Mesut Deniz

Week #2, 2b
Communicative competence refers to how we use the knowledge of language in communication.
Communicative competence is the capacity which we have to use the language in ways that are
appropriate for the context or for the situation.
Communicative competence tells us what utterance in a language is appropriate communicatively. In
other words, it is how do we describe / explain things or how do we give instructions.
Communicative competence had been broken down into four different components by Canale and
Swain in 1980.
Grammatical competence is, knowing the correct structure of the sentence grammatically and being
able to connect words correctly.
Grammatical competence is the ability to understand and express meaning by producing and
recognizing well formed phrases and sentences.
Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical
structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication.
Discourse competence is, understanding how ideas connected thorough patterns of organizations
and thorough cohesive and transitional devices. Discourse Competence refers to the way ideas are
linked across sentences (in written discourse) or utterances (in spoken discourse). We use two main
aspects to understand Discourse Competence:
Cohesion, which refers to how we link ideas linguistically. For example, we use pronouns to refer to
what or who has been mentioned previously, e.g., he, it, one, none, that, this. Another example
includes the use of an auxiliary verb as a substitute for the main verb, e.g., Do you work here?
Yes, I do.
Coherence, which refers to how we link the meanings of sentences or utterances in written or
spoken texts.
Example

Consider the following short discourse in English:

Once upon a time there was an old woman named Mother Hubbard, who had a dearlyloved dog named Bowser. Mother Hubbard was very poor and didn't always have enough
food for herself and her pet.
One day Bowser came running up and barked hopefully to show his mistress how hungry
he was. Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor doggie a bone, because she
felt sorry for him. But when she got to the cupboard it was bare, and so poor Bowser went
hungry.
Discussion
This story starts with the phrase Once upon a time, which tells us that it is a fairy tale. The
first paragraph goes on to introduce the two characters: Mother Hubbard and Bowser. It
also tells us the background information we need to know about Mother Hubbard. Even
though this is such a short story we need to keep track of the two participants and the
props: the cupboard and the bone. Note the words used to refer to Mother Hubbard: an old
woman, herself, his mistress, she and those used to refer to Bowser: a dearly-loved dog,

her pet, her poor doggie, him, poor Bowser.

Sociolinguistic competence is, having awareness of social rules of language, nonverbal behaviors
and cultural references. Sociolinguistic competence is the ability to interpret the social meaning of
the choice of linguistic varieties and to use language with the appropriate social meaning for the
communication situation.
For example: When greeting someone in a very formal situation an American might say, Hello, how
are you? or Nice to see you again, but if he were meeting a friend in an informal situation it would be
much more appropriate to say Hi, or Hey, whatcha been doing?
The last one almost covers first three components which is Strategic Competence.
Strategic Competence refers to a persons ability to keep communication going when there is a
communication breakdown or to enhance the effectiveness of the communication. It means being
able to get one's message across through use of repetition, volume, or many of the other ways listed
below. This ability is especially important to lower level English language learners. Typical
examples are:
Paraphrase: The learner uses an approximation in the form of a structure or vocabulary item which
s/he knows is incorrect but will get the message across. The learner uses word coinage, i.e., he or she
invents a new word to get the message across.
Circumlocution: The learner describes/defines the object (or its purpose) or action, e.g. You know,
you use it to clean your teeth.
Transfer: The learner uses his or her native language, translating word for word or not bothering to
translate at all.
Cummins made the distinction between BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP
(Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). BICS refers to childrens ability to communicate about
everyday subjects and needs. Educators have also called this playground language. This is language
learned in highly contextualized settings. Jim Cummins argued that BICS develop relatively quickly
in just one or two years. For this reason English language learner may appear to be proficient because
they speak fluently about everyday topics. BICS are characterized by the use of very familiar words
narrative, listening and speaking. Jim Cummins contrasted this social language to a much larger body
of language encountered in texts such as lectures, lab reports, and classroom discussions and so on.
This letter type of language that he called is CALP.
One important future of CALP that distinguishes from social language is that it tends to be highly
abstract and often encountered with little in the way of context. In other words, learners must rely on
their knowledge of language in order to make meaning. CALP takes much longer to develop in part,
because it develops slower when students are not provided with context to scaffold new language
content. It may also appear to develop slower simply because there is so much more academic
language to learn.
Acquiring communicative competence might be challenging process for children who are affected by
their knowledge, cognitive abilities and efforts to learn communication. Children can get help in a
variety of ways such as families, peers or school influences with the acquisition process. In school
teachers can provide opportunity and experiences (i.e. informal conversations, games, small group
activities, storytelling, role-playing, access to a variety materials, etc..)
BICS involves primarily listening and speaking, teachers mistakenly assume that BICS equates with
childrens abilities to accomplish grade level academic work. In order for children to participate
successfully in grade level work they will need to develop a vast set of skills in reading and writing,

accuracy in grammar and vocabulary. Our job is, as teachers, is to access this academic language and
develop our students proficiency with it.