COMPETENCE versus

PERFORMANCE
 DEFINITION
COMPETENCE PERFORMANCE

• Person’s knowledge of A term used in the

his language. linguistic theory of
• The system rules which transformational generative
a language user has grammar, refer to language
mastered so that it would is seen as a set of specific
be possible for that user utterances produced by
to produce and native speaker.
understand an infinite
number of sentences
and recognise
grammatical mistakes
and ambiguities
 LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

• What you know about the language.

• Concern:
o-communicative competence-grammatical
sociolinguist, discourse and strategic.
opragmatic competence-how language is used.
oliterary competence- ability to handle special
properties of literary language.
 Linguistic competence of
native language
 One can recognize
whether the word
belongs to his native
language.
e.g. Slip
* slib
* sbill
 Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage
•He also can know the
morphology, such as
prefix, suffix.
e.g. Re-cuddle
nonderiveable
*
en-rich-ment
 Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage

• He can distinguish sentence

and non-sentences.
e.g. The accident was seen by
thousands.
* The accident was looked by
thousands.
Li ngui st i c compet ence of nat i ve
l anguage

• He can distinguish some sentences

which have the same structure but
the different meanings.
e.g. The cow was found by the
stream.
The cow was found by the
farmer.
 Li ngui st i c compet ence of
nat i ve l anguage
• He can know some sentences
with different structure, but
related meanings.
e.g. The police examined the
bullet.
The bullet was examined by
the police.
 The dispute about the derivation of
linguistic competence

 Produced by the influence of the

environment.

 Produced by both influence of the

environment and human inherent ability.

 It is the human inherent ability- Language

Acquisition Device.
 LINGUISTIC PERFORMANCE

• How you actually use your knowledge about

language.
• Performance is the actual use of the language
by individuals in speech and writing.
• Utterances might :
o Contain features irrelevant to the abstract
rule systems-hesitation, unfinished structure.
o Involve psychological and social difficulties-
lapses of memory, limitations, tiredness
o Descr i be t he psychol ogi cal
pr ocess i nvol ved i n usi ng t he
l i ngui st i c compet ence i n al l ways
t hat t he speaker can act ual l y use
it.
o Psychol ogi cal pr ocess:
 Pr oduci ng ut t er ances
 Under st andi ng t hem
 Maki ng j udgment s about t hem
 Acqui r i ng t he abi l i t y t o do al l
t hese
 Rel at i onshi p bet ween
Compet ence and Per f or mance
• I f you make gr ammat i cal
mi st akes, but you know t hey ar e
mi st akes, t hen your per f or mance
does not mat ch your compet ence.
• I f you don't know t hey ar e
mi st akes, t hen your compet ence
mat ches your per f or mance, and
you ar e pr obabl y not nat i ve
 Evi dent l y, t her e i s a di f f er ence
bet ween havi ng t he knowl edge
necessar y t o pr oduce sent ences of a
l anguage, and appl yi ng t hi s
knowl edge. I t i s a di f f er ence bet ween
what you know, whi ch i s your
l i ngui st i c compet ence, and how you
use t hi s knowl edge i n act ual speech
pr oduct i on and compr ehensi on, whi ch
i s your l i ngui st i c per f or mance.
When we speak, we usual l y wi sh t o convey
some message. At some st age i n t he act of
pr oduci ng speech, we must or gani ze our
t hought s i nt o st r i ngs of wor ds. Somet i mes
t he message i s gar bl ed. We may st ammer ,
or pause, or pr oduce sl i ps of t he t ongue.
We may even sound l i ke t he baby, who
i l l ust r at es t he di f f er ence bet ween
l i ngui st i c knowl edge and t he way we use
t hat knowl edge i n per f or mance.
THANK YOU