A PARAGRAPH ON COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

A PARAGRAPH ON COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

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. Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and discussed and redefined by many authors. Hymes' original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes. So, ‘communicative competence’ refers to the ability to use a language appropriately in different situations. There are two ways of developing communicative competence in a language. The first is acquisition which is similar to the way people develop ability in their mother tongue. It is a natural, subconscious process in which users are not usually aware of acquiring a language. They are aware only of the fact that they are using the language to communicate. In non-technical terms, acquisition is ‘picking up’ a language spontaneously. It may also be called ‘implicit’ learning. On the other hand, the second way of developing communicative competence in a language is learning that language. It refers to conscious knowledge of a language, knowing the rules of language use, being aware of using them, and being able to talk about them. In non-technical terms, learning is to know consciously about a language. It may also be called ‘explicit’ learning. Language specialists believe that acquiring a language is more successful and longer lasting than learning. Therefore, to emphasize the importance of communicative competence, teachers these days encourage learners of a second language to practise and experience the language in different situations where they are involved in communicating with others, so that they can develop their communicative competence.