Communicative Language Competences

LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

Language systems are of great complexity and the language of a large, diversified, advanced society is never completely mastered by anyof its users

lexical competence;

Fixed expressions, consisting of several words, which are used and learnt as wholes.

Single word forms. A particular single word form may have several distinct meanings

grammatical competence;

Grammatical competence is the ability to understand and express meaning by producing and recognising well-formed phrases and sentences in accordance with these principles

Morphology deals with the internal organisation of words. Words may be analysed into morphemes

Syntax deals with the organisation of words into sentences in terms of the categories, elements, classes, structures, processes and relations involved, often presented in the form of a set of rules

semantic competence;

Lexical semantics deals with questions of word meaning

Grammatical semantics deals with the meaning of grammatical elements, categories, structures and processes (

phonological competence;

• the sound-units (phonemes) of the language and their realisation in particular contexts (allophones);

• the phonetic features which distinguish phonemes (distinctive features, e.g. voicing, rounding, nasality, plosion);

• the phonetic composition of words (syllable structure, the sequence of phonemes, word stress, word tones);

• sentence phonetics (prosody)

• sentence stress and rhythm

• intonation;

• phonetic reduction

• vowel reduction

• strong and weak forms

• assimilation

• elision.

Orthographic competence;

• the form of letters in printed and cursive forms in both upper and lower case

• the proper spelling of words, including recognised contracted forms

• punctuation marks and their conventions of use

• typographical conventions and varieties of font, etc.

• logographic signs in common use (e.g. @, &, $, etc.)

Orthoepic competence.

• knowledge of spelling conventions

• ability to consult a dictionary and a knowledge of the conventions used there for the representation of pronunciation

• knowledge of the implications of written forms, particularly punctuation marks, for phrasing and intonation

• ability to resolve ambiguity (homonyms, syntactic ambiguities, etc.) in the light of the context

SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

LINGUISTIC MARKERS OF SOCIAL RELATIONS

Use and choice of greetings:

on arrival, e.g. Hello! Good morning!

introductions, e.g. How do you do?

leave-taking, e.g. Good-bye . . . See you later

Use and choice of address forms

frozen, e.g. My Lord, Your Grace
formal, e.g. Sir, Madam, Miss, Dr, Professor (+ surname)
informal, e.g. first name only, such as John! Susan!

informal, e.g. no address form

familiar, e.g. dear, darling; (popular) mate, love

peremptory, e.g. surname only, such as Smith! You (there)!

ritual insult, e.g. you stupid idiot! (often affectionate)

Use and choice of expletives (e.g. Dear, dear!, My God!, Bloody Hell!, etc.)

Politeness conventions

Positive

• showing interest in a person’s well being;

• sharing experiences and concerns, ‘troubles talk’;

• expressing admiration, affection, gratitude;

• offering gifts, promising future favours, hospitality;

Negative

• avoiding face-threatening behaviour (dogmatism, direct orders, etc.);

• expressing regret, apologising for face-threatening behaviour (correction, contradiction, prohibitions, etc.);

• using hedges, etc. (e.g. ‘ I think’, tag questions, etc.);

Impoliteness

bluntness, frankness;

• expressing contempt, dislike;

• strong complaint and reprimand;

• venting anger, impatience;

• asserting superiority.

Expretions of folk wisdom

• proverbs, e.g. a stitch in time saves nine

• idioms, e.g. a sprat to catch a mackerel

• familiar quotations, e.g. a man’s a man for a’ that

• expressions of: belief, such as – weathersaws, e.g. Fine before seven, rain by eleven attitudes, such as – clichés, e.g. It takes all sorts to make a world values, e.g. It’s not cricket.

Register differences

• frozen, e.g. Pray silence for His Worship the Mayor!

• formal, e.g. May we now come to order, please.

• neutral, e.g. Shall we begin?

• informal, e.g. Right. What about making a start?

• familiar, e.g. O.K. Let’s get going.

• intimate, e.g. Ready dear?

Dialect and accent

• social class

• regional provenance

• national origin

• ethnicity

• occupational group

PRAGMATIC COMPETENCES

Discourse competence:s the ability of a user/learner to arrange sentences in sequence so as to produce coherent stretches of language.

Discourse competence

• topic/focus;

• given/new;

• ‘natural’ sequencing

the ‘co-operative principle’ (Grice 1975): ‘make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged, by observing the following maxims

Text design: knowledge of the design conventions in the community concerning, e.g.: how information is structured in realising the various macrofunctions

Functional competence:This component is concerned with the use of spoken discourse and written texts in communication for particular functional purposes. Conversational competence is not simply a matter of knowing which particular functions are expressed by which language forms

Microfunctions

imparting and seeking factual information

• identifying

• reporting

• correcting

• asking

• answering

expressing and finding out attitudes

• factual (agreement/disagreement)

• knowledge (knowledge/ignorance, remembering, forgetting, probability, certainty)

• modality (obligations, necessity, ability, permission)

• volition (wants, desires, intentions, preference)

• emotions (pleasure/displeasure, likes/dislikes, satisfaction, interest, surprise, hope, disappointment, fear, worry, gratitude)

• moral (apologies, approval, regret, sympathy)

suasion:

• suggestions, requests, warnings, advice, encouragement, asking help, invitations, offers

socialising

• attracting attention, addressing, greetings, introductions, toasting, leave-taking

structuring discourse:

28 microfunctions, opening, turntaking, closing

communication repair

Macrofunction

• description

• narration

• commentary

• exposition

• exegesis

• explanation

• demonstration

• instruction

• argumentation

• persuasion

Interaction Schemata

question: answer

statement: agreement/disagreement

request/offer/apology: acceptance/non-acceptance

greeting/toast: response