*

DISCOURSE COMPETENCE
STRATEGIC COMPETENCE
*

 concept introduced by Dell Hymes (1966) and

discussed and redefined by many authors.
 Hymes' original idea:
*speakers of a language have to have more than
grammatical competence in order to be able
communicate effectively in a language;
*they also need to know how language is used by
members of a speech community to accomplish their
purposes.
 *

1.LINGUISTICS COMPETENCE
2.SOCIOLINGUISTICS COMPETENCE
3.DISCOURSE COMPETENCE
4.STRATEGIC 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.

*
*It is the ability to
understand, create and
develop forms of the
language that are longer
than sentences (stories,
conversations, letters)
with the appropriate
cohesion, coherence,
and rhetorical
organisation to combine
ideas.

*
* It is the ability to control the ordering of sentences in terms
of:
a. topic/focus
b. given/new
c. Natural sequencing
e.g. He fell over and I hit him.
d. cause/effect (invertible)
e.g. Prices are rising. People want higher wages.
f. ability to structure and manage discourse in terms of:
- Thematic organisation
- Coherence and Cohesion
- logical ordering
- style and register
- rhetorical effectiveness

*
 *

*1. TEXTUAL COMPETENCE.

This is basically a measure of how well an individual
can read different texts and understand them.
Different kinds of text include fiction and nonfiction,
narratives, instructional guides, and other types of written
communications, like transcriptions of recorded
conversations or technical materials.
The better readers can understand these texts, the
more textual discourse competence they have.
 *

2. RHETORICAL OR EFFECTIVE DISCOURSE

COMPETENCE.
This is often defined as how well an individual can
contribute to a conversation.
MULTIPLE COMPONENTS:
1. how well the individual can understand what is being said
by a range of speakers.
2. how well the individual can interject his or her own
opinions, and how well that person can express ideas to an
audience within a general scenario.
 *

1.COHESION
2.COHERENCE
* COHESION
-It refers to how we link ideas linguistically.
- (Halladay & Hasa 1976:4) refers to relations of
meanings that exist within the text, and that define it
as a text.
- There is cohesion when the interpretation of an
element in the text is dependent on that of another,
that is, “cohesion is a semantic relation between an
element in the text and some other element that is
crucial to the interpretation of it”

*
* 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.
- Richards, Platt and Platt (1993:61) define
coherence as the relationships which link the
meanings of sentences in a discourse.

*
*EXAMPLES:
1. A. John hid Bill’s keys.
B. He was drunk.

* John hid Bill’s keys. He likes spinach

2.. A: It’s hot in here.

B: I’ll open a window.

* It’s hot in here. She has a curly hair.

*
*
* Add a statement to the given sentences to show relationship
of coherence.
1. Darwin washed the car.
____________________

2. I’ll be working tonight.

_____________________
*
*
*
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
*
Think First before You Speak!
*
You were trapped in a far away place. You don’t know
anything about this place, their language, culture etc.
Days passed by yet you were still isolated in this place
without a food and a shelter to stay on. Until one day, a
native citizen of this place found you lying on the ground
waiting for help.
And then she said this ….

What will be your reaction?

*
* refers to a person’s ability to keep communication going
when there is a communication breakdown or to enhance
the effectiveness of the communication.

* is the ability to recognise and repair communication

breakdowns before, during, or after they occur.
*
*

Planning
Communication goal
Execution

Problem
Other
Change goal plan

Reduction Achievement
Strategy strategy
 *

1.REDUCTION OR AVOIDANCE STRATEGY

2. ACHIEVEMENT STRATEGY
 *

1. 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., s/he invents a new
word to get the message across.
2. Circumlocution - The learner describes/defines the object
(or its purpose) or action, e.g., ‘You know, you use it to clean
your teeth.'
3. Transfer - The learner uses his or her native language,
translating word for word or not bothering to translate at all.
*
1. Asking for help
2. Mime
3. Pause fillers – use of ‘er', ‘um’, ‘you know’, ‘let’s
see’, ‘sort of’, etc.
4. Topic avoidance – the learner avoids or changes
the topic when s/he lacks the proficiency to
continue.
5. Message abandonment – the learner simply stops
in mid-utterance, lacking the proficiency to
continue.
 *

* Opening and closing a conversation

* Keeping a conversation going
* Expressing feelings and attitudes
 *
Try to guess what object the non-native speaker was referring
to. She said:
NNS: Well it ~ er uhm ... how would you say, it‘s a piece of
furniture which is just near your bed, er where er a bedlamp is
staying on it and where I can put my books for example, my
jewellery and all my things …
the same non-native speaker desperately tried to make herself
understood when a native speaker asked her the meaning of a
very problematic Italian term. Try to guess what she was
referring to. She said:
NNS: Oh well, it's a bit difficult to explain, let me think, well it
...it used to be, I suppose, a sort of a religious holiday, and it is
still now, but it ~ uhm it‘s a hol it's a very special holiday during
the summer, it‘sjust er mid-August, let's say and, well normally
Italian people well they have during during this day, it' a sort of a
celebration of the summer, let's say before the summer goes
away, ends up…
 *
Activity A. Guided strategy training
A. Match each question on the left with an appropriate response on the right.
A B
1. Do you like living in Paris?
2. Are you going to Kate’s party
tonight?
3. Where shall we go this year?
4. How did you like the film?
5. Would you like to watch the match?
6. Are you still in touch with Julie?
7. Did you spend your holidays in
France as usual?
8. Do you play any sports?
A. No, I'm afraid I haven't seen her for
months. You know, things have
changed since last summer.
B. Well, the city's certainly very
beautiful, but there are problems too.
C. I often go jogging. What about you?
D. I don't think so. Are you?
E. It depends. Who’s playing?
F. No, we didn’t, after all we went
through the last time we went to
Norrnandy.
G. I liked it very much. Didn’t you?
H. Mm, I don't know ... maybe
Scotland?
ACTIVITY B. ROLE PLAY
One person in each pair will role play the conversation. The other
person in each pair will listen and be ready to help his/her partner.
The conversation should end in a definite way (e.g. a decision to
stop talking, an invitation to have a drink together, an exchange
of telephone numbers, etc.)

You get into a train compartment and see a person you

happened to meet a long time ago. You remember
he/she was a nice person and want to talk to him/her.
Before you start talking, decide the circumstances in
which you met the person — try to be as precise as
possible and be ready to help him/ her recall you.
According to his/her reactions. you will have to decide
whether to continue or end the conversation.

*
* ACTIVITY C. PAIR WORK

Work in pairs. Student A asks one of the following questions. Student B

answers it, at the same time prompting A to go on talking. Then change roles.

1. Do you like reading?

2. Are you thirsty?

3. Did you come back by bus?

4. Could you buy me a magazine?

5. Can you ski?

*
*

* they help learners to remain in conversation, and so provide

them with more input, more opportunities for checking and
validating their hypotheses, and therefore more chances to
develop their inter-language systems.
* help students, on the productive side, to get some useful
feedback on their own performance, and on the receptive
side, to exercise some kind of control over their intake
* communication strategies train learners in the flexibility they
need to cope with the unexpected and the unpredictable.
* communication strategies encourage risk-taking and
individual initiative and this is certainly a step towards
linguistic and cognitive autonomy.
We don’t need to teach foreign people to
speak like natives. We need to make
natives believe foreigners can speak like
them. In this way foreigners can talk to
natives, and then they learn.
-Margaret Mead-

*
Prepared by:
Marie Fe B. Martus