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This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING
Rizka Safriyani
A. Introduction
Second language acquisition is the process by which people learn a second
language in addition to their native language. Those who can communicate
successfully can be considered as the one who has commnunicative competence.
Communicative competence is the ability to interact well with others.
Communication takes place in an infinitive variety of situations, and success in a
particular role depends on one’s understanding of the context and on prior experience
of a similar kind. It requires making appropriate choices of register and style in terms
of the situation and other participants.
Hence, communicative competence deals with linguistic terms which refers to
second language’s learner ability. It does not only refer to a learner’s ability to apply
and use grammatical rules, but also to form correct utterances, and know how to use
these utterances appropriately and it implies to the communicative approach in
language teaching.
B. The Characteristics of Communicative Competence
Savignon (1883: 8-9) mentions that there are five characteristics of communicative
competence and those characteristics are:
1. Communicative competence is dynamic rather than static concept. It depends on
the negotiation of meaning between two or more persons who share to some
degree the same symbolic system.
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
2. Communicative competence applies to both written and spoken language, as well
as too many other symbolic systems.
3. Communicative competence is context specific. Communication takes place in an
infinitive variety of situations, and success in a particular role depends on one’s
understanding of the context and on prior experience of a similar kind.
4. Competence is defined as a presumed underlying ability, and performance as the
overt manifestation of that ability. Competence is what one knows. Performance
is what one does.
5. Communicative competence is relative, not absolute, and depends on the
cooperation of all the participants involved. It makes sense, then, to speak of
degrees of communicative competence.
C. Areas of Communicative Competence
Communicative competence is a broad term that involves not only the structural
features of language, but also its social, pragmatic and contextual characteristics.
Therefore, it is necessary to understand communicative competence as the sum of a
series of competences (Jaimes, 2006). There are four areas of communicative
competence, they are:
1. Grammatical competence
It refers to the ability of speakers in using the different functioning rules
of the system of their language or the linguistic code: the mastery of second
language phonological and lexicogrammatical rules and the rules of sentence
formation. It includes:
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
• Phonetics : Pronunciation
• Morphology : Word function and inflection
• Syntax :Structure of language
• Lexis : Vocabulary and semantics
The competence in grammar can be seen from the ability to express and
interpret literal meaning of their utterances (for examples: vocabulary, word and
sentence meaning, construction of grammatical sentences, correct spelling, etc.).
2. Sociolinguistic competence
It refers to the ability of speakers in producing sentences according to the
communicative situation. Speakers (usually) know when, where, and whom to
say things. Here, the mastery of socio-cultural rules of appropriate use of second
language can be seen from how utterances are produced and understood in
different sociolinguistic contexts (for example: understanding of speech act
conventions, the use of a language to signal social relationships, etc.).
3. Discourse competence
It refers to the ability of speakers to use the different types of discourse.
Usually language users know what is being referred to in different contexts, i.e.
they distinguish between new and old information, and are able to determine the
discourse topics. For instance, speakers know when a "he" refers to "John" or to
"the child" according to the text context in the sentence: John went to the park,
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
and he found a child who was sick. The young boy was crying because he
didn’t know where his mother was.
It also deals with the mastery of rules concerning cohesion and coherence
of various kinds of discourse in second language (for example: use of
appropriate pronouns, synonyms, conjunctions, substitution, repetition, etc.).
4. Strategic competence
It refers to the knowledge speakers have to maintain communication.
Therefore, this competence accounts for the strategies language users have to be
understood, and to understand others. Gestures, expressions, mimics and
intonation are among others some of the most strategies used. The mastery of
verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in second language used when
attempting to compensate for deficiencies in the grammatical and sociolinguistic
competence or to enhance the effectiveness of communication (for examples: how
to address others when uncertain of their relative social status, slow speech for
rhetorical effect, etc.).
Furthermore, Bachman proposes a design in components of communicative
language ability in communicative language use (1990: 85). It can be figured out below:
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
Figure 1: Components of language competence
From the above figure, we can know that grammatical and discourse competence
is called as a part of organizational competence. It explains about all rules and systems
that dictate what we can do with the forms of language, whether they are sentence-level
rules (grammar) or rules that govern how we string sentence together (discourse). Then,
sociolinguistic competence is divided into two separate pragmatic categories: functional
aspects of language (illocutionary competence – pertaining, sending, and receiving
intended emanings) and sociolinguistic aspects (politeness, metaphor, register, etc.).
To be able to communicate competently, we need strategic competence so that
we are able to communicate with others with various kinds of backgrounds. Bachman
adds that strategic competence serves an executive function of making the final decision,
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
among many possible options on wording, phrasing, and other productive and receptive
means for negotiating meaning. It can be seen in the following figure:
Figure 2: Components Of Communicative Language Ability
D. Developing Communicative Competence In Second Language Teaching
Brown (1994a: 245) views Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as an
approach (that is, a theoretical position about the nature of language and of language
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
teaching), rather than a specific method of teaching. He also describes four
underlying characteristics in defining CLT in a second language classroom:
1. Focus in a classroom should be on all of the components of
communicative competence of which grammatical or linguistic
competence is just part.
2. Classroom activities should be designed to engage students in the
pragmatic, authentic, and functional use of language for meaningful
purposes.
3. Both fluency and accuracy should be considered equally important in
second language learning classroom. And they are complementary.
4. Students have to use their target language, productively and receptively, in
unrehearsed contexts under proper guidance, but not under the control of a
teacher.
Moreover, students’ success in acquiring communicative competence in their
target language is that easy. Here are some teaching learning activities which can be
applied in the second language classroom so that the communicative competence still
can be maintained:
1. Use of Audiovisual Recordings,
Second language learners can get benefit from viewing and reviewing
audiovisual recordings such as videotapes and visual hypermedia software of their
own communicative interactions and model interactions by native speakers. In
learning how to make requests, for example, the students can not only participate in,
say, pair work as part of their function-building exercise, but also film their actual
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
performance to collect data for analysis. The data ideally cover a wide range of
situations in which they make or receive requests, in terms of social status and role of
interlocutors, degree of imposition internal to the act of the request being made, and
so on. Through close examination of their recordings and introspection, the students
will have a chance to reflect on what they said to make requests (grammatical
competence).
To measure the success of the students’ performance, the teacher can, then, play
a video clip that shows model performance by native speakers of the target language,
in order for them to see how different or similar their communicative performance of
requests is, when contrasted with how native speakers execute the same act. Here, the
students can both review their grammatical precision in use and learn about the socio-
cultural appropriateness of the communicative event. Moreover, the very nature of the
audiovisual material enables the students to see and analyze their own and native
speaker’s nonverbal communication as well. It is, thus, advisable that the students
study their own communicative experience and the nature and characteristics of social
interaction in their target language so as to develop their L2 sociolinguistic
competence (Erickson, 1996).
2. Role-play
Role play is an effective way to develop students’ communicative competence,
especially the sociolinguistic and strategic competence. It also helps the students
acquire what Saville-Troike (1996) describes as interactional knowledge. Learning a
language for a wide range of social and expressive functions requires more than just
learning word- and sentence-formation, correct pronunciation, and orthography;
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
rather, one learns “a system of use whose rules and norms are an integral part of
culture” (Schiffrin, 1996: 323).
Usually, role-plays are properly framed, yet open-ended, bilateral, interactive,
and above all, highly contextualized in nature. However, Clark (1987),
acknowledging the value of role-plays in a foreign language classroom, cautions us
that a form of role-play in which the students simply act out a predetermined script
made by someone else would result in mere memorization of stereotypical
expressions that may or may not have real-life application in actual communicative
exchange. Instead, the teacher must structure his or her role-plays in a way that their
students engage in “role-making” and “role-negotiating” as they interact.
3. Speech Act
The speech act, or performative use of language, is an area that many
Japanese students have trouble dealing with. It is because speech acts are generally
difficult for second language learners to realize in terms of grammar and vocabulary,
formulas and conventionalized expressions, and socio-cultural difference between
their first and second language, and because in many cases Japanese students are not
taught explicitly in the classroom how to signal their intent in performing an
illocutionary act, beyond the semantic meanings of syntactic structures.
Below is an example of communicative failure in an act of apology that I have
come across:
Student A : I need the notebook I lent you. do you have it now?
Student B : I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was bad. I’m sorry. Can you excuse me?
Student A : Well,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
All this indicates that the students do not necessarily “pick up” complex speech behavior
and sociocultural strategies and sociolinguistic forms. Therefore, explicit teaching of
speech act strategies will be needed for students to gain illocutionary competence
(Cohen, 1996).
4. Interactive Language Instruction
Interactive language instruction involves the teacher and learners engaging in
activities that create conditions that foster language use, which lead to further
language development. First and foremost, the teacher is the initiator of interaction.
That does not mean that the teacher is always in control of the discourse, such as in
models where the teacher initiates, the students respond, and the teacher provides
feedback. It means that the teacher is responsible for providing opportunities for
interaction in which learners control the topics and discourse (Brown, 2001; Ellis,
1999).
Interactive language instruction may be new for some learners. Learners may
have expectations of how instruction should proceed based on their experience with
school-based education and previous language instruction. For these reasons,
discussing with learners the benefits of and the rationale for having them interact with
each other during class time, in meaningful discourse, is difficult but important.
Teachers can begin the discussion by brainstorming with learners the things they do
that help them learn English. Teachers can introduce the phrase “use it or lose it!” and
learners can be asked to talk about what it means.
The classroom setup can hinder or enhance interaction opportunities. If the desks
are in neat rows with every one facing the chalk board and the teacher, learner-to-
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
learner interactions are more difficult to initiate. Round tables, desks arranged in
small groups, or even a semicircle of desks help make interactive tasks easier.
E.Conclusion
Communicative competence have been defined and discussed in many different
ways by language scholars of different fields. With the change of focus from
grammar to communicative approach, second language teachers and researchers can
see the notion of the communicative competence within language learning. Here,
Communicative competence has come to play an important role in the field
pedagogic.
This paper is presented on 56th TEFLIN Conference 2009
References
Brown, H. D. (1994a). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall Regents
Brown, H. D. (1994b). Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy . New Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.
Savignon, Sandra J. 1983. Communicative Competence: Theory and Classroom Practice.
Massachucets: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: some roles of comprehensible input and
comprehensible output in its development. In S. M. Gass and C. G. Madden, eds.
Input in Second Language Acquisition . Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
About the writer
Rizka Safriyani is an English teacher of SMA YPPI-II Surabaya. She was born on
September 14th 1984. She has been teaching English for three years. She graduated from
the undergraduate program (S1) of The State University of Surabaya (UNESA) majoring
English Literature on 2006. Next, she continued her study at graduate program (S2) of
The State University of Surabaya (UNESA) majoring Education of Language and
Literature and she graduated on 2009.
Details:
Full Name : Rizka Safriyani
Address : Kencanasari Timur xx / 19 Surabaya
Contact Number : +6285730122874 / 03177474818
Email : [email protected]
Institution : SMA YPPI-II Surabaya
The purpose of
Paper : Implementing the communicative approach to the second
language teaching