COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE
TEACHING
LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC
Language is essentially
a means of
communication.
“Language is the expression of ideas by means of
speech-sounds combined into words. Words are
combined into sentences, this combination
answering to that of ideas into thoughts.” Henry
Sweet
Linguistic is the scientific
study of language and its
structure.
"Formal linguistics is the study of the structures
and processes of language, that is, how language
works and is organized. Formal linguists study
the structures of different languages, and by
identifying and studying the elements common
among them" Erick Digest.
Hyme’s distinction between
linguistic competence, and
communicative
competence.
For Hymes linguistic competence is the ability
and measure to create and understand
sentences grammatically correct; it refers to
the knowledge of language that allow the
speaker to explain, describe, complain, and
give instructions in a correct way.
For Hymes communicative competence
deals with understanding, and producing
with scope and sequence, appropriate and
acceptable sentences in a particular
situation or context, being capable of
interpret, being adequate, suitable, and
proficient in communication.
difference between the use and the
usage of the language.
“Usage” involves
linguistic rules
knowledge that the
language user
demonstrates
“Use” makes evident the
ability of the language user
to use linguistic rules
knowledge for achieving
effective communication.
Widdowson’s concept of
communicative language
teaching
For Widdowson, communicative
language teaching is truthly
important; knowing a language is
not only understanding rules of
grammar, not only read, speak and
write sentences; the mere
acquisition of linguistic skills may
inhibit the development of
communicative abilities; what is
important is how sentences are
used, and how to use sentences
appropriately to achieve
communicative purposes.
Widdowson suggests that
communicative abilities have to be
developed and taught along with
linguistic competence.
Hyme’s communicative competence derived
from chumsky’s distinction between
competence and performance.
Hyme’s concept of communicative competence is derived from Chumsky’s distinction between
competence and performance because Hymes points out that Chomsky’s view is too narrow to describe
the language as a whole; chomsky's linguistic theory dismisses socio cultural factors, and differential
competence in a heterogeneous speech community; therefore, Chomsky’s view of performance is an
incomplete reflection of competence. Hymes sustain that social factors affect not only outward
performance, but also inner competence itself; thus, Hymes considers better to describe language
behavior distinguishing two kinds of competence, and the communicative competence consists in
understanding and producing sentences appropriate and acceptable to a particular situation.