COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

Prepared by: Mary Joy A. Galolo, RND

Communicative competence refers to a
learner's ability to use language to communicate
successfully.
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
1. Definition, elements and characteristics of effectiveness/
good communication and barriers to effective communication
2. Written and oral English; technical language; avoidance and
slang/ colloquialism
3. Business and technical communication
3.1 good elements
3.2 letter, reports, memos, minutes, email,
meeting preparation
4. Information and communication technology
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

• In "Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second

Language Teaching and Testing", Michael Canale and Merrill Swain
identified these four components of communicative competence:

i. Grammatical competence includes knowledge

of phonology, orthography, vocabulary, word formation
and sentence formation.

i. Sociolinguistic competence includes knowledge of

sociocultural rules of use. It is concerned with the learners'
ability to handle for example settings, topics and communicative
functions in different sociolinguistic contexts.
iii. Discourse competence is related to the learners'
mastery of understanding and producing texts in the
modes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It deals
with cohesion and coherence in different types of texts.

iv. Strategic competence refers to compensatory

strategies in case of grammatical difficulties, such as the
use of reference sources, grammatical and lexical
paraphrase, requests for repetition, clarification, slower
speech, or problems in addressing strangers when
unsure of their social status.
COMMUNICATION
Communication is the process of transmitting information and common
understanding from one person to another. In this article, I discuss the
communication process, barriers to communication, and improving
communication effectiveness.
Two common elements in every communication exchange are
the sender and the receiver.

• The sender initiates the communication. In a school, the

sender is a person who has a need or desire to convey an
idea or concept to others.

• The receiver is the individual to whom the message is sent.

The sender encodes the idea by selecting words, symbols,
or gestures with which to compose a message.

• The message is the outcome of the encoding, which takes

the form of verbal, nonverbal, or written language.
• The medium can be a face-to-face conversation, telephone
call, e-mail, or written report.

• Noise is anything that distorts the message. Different

perceptions of the message, language barriers, interruptions,
emotions, and attitudes are examples of noise.

• Finally, feedback occurs when the receiver responds to the

sender's message and returns the message to the sender.
Feedback allows the sender to determine whether the
message has been received and understood.
Barriers to Effective Communication
• Physical Barriers - Any number of physical distractions can interfere
with the effectiveness of communication, including a telephone call, drop-
in visitors, distances between people, walls, and static on the radio.

• Semantic Barriers -The words we choose, how we use them, and the
meaning we attach to them cause many communication barriers. The
problem is semantic, or the meaning of the words we use. The same
word may mean different things to different people.

• Psychosocial Barriers - Three important concepts are associated with

psychological and social barriers: fields of experience, filtering, and
psychological distance (Antos, 2011)).
Differences between written
and oral language
As a rule of thumb, the audience will remember
about one-half of what was said. Written language
is saved for posterity with the assumption that
100% of it will be read, understood, and
remembered.
EFFECTIVE WRITTEN LANGUAGE is
• Precise and direct.
• Less personal.
• Driven by logic, organization, and explicitness
• Achieved through sentence length, complex language style.
• Validated by author’s credibility.
• Objective
• Non-retractable (it’s forever… and so are mistakes and flaws).
• Planned and deliberate.
ORAL LANGUAGE is

• A dynamic transfer of information.

• Everyday spoken language
• Retractable (one can apologize for a mistake or offer clarification)
• Highly subjective
• Spontaneous
• Dependent upon orientation signals (for example, “Well, in the first
place”), and projection terms (for example, “It seems to me”) to
soften the tone
• Conversational and indirect.
 LIMITATIONS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

• Relying only on oral communication may not be

sufficient as business communication is formal and very
organized.

• Oral communication is less authentic than written

communication as they are informal and not as
organized as written communication.

• It requires attentiveness and great receptivity on part of

the receivers/audience.
DISADVANTAGES OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

• If the receivers of the written message are separated by

distance and if they need to clear their doubts, the
response is not spontaneous.

• Written communication is time-consuming as the

feedback is not immediate.

• Effective written communication requires great skills and

competencies in language and vocabulary use.
Sentence Structure of
Technical Writing
 Good Tech Writers Practice
• Planning
• Clarity
• Brevity Planning/
Writing
Rethinking
• Simplicity
• Word Choice
• Active Voice
• Committing to
Writing as a Revising

Process
18
 Planning: Before You Begin
Identify your audience and their expectations

Know your purpose Know your material

Understand the writing task at hand

Organize your thoughts and materials

Budget adequate time to write, review, revise and edit

19
 Clarity: Avoid Jargon
• Jargon: a vocabulary particular to a
place of work (abbreviations, slang)
• Audience familiarity with the topic
determines appropriate use of jargon
Ex. 1: For the first year, the links with SDPC and the HAC
were not connected, and all required OCS input data were
artificially loaded. Thus CATCH22 and MERWIN were not
available.
Ex. 2: Because some of the links in the computer
system were not connected the first year, we could
not run all the software codes.

20
Clarity: Define the Unfamiliar
• If you must abbreviate, define the term in its
first occurrence, and put abbreviations in
parentheses
Ex: Edgartown Great Pond (EGP) is a vital body of water.
Unfortunately, due to an unpredictable influx of saltwater,
the delicate ecosystem is in danger of destabilizing.
• Italicize first occurrence of unfamiliar
terms and define them right away
Ex: Retina is a light-sensitive tissue, found at the back of
the eye, that converts light impulses to nerve impulses.

21
Brevity: Use Words Efficiently
• Never use two words when one
word will do.

Ex. 1: The relationship between the nature of salt water to

fresh water in the Edgartown Great Pond that fluctuates
often is extremely important to everyone including
scientists, residents, and environmentalists on Martha’s
Vineyard.

Ex. 2: The fluctuating salinity of EGP concerns many

environmentalists, scientists, and residents.

22
 Brevity: Less Is More
• Pare your language down to the
essential message you want to get across
to your readers:

Ex: Earthquakes can occur at predictable

intervals along a given fault segment.
Depending on the length and slip in each
mainshock, the exact interval can vary by a
factor of two. The southern segment of the
San Andreas fault has an interval of 145
years, plus or minus a few decades.

23
Brevity: Remove Redundancy
• Combine overlapping sentences when
possible
Ex. 1: Water quality in Hawk River declined in
March. This decline occurred because of the
heavy rainfall that month. All the extra water
overloaded Tomlin county’s water treatment
plant.

Ex. 2: Water quality in Hawk River declined

in March because heavy rainfalls overloaded
Tomlin County water treatment plant.
24
 Language: Ambiguity
• Choose words whose meanings are clear

Ex. 1: T cells, rather than B cells, appeared as

the lymphocytes migrated to the thymus gland.

Ex. 2: T cells, rather than B cells, appeared

because the lymphocytes migrated to the
thymus gland.

25
 Language: Ambiguity
• Do not overuse pronouns—particularly
“it” and “this”—because it is often difficult
to identify the antecedent

Ex: Because the receiver presented the

radiometer with a high-flux environment, it was
mounted in a silver-plated stainless steel
container.

Because the receiver presented the radiometer

with a high-flux environment, it was mounted in
a silver-plated stainless steel container.
26
Language: Weak vs. Strong
• Avoid too many “to be” verbs
“is” “was” “were” “has been” “have been”
• Avoid excess words, which slow
comprehension of the main point
made arrangements for arranged
made the decision decided
made the measurement of measured
performed the development of developed
is working as expected works as expected

27
 Writing Is a Process
• Good writing doesn’t
Final Draft
happen overnight; it
requires planning, Revised Draft
drafting, rereading,
revising, and editing. First Draft

• Learning and improvement

requires self-review, peer-
review, subject-matter
expert feedback, and
practice.

• There are no shortcuts;

practice makes perfect!

28
 To summarize
• Plan your project before you begin
drafting.
• Understand basic qualities of good
technical writing; use the examples
presented to guide you in your writing
and revising process.
• Good writing is a habit that takes
time to develop; practice makes
perfect.
29