformational grammar
developed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s.
Chomsky: ‘Competence is the ideal speaker’s innate ability to generate and
understand utterances’;
It is the basic hypothesis of General Transformational Grammar: Every native
tongue speaker has aninnate linguisticabilitythanksto mental knowledge.
Chomsky defended the idea of linguistic competence, and also introduced the
idea of performance, which is the actual individual production and
comprehension of languagein specific instancesof language use.
Chomsky believed that actual performance did not properly reflect the
underlying knowledge because of its many imperfections at the level of errors and
hesitations.
This fundamental distinction has been at the center of discussion of many other
researchers, and in fact, it has been evaluated and reviewed since then from
various theoretical perspectives.

6. COMMUNICATIVECOMPETENCE: DEFINITION
 Communicative competence: Communication +
Competence,
 «CompetencetoCommunicate». «competence»
 Several linguists have been preoccupied with defining the
term andprovidingseveral terminologies forthe concept

8. Form Function
Noam Chomsky Competence Performance
Dell Hymes Linguistic competence Communicative competence
James Cummins Cognitive/ Academic
Language Proficiency
CALP
Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills
BISC
Michael Canale
&
Merril Swan
Grammatical + Discourse
competence
Sociolinguistic + Strategic
Competence
Lyle Bachman Organizational Competence Pragmatic Competence
Elaine Tarone Linguistic System Production Strategy
Communication strategy

9.  Chomsky (2006): He focused on the ability of an ideal receiver to
produce/ understand infinity of grammatically correct sentences, but
overlooks thepragmatic dimensionof theconcept.
 This competence is viewed as “the capacity to produce grammatically
well formed utterances in a language– utterances which convey the
intendedsemanticmeaning,presumably” (Young, 1996).
 Habermas (1971): Communication competence is not viewed in
terms of an ideal meaning receiver/ producer, but in terms of an ideal
speaking situationthatrequires thereceiver’s/ producer’s ability to:
(1) enactan ideal communicationinstance;and
(2) use theknowledgeand competence required by therole tobe
played.

10. Symbolic
interaction
Communication
instance
Speaking
situation

11.  Communication Competence: “A speaker’s capacity to
introduce correctly formulated sentences that are in
accordance with reality and with the latter’s orientation
towards mutual understanding”(Habermas, 1979).
 Hans- Eberhard Piepho (as cited in Berns, 1990)
defined communication competence as “the ability to
make oneself understood, without hesitation …, by
linguistic means which the individual comprehends
and has learned …, and the ability to comprehend
communicative intentions even when they are
expressed … .”

12.  Sometimes referred to as pragmatic or
sociolinguistic competence
 Knowledge necessary to use language in SOCIAL
context, as an object of linguistic inquiry
 Coined by DELL HYMES (1966) in reaction to
Noam Chomsky’s notion of “linguistic competence”
(1965)
Communicative Competence

13. Question:
What do you (as a language learner) think is the goal of
LANGUAGE COURSE?
Probable Answer:
It is to teach the GRAMMAR and VOCABULARY of that
language.
Question:
What is YOUR own PERSONAL GOAL as an L2 learner?
Probable Answer:
It is to be able to COMMUNICATE in the L2 of your choice.
Linguistic vs. Communicative (Competence)

14. In linguistics terminology, a language
course should not only have
“linguistic competence” as its goal,
but “communicative competence” in
GENERAL.
What does this mean?

15.  …a normal child acquires knowledge of
sentences not only as grammatical, but also
as appropriate. He/ or she acquires
competence as to when to speak, when not,
and as to what to talk about with whom, when,
where, in what manner. In short, a child
becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of
speech acts, to take part in speech events,
and to evaluate their accomplishment by
others. (Hymes 1972)

16.  A language learner/ user needs
to use the language not only
CORRECTLY but also
APPROPRIATELY.

17. Dell Hymes (1972):A pragmatic view.
Communication competence is the
knowledge participants have and use
according to the speech act they need in
order to interact at a social level in order
to be communicationally successful, and
that they employ by adapting themselves
to concrete communicationsituations.

18. FOUR COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE

20.  Linguistic competence: is the knowledge of the
language code, i.e. its grammar and vocabulary,
and also of the conventions of its written
representation (script and orthography).
 Grammar component includes:
 Phonetics
 Phonology
 Morphology
 Syntax
 Semantics

21.  Sociolinguistic competence: the knowledge of socio-
cultural rules of use, i.e. knowing how to use and respond
to language appropriately.
 appropriateness depends on:
 setting of the communication
 Topic
 relationships among the people communicating
 knowing what the taboos are
 what politeness indices are used
 what the politically correct term would be for something
 how a specific attitude (authority, friendliness, courtesy,
irony etc.) is expressed

22.  Discourse competence: the knowledge of how
to produce and comprehend oral or written texts
in the modes of speaking/writing and listening/
reading respectively. It is knowing how to
combine language structures into a cohesive and
coherent oral or written text of different types.
 discourse competence deals with:
organizing words, phrases and sentences in
order to create conversations, speeches,
poetry, email messages, newspaper articles
etc.

23.  Strategic competence: the ability to recognize and repair
communication breakdowns before, during, or after they
occur.
 For instance:
 the speaker may not know a certain word, thus will plan
to either paraphrase, or ask what that word is in the
target language.
 During the conversation, background noise or other
factors may hinder communication; thus the speaker
must know how to keep the communication channel
open.
 After, clarifications can be made if the presentation of
the topic was not clear enough.

24. Canale and Swain’sModel
 CanaleandSwain(1980):Grammatical, Sociolinguistic,Strategic&Discourse.
Grammaticalcompetence The knowledge of the language (grammatical rules,
vocabulary,spelling,pronunciation,etc).
Sociolinguisticcompetence The mastery of the socio-cultural code of the
language: An appropriate application of the
linguistic knowledge in terms of register, politeness
andstyle.
Strategiccompetence The speaker’s knowledge of verbal and non- verbal
strategies that help him/ or her to overcome
difficulties in communication caused by
insufficiency either in grammatical or sociolinguistic
competence.
Discoursecompetence The ability to combine language structures into
different types of cohesive (i.e. grammatical links)
and coherent (i.e. combination of language

25. Bachman’s Model

26.  Bachman(1990): Communicativelanguageability,
 (Bachman, 1988): “… is consistent with earlier work in communicative competence, … but… at the same time, extends
earlier models… by describing the processes… by which the various components interact with each other and with the
contextin whichlanguageuseoccurs”.
 Communicative language ability: Language competence, strategic competence, and psychophysiological
mechanisms.
 Language competence: OrganizationalandPragmatic competence.
 Organizationalcompetence: grammaticaland textualcompetence,
 Organizational competence: The mastery of formal structures of the language that enables a speaker to “produce
and comprehend grammatically acceptable utterances... and organize these to form texts, both oral and written”
(Bachman andPalmer, 1996, p. 67).
 Pragmaticcompetence: Illocutionaryand sociolinguistic competence.
 Grammatical competence: A crucial part of communicative competence, means the knowledge of the language
itself in terms of itsvocabulary, syntax,morphology, etc.
 Textual competence: “The knowledge of the conventions for joining utterances together to form a text...structured
according torulesof cohesion andrhetoricalorganization”(Bachman,1990, p. 88).
 Pragmatic competence: It presupposes grammatical and textual competence and rather pays attention to speakers
of thelanguageandthecontext in whichtheycommunicate.
 Illocutionary competence: “The knowledge of pragmatic conventions for performing acceptable language
functions” (ibid., p. 90).
 Sociolinguisticcompetence: It is ability tochoose languageitems suitablefor a certainsetting.
 Psychophysiological mechanisms: They take into account neurological and physiological processes involved in
languageuse(Bachman,1990, p. 107).

27. Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor’s Model
 Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor’s Model (2008): The framework of communicative
competence(Discourse, Linguistic, Pragmatic, Intercultural and Strategic competence).

28.  (Úso-Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2008): “the fact of being able to interpret
and produce a spoken or written piece of discourse is the means to
achievesuccessful communication”(p. 160).
Discoursecompetence “It is located in a position where the rest of the components
(i.e., linguistic, pragmatic, intercultural and strategic) serve
to build this competence which, in turn, shapes each of the
othercompetencies.” (ibid., p. 160)
Linguistic competence It is referred to as grammatical competence, means the
knowledge of the linguistic system of the language, which is
needed for both, interpretation and production, of a spoken
or written text.
Pragmatic competence It is seen as the knowledge of functions and appropriacy in a
given context.
Interculturalcompetence It is the aspect of sociocultural habits and cross-cultural
differences that also have impact on communication act.
Strategic competence It comprises the knowledge of communication strategies
used for avoiding communication failures and the
knowledge of learning thelanguage.

29. Communicative Competence:Characteristics
 Savignon(1883)mentionedthefivecharacteristicsofcommunicativecompetence:
 Communicative competence is dynamic rather than static concept. It depends on the
negotiation of meaning between two or more persons who share to some degree the
samesymbolicsystem.
 Communicative competence applies to both written and spoken language, as well as
toomanyothersymbolicsystems.
 Communicative competence is context specific. Communication takes place in an
infinitive variety of situations, and success in a particular role depends on one’s
understandingofthecontextandonpriorexperienceofasimilarkind.
 Competence is defined as a presumed underlying ability, and performance as the
overt manifestation of that ability. Competence is what one knows. Performance is
whatonedoes.
 Communicative competenceis relative,not absolute,anddependson the cooperation
of all the participants involved. It makes sense, then, to speak of degrees of
communicativecompetence.

30. Communicative competence: The Elements
Communicative
competence
Grammatical
Competence: words &
rules
Sociolinguistic
Competence:
appropriateness
Discourse
Competence: cohesion
& coherence
Strategic
Competence:
appropriate use of
communicative
strategies

31. Communicative competence& English LanguageTeaching
 Language is viewed as a vehicle for communication and conveying
knowledge: It involves two parts, e.g., a speaker and a listener, and
a writer and a reader.
 Dell Hymes: A person who acquires communicative competence
acquires both knowledgeandability for language use,
 The sociocultural context should define communicative
competence for ESL/ EFL learners: ESL/ EFL learners should know
when to speak and when not, what to talk about, with whom,
when,where and inwhatmanner.
 Richards and Rodgers (2001): ‘Communicative competence
suggests three principals in language learning: communication
principle, task-basedprinciple, and meaningfulness principle’.

33.  Communication principle: Activities that involve
communicationto promote lgelearning.
 Task- based principle: Activities that involve the completion of
real- world tasks to promote learning.
 Meaningfulness principle: Learners must be engaged in
meaningfuland authenticlanguageusefor learningtotakeplace.
 CommunicativeLanguageTeaching: Widdowson’s concept
 Widdowson (1978): “We do not only learn how to compose and
comprehend correct sentences as isolated linguistic units of random
occurrence; but also how to use sentences appropriately to achieve
communicativepurposes. ”
 Widdowson strongly suggested that we need to teach
communicativecompetence along withlinguisticcompetence.

34. Applicationsof communicativecompetenceto lge teaching
 How to help our students acquire communicative
competence inthe classroom?
Nunan(1991):
Communicative approach characterizesfive
featureswhichare emphasizingon learningto
communicate; introducingauthentictexts in
learningenvironment,providingopportunitiesto
focus on languageandlearningprocess,
enhancinglearner’s own experiencesin lge
learning,and linkingclassroom lgelearning
experiencewith activitiesoutside theclassroom.

36. Nunan: Any teaching practice that helps students develop
their communicative competence in an authentic context is
considered an effective instructional strategy in ESL/ EFL
situation.
Breen and Candlin (2001): “… in socio- cognitive aspect,
knowledge and learning are social constructs and they are
based on communication and it leases us to learner-centred
and experience- based learning.”
Kern & Warschauer (2000): “… In CLT, learning has become
more learner-centred and less structurally driven.”
Savignon (2002): “communicative competence is the main
theoretical concept in CLT ”.

37. What toteach
How to teach
Significanceof
lge functions

38.  Savignon (1983): ‘Inverted Pyramid’
 A classroom model which represents communicative competence;
 It consists of grammatical competence, discourse competence, socio-cultural
competence, and strategic competence.
 All the components are inter-linked and inter-dependent.
Grammatical competence Sentence-levelgrammatical forms;
The ability to recognize thr lexical, morphological,
syntactic, and phonological featureofa lge.
Discourse competence Isolated words, phrases, and interconnectedness of
utterances, written words & phrases to form a text
(a whole meaning),
Strategic competence Coping techniques used in unfamiliar context .
Socio- cultural
competence
Social rules of lge use (understanding of the social
context in which lgeis used),

40.  Rivers proposes methodological distinction between “skill- getting”
and “skill using”activities

41.  “Skill- getting” activities: The teacher isolates specific elements
of knowledge or skill that compose communicative ability, and
provides the learners with opportunities to practice them
separately. Learners are being trained in separate steps of
communication skills rather than practicing the total skill to be
acquired.
 “Skill- getting” activities: Students must learn to articulate
acceptably and construct comprehensible language sequences by
rapid associations of learned elements.
 Rivers (1972): The use of communicative drills is very important in
CLT classrooms to help enhance students’ communicative
competence;
 Theyencourage learners to interact meaningfullyin thetarget lge.

42. CLT
Classroom
Structured
Activities
Performance
Activities
Participation
Activities
Observation
Activities
Information
gapactivities
Jigsaw
Activities
Communication
Games
Discussion &
debates
Prepared talks
& oral
presentations

43. Developing communicative competence: The rolesof teachers and learners
 Teachers should prepare CLT activities, plan lessons, and create CLT environment to develop
communicativecompetenceof thestudents.
 ByadoptingCLT, teachersmaymakerealcommunicationthe focus of languagelearning.
 Teachers may provide opportunities to learners to develop both accuracy and fluency in a CLT
environment.
 Teachers may link the different skills such as speaking, reading, and listening together, since they
usuallyoccur so in therealworld
 In a CLTenvironment,studentsmayinduce ordiscovergrammarrules.
 Administration may arrange professional development courses for teachers to develop CLT
environment.
 Administration may provide teachers access to resources and AV aids for effective
implementationof CLT.
 CLTenvironmentmaymotivatethe studentsas theyneed to communicatein reallifecontext.
 Classsizeshouldbereduced for effectiveimplementationof CLT.
 For effective CLT environment, assessment instruments may be developed to assess
communicativecompetenceof thestudents.
 Syllabus designer may re- design lge curriculum to help teachers in developing communicative
competenceof the students.

44. TheRole ofLearners
 Widdowson (1978) : “The students do most of the speaking, and frequently the
scene of a classroom during acommunicative exerciseis active.”
 Learners are required to speak and communicate rather than just repeat phrases.
 Students are encouraged to interact with each other and with the teacher so as
they learn from each others’ mistakes, they are required to participate in
classroom communicative activities and be productive rather than receptive
learners.
 Learners must create an active environment in the classroom by engaging in
group work activities in order to make learning process more enjoyable and
interesting.
 Learners should seek for communication opportunities outside the classroom
with native speakers through different means of communication technology in
order to learn the second language pronunciation (fluency, accuracy) and social
rules and cultural norms (appropriateness), in order to use them inside the
classroom while performing communicative tasks.

45. ICTs and communicativecompetencedevelopment
 Communication has changed in the current information age, prompted by
theappearance of newICTs.
 The technological changes have caused a permanent socialization and
acculturation process, in which ICTplays an important role.
 Learning nowadays should be based on the promotion of techniques and
procedures that allow learners adequate use of the new technological
resources and critical treatmentof theinformation.
 The technological environment is an ideal instrument to facilitate
interaction and communicative exchange in language learning which
allows for a more global knowledge of reality from a plurilingual and
intercultural approach.
 Realistic communicative situations are produced through the use of certain
interactive computer applications in which speakers practice language
abilities inorder to carry outauthenticcommunicative exchanges.

46.  Prado Aragonés (2001): ‘ICTs allow easy access to a wide amount of
textual, visual, acoustic and animated information on subjects of interest
to students; communication with other students, even from other
countries, schools, etc.; the exchange of opinions and experiences;
consultation with experts; and access to multiple resources that provide
self-correctionandparticipationin … cooperativework.’
 The principal goal is to achieve an integral education so that a person is
able to communicate by means of these new technological settings and to
adapttothenew socialreality.
 The traditional teaching approach is also changing due to the application
of new methodologies based on the new resources and new modalities of
representation,access andtransferofknowledge.
 Therefore, the acquisition of communicative competences must also
includetheachievementoftechnologicalcompetences.

48. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & communicative
competence development
 Computers are widely used in foreign language teaching and
learning tohelp learners experience the target language andculture
 Current technology supports multimedia presentations as well as
various forms of computer- mediated communication with native
speakers.
 Theses ICT tools help fulfill the need for contextualized,
communicative language use inthe acquisitionprocess.
 1980’s: Researchers in CALL have been arguing about the
importance of taking into consideration the research in second
language acquisition and current foreign language teaching practice
when designing CALL applications (Barrutia, 1985; Levy, 1997).

49.  Amaral (2011): Teachers perceived the inability of students to handle
linguistic forms as a main obstacle in reaching the communicative goals of
meaning-basedactivities.
 Most of the times teachers spent in class were lectures rather than form-
based activities: The times spent in lecturing took away the times of
communicativeactivities.
 Timeforindividualinteractionbetweenteachers and leanersis scarce.
 The role of commuter tools: Activities that involve proposing
discussions, making role plays, sharing opinions, and seeing language
fulfill a communicative purpose in general presented ideal scenarios
for studentstointeract withanotherhumanbeing.
 Learning to communicate in a foreign language implies learning to
negotiate meaning, understanding social behavior, and observing
differentbody languagestrategies.

50.  Automatic support tools are useful to practice receptive skills, reinforce
the acquisition of language forms, propose remedial work, and improve
communicative competence: An excellent motivation and opportunity for
developing CALL tools that provide personalized feedback on learners’
errors andfostercommunicativecompetence.
 Traditional CALL systems provide only limited exercise types, such as
multiplechoice,matching,point-and-click,or simpleformfilling.
 1990’s: A significant number of research projects have focused on topics
inICALL.
 Various programmes adopt NLP technology fully integrated in real- life
EFLcontextforimprovinglearners’ communicativecompetence.
 Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) systems utilize
anartificiallyintelligenttutor.
 The systems allow the user to input a sentence in the target language and
theAItutoranalyzesthesentenceandprovides error correction.

51.  ICALL systemscombinelanguage practice with artificial intelligence.
 An AI tutor asks the user questions,and the user respondswithinput.
 The tutor provides most of its assistance through error correction and
navigational support,as wellas feedbackfor the user.
 Paviotti (2012): Intelligent Tutoring Systems are computer- based support for
educationalactivities.
 AI: machines which emulate the behavior of intelligent beings (Borchardt &
Page, 1994).
 Students most often use these systems to complete practice exercises or work
through problems.
 They submitanswers and the systemprovideserror correction andfeedback.
 Thesystemmay providehints tohelp the studentcome tothe correct answer.
 In language learning and teaching tasks, AI can be used to emulate the
behaviorof a teacher or a learner (Matthews, 1993).

54. Thank You