The notion of communicative competence and some basic criteria for the development of learners’ communicative competence

Abstract EN

Chomsky’s original uotiou of grammatical competence encountered many criticisms.

The most influential counter idea was that of communicative competence.

The term is most usually attributed to Hymes (1971) referring to the use of language in social context.

This notion is, as Hudson (1996:224) states, ° much more broadly based than the ‘linguistic competence’ of Chomskyan Linguistics.” In addition to referring to tlie knowledge of linguistic forms, it includes one’s knowledge of how to use linguistic forms appropriately (Ibid).

Thus, over the past several decades, the notion of communicative competence has become a central preoccupation of language course designers.

The main change it has caused in second and foreign language instruction is the shift in teaching methodology from a focus on the structural properties of the target language to an emphasis on the expression and comprehension of meaning .

In other words, the main concern in second and foreign language curriculum has changed from fostering learners’ linguistic grammatical accuracy to enhancing learners’ communicative competence necessary for real life communication.

Thus, the study deals with the notion of communicative competence and attempts to present some basic criteria for the development of learners’ communicative competence.

The paper falls into three sections.

The first section provides a brief review of literature on the notion of communicative competence presenting theoretical background to the notion.

The second section introduces some basic criteria for the development of learners’ communicative competence.

In the light of these criteria, the third section attempts to provide a sample of learning activities and techniques.

Then, it presents some pedagogical recommendations that aim at enhancing learners’ communicative competence to help them become more able and successful language learners and users.