Reflection on Lecture 1

Developing Communicative competence and the National Curriculum

Fill in the KWL chart given below about the topic of the lecture

K stands for “ I know”

W stands for “I want to know” before you read lecture materials

These questions may help you think of and write the answers for the first column below.
What do you know about teaching English and communicative competence? (What is the
role of a learner? What is the role of a teacher? What aspects of language are necessary to
teach? How? What kind of activities are helpful? Etc.

I know I want to know

1) Communicative Competence is a term is 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.

A language user needs to use the language not only correctly , but also appropriately. Of
course, this approach does not diminish the importance of learning grammatical rules of a
language.

In fact , it is one of the four components of communicative competence: Linguistic

(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.),Sociolinguistics (the ability to communicate appropriately by using the right
words, expressions, and attitude towards a specific topic, setting, and relationship. Many
 English learners can do well in class but not necessarily have sociolinguistic competence),
discourse ( can be defined as the ability to use coherent and cohesive texts in an oral or
written form), an strategic ( the knowledge of how to use one's language to communicate
intended meaning. Foreign language students may develop competence in each of these three
areas at different rates, but all are important in developing communicative competence. )
competence.

2) The definition of English Language Teaching in the dictionary is the practice and theory of

learning and teaching English for the benefit of people whose first language is not English.

The role of the teacher is to be facilitator of his students  learning. She is the manager of

classroom activities. ... He suggests that language teachers need to assist learners by providing
them with frameworks, patterns and rules to develop their communicative language skills.
Learners are responsible for attending class and completing reading and other assignments as
proscribed by the teacher. Although their first role in the process is as passive listener, listening
requires paying attention during class.

Read the article about communicative competence from

https://linguisticator.com/communicative-competence/

Communicative Competence
If a language learner is asked what they think the goal of a language course is, they would
probably answer that it is to teach the grammar and vocabulary of that language. However, if
they are asked what their goal is as language learners, they would most probably answer that it
is to be able to communicate in that language.

I am not saying that in actuality the goal of a language course is to teach solely grammar and
vocabulary — well, at least it shouldn’t be just that anymore. Fortunately, the focus of second
language teaching has moved from purely teaching grammar and vocabulary, to providing the
skills for effective communication. In linguistics terminology, a language course should not only
have “linguistic competence” as its goal, but “communicative competence” in general.

But what do these terms mean? Communicative competence is a term coined by Dell Hymes in
1966 in reaction to Noam Chomsky’s (1965) notion of “linguistic competence”. Communicative
competence is the intuitive functional knowledge and control of the principles of language
usage. As Hymes observes:

“…a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as
appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to
talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to
accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their
accomplishment by others.”
(Hymes 1972, 277)

In other words, a language user needs to use the language not only correctly (based on linguistic
competence), but also appropriately (based on communicative competence). Of course, this
approach does not diminish the importance of learning the grammatical rules of a language. In
fact, it is one of the four components of communicative competence: linguistic, sociolinguistic,
discourse, and strategic competence.

1. Linguistic competence is the knowledge of the language code, i.e. its grammar and
vocabulary, and also of the conventions of its written representation (script and
orthography). The grammar component includes the knowledge of the sounds and their
pronunciation (i.e. phonetics), the rules that govern sound interactions and patterns (i.e.
phonology), the formation of words by means of e.g. inflection and derivation (i.e.
morphology), the rules that govern the combination of words and phrases to structure
sentences (i.e. syntax), and the way that meaning is conveyed through language (i.e.
semantics).
2. Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of sociocultural rules of use, i.e. knowing
how to use and respond to language appropriately. The appropriateness depends on the
setting of the communication, the topic, and the relationships among the people
communicating. Moreover, being appropriate depends on knowing what the taboos of
the other culture are, what politeness indices are used in each case, what the politically
correct term would be for something, how a specific attitude (authority, friendliness,
courtesy, irony etc.) is expressed etc.
3. Discourse competence is the knowledge of how to produce and comprehend oral or
written texts in the modes of speaking/writing and listening/reading respectively. It’s
knowing how to combine language structures into a cohesive and coherent oral or
written text of different types. Thus, discourse competence deals with organising words,
phrases and sentences in order to create conversations, speeches, poetry, email messages,
newspaper articles etc.
 4. Strategic competence is the ability to recognise and repair communication breakdowns
before, during, or after they occur. For instance, the speaker may not know a certain
word, thus will plan to either paraphrase, or ask what that word is in the target language.
During the conversation, background noise or other factors may hinder communication;
thus the speaker must know how to keep the communication channel open. If the
communication was unsuccessful due to external factors (such as interruptions), or due to
the message being misunderstood, the speaker must know how to restore
communication. These strategies may be requests for repetition, clarification, slower
speech, or the usage of gestures, taking turns in conversation etc.

These four components of communicative competence should be respected in teaching a foreign

language —and they usually are by modern teaching methods employed in second language
teaching. Usually most of the above are best learned if the language learner immerses into the
culture of a country that speaks the target language. Wouldn’t it be great if the language
teaching methodologies helped language learners reach communicative competence to a great
degree even if the learner has never immersed into the target culture?

References:
Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.
Hymes, Dell H. (1966). “Two types of linguistic relativity”. In Bright, W. Sociolinguistics. The
Hague: Mouton. pp. 114–158.
Hymes, Dell H. (1972). “On communicative competence”. In Pride, J.B.; Holmes, J.
Sociolinguistics: selected readings. Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 269–293.

You may use additional resources uploaded on Argus on the topic of Communicative competence.

L stands for “ I learnt” Fill in the 3rd column after reading the article above and what you
understood from the live session on September 29, 2020

The questions to help you fill in the column: “I learnt”

How did I gain the information about the topic of the lecture? What helped me understand the
topic?

I learnt
I got information about the lecture myself from the lecture and partly from the
internet. The lecture was quite understandable, which helped me to easily understand the
assignment. This was accompanied by slides that are more memorable and better for the
visuals to better understand the topic of the lecture.

From the lecture I learned about the National Curriculum, its main goals and
objectives. I also learned what is the organization of foreign language teaching and how it
is divided into stages, what types of assessments are in the first, second and third foreign
 languages, English at the elementary level and its main directions, elementary and upper
grade standards.

Questions after completing the KWL chart.

You may use the questions below to complete the chart: Application for Future

1. How am I going to use the gained knowledge?

2. What I have not understood properly? How am I going to fill in the gap in my
knowledge about the topic?
3. Do I want to get more information on the topics discussed in the material, when and how
am I going to do it?
4. Questions/suggestions/ comments/recommendations

Application for Future

I can use the acquired knowledge in the future, in school, which will be a practice for
me. What I do not understand I can search the internet, watch video or listen to audio
recording to make the topic more understandable to me.