Communicative Competency: Accuracy vs.

Fluency
What is Communicative Competency?
Communicative competency is the correlation between fluency and accuracy and
refers to the ability of a speaker to communicate effectively in the language; this
ability is based on more than just grammatical knowledge and the concept is derived
from the general desire of language learners to be able to communicate proficiently,
not to use the language exactly To be able to communicate in the TL fluently means
that the speaker is comfortable using the language and can be reasonably understood
by other speakers of the TL. This does not necessarily mean that the speaker is free of
errors in their communication, but that the errors they make do not obstruct the
message. Accuracy refers to the correctness of the language being produced by the
speaker. Just because a speaker focuses on accuracy does not mean they will be
capable of producing effective communication.
What are the areas of competency?

Competence What is it asking?

Linguistic competence is knowing

how to use the grammar, syntax,
pronunciation and vocabulary of a
language.
Sociolinguistic competence is
knowing how to use and respond to
language appropriately, given the
setting, the topic, and the relationships
among the people communicating.
Discourse competence is knowing
how to interpret the larger context
and how to construct longer stretches
of language so that the parts make up a
coherent whole.
Strategic competence is knowing
how to recognize
and repair communication
breakdowns, how to work around gaps me? What do I say then? How can I
in one’s knowledge of the language,
and how to learn more about the
language and in the context.
Linguistic competence asks: What
words do I use? How do I put them
into phrases and sentences?
Sociolinguistic competence asks:
Which words and phrases fit this
setting and this topic? How can I
express a specific attitude (courtesy,
authority, friendliness, respect) when I
need to? How do I know what attitude
another person is expressing?
Discourse competence asks: How are
words, phrases and sentences put
together to create conversations,
presentations, invitations, email
messages, reports, newspaper
articles?
Strategic competence asks: How do I
know when I’ve misunderstood or
when someone has misunderstood
express my ideas if I don’t know the
name of something or the right verb
form to use?

In your opinion, which of these competencies is the most important? Does it depend
on the stage of learning?
How can I apply this knowledge in my classroom?

Communicative competency (or accuracy vs. fluency) is important and the teacher
needs to decide WHAT to teach the learners. In the early stages of language learning,
it is believed that the focus should be on learners being able to make themselves
understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid
confusion in the message (due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary); to
avoid offending communication partners (due to socially inappropriate style); and to
use strategies for recognizing and managing communication breakdowns.To find out
more about what LEARNERS perceive to be most important at different stages of
learning a new language visit
What activities can I plan to encourage communicative competency?
Communicative language tests are those which make an effort to test language in a
way that reflects the way that language is used in real communication. It is, of course,
not always possible to make language tests communicative, but it may often be
possible to give them communicative elements. This can have other beneficial effects;
if students are encouraged to study for more communicative tasks, this can only have
a positive effect on their language learning.
How Learners Learn a Language
Our understanding of the processes of second language learning has changed
considerably in the last 30 years and CLT is partly a response to these changes in
understanding. Earlier views of language learning focused primarily on the mastery of
grammatical competence. Language learning was viewed as a process of mechanical
habit formation. Good habits are formed by having students produce correct sentences
and not through making mistakes. Errors were to be avoided through controlled
opportunities for production (either written or spoken). By memorizing dialogs and
performing drills, the chances of making mistakes were minimized. Learning was
very much seen as under the control of the teacher.In recent years, language learning
has been viewed from a very different perspective. It is seen as resulting from
processes such as:
 Interaction between the learner and users of the language
 Collaborative creation of meaning
 Creating meaningful and purposeful interaction through language
 Negotiation of meaning as the learner and his or her interlocutor arrive at
understanding
 Learning through attending to the feedback learners get when the use the
language
 Paying attention to the language one hears (the input) and trying to incorporate
new forms into one’s developing communicative competence
 Trying out and experimenting with different ways of saying things
Accuracy Versus Fluency Activities
One of the goals of CLT is to develop fluency in language use. Fluency is natural
language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and
maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or
her communicative competence. Fluency is developed by creating classroom activities
in which students must negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct
misunderstandings, and work to avoid communication breakdowns. Fluency practice
can be contrasted with accuracy practice, which focuses on creating correct examples
of language use. Differences between activities that focus on fluency and those that
focus on accuracy can be summarized as follows:
Activities focusing on fluency
 Reflect natural use of language
 Focus on achieving communication
 Require meaningful use of language
 Require the use of communication strategies
 Produce language that may not be predictable
 Seek to link language use to context
Activities focusing on accuracy
 Reflect classroom use of language
 Focus on the formation of correct examples of language
 Practice language out of context
 Practice small samples of language
 Do not require meaningful communication
 Control choice of language
Transcription de Communicative language teaching
 - Its changes are found in the late 1960s.
- Situational language teaching was the major approach and language was taught
by practicing structures in meaningful situation
It aims to :
make communicative competence the goal of language teaching
Communicative language teaching
- Wilkins proposed a functional communicative syllabus.
- Notional categories and communicative categories
-Set of specifications for a first level communicative language syllabus.
- The work of the Council, the writings of Wilkins; the rapid application of these
ideas, and the equally acceptance of these new principles... Weak version
- Language is communication develop procedures for the teaching of the four
language skills. Strong version
THEORY OF LANGUAGE
The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes(1972) referred to as
"communicative competence". What the speaker needs to know in order to be
communicativily competent in a speech community
- Lg. is a system for the expression of meaning
-It also deals with interaction and communication
THEORY OF LEARNING
Little has been written , however there are some elements underlined the learning
theory: Real communication Meaningful tasks Meaningful language Acquisition
unconscious development of the target language system as a result of using the
language for real communication Learning conscious representation of
grammatical knowledge that has resulted from communication
OBJECTIVES
language as a means of expression
language as a semiotic system and an object of learning
language as a means of expressing values and judgments about oneself and others
remedial learning based on error analysis
language teaching will reflect the particular needs of the target learners.
THE SYLLABUS
Specified the semantic-grammatical categories Communicative function that
learners need to express. the situations in which they need to use a foreign
language (e.g., travel, business) the topics they need to talk about (e.g., personal
identification, education, shopping the notions made use of in communication
(e.g., time, frequency, duration) the vocabulary and grammar needed
ROLES TEACHER
Facilitator of communication process
Independent participant
Organizer of resource
Guide in the classroom
Researcher and learner
Need Analyst
Counselor
Classroom Manager
LEARNER
Negotiator between the self and the learning process and the object of learning
Contribute as much as he/she gains
Interact with each other
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL
Task-based games role play handbooks activity cards Text based dialogues drill
sentences patterns pictures Realia MagazinesNewspaper"Authentic", "from life"
materials Teaching points are introduced in dialogue formOral practice of each
utterance of the dialogue segment.
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE ABILITY
LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE
It concerns knowledge of language itself, its form and meaning Spelling
Pronunciation Vocabulary Sentence structure
PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE
Knowing how to use language in order to achieve certain communicative goals
Knowing how to perform a particular function or express an intention clearly
 When to speak, when not, when to talk about/with whom, when, where and in
what manner
DISCOURSE COMPETENCE
How to : Perform in discourse Maintain a conversation Develop a topic Initiate,
enter, interrupt, check a conversation Abilities needed to create coherent written
texts or conversations and to understand them
STRATEGIC COMPETENCE
How to cope in an authentic communicative situation How to keep the
communicative channel open.

Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative language teaching sets as its goal the teaching of communica- tive
competence. What does this term mean? Perhaps we can clarify this term by first
comparing it with the concept of grammatical competence. Grammatical competence
refers to the knowledge we have of a language that accounts for our ability to
produce sentences in a language. It refers to knowledge of the building blocks of
sentences (e.g., parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, sen-tence patterns) and how
sentences are formed. Grammatical competence is the focus of many grammar
practice books, which typically present a rule of gram- mar on one page, and provide
exercises to practice using the rule on the other page. The unit of analysis and practice
is typically the sentence. While gram- matical competence is an important dimension
of language learning, it is clearly not all that is involved in learning a language since
one can master the rules of sentence formation in a language and still not be very
successful at being able to use the language for meaningful communication. It is the
latter capacity which is understood by the term communicative competence.
Communicative competence includes the following aspects of lan-guage knowledge:
 Knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and functions
 Knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and the
participants (e.g., knowing when to use formal and informal speech or when to
use language appropriately for written as opposed to spoken communication)
 Knowing how to produce and understand different types of texts narratives
interviews
 Knowing how to maintain communication despite having
 limitations in one’s language knowledge through using different kinds of
communication strategies)