Communicative competence and communicative language teaching

Looking back to my childhood experiences with the English language I can now understand the implications of being communicative competent in a second language.

When teaching any second language it is important to understand the difference between competence and performance. Communicative competence, according to Hymes, is being able to use the language correctly to communicate. Knowledge of the grammar and syntax will help the speaker to form phrases and sentences correctly. On the other hand, performance deals with the ability to use the actual language, which according to the author, can never directly reflect competence, unless the ideal speaker-listener know and uses the language perfectly.

This article also presents the effect of the sociocultural factors in the process of a second language acquisition. According to Hymes there are two kinds of competence: linguistic competence , which deals with the correct use of the language grammar, and communicative competence, that deals with the appropritate use of the language in a particular situation.

Teaching communicative language encompasses learning not only the rules of grammar, but also learning how to use the language to communicate. (Widdowson, 1972) It is also important to teach, based on Widdowson ideas, both communicative competence along with linguistic competence. By doing this students will acquire needed skills naturally and use the language in any social situation.

Other teaching perspective to achieve communicative competence was presented by Canale and Swain. They proposed an incluisive approach; socila context, learning grammar and word meaning as the basis to develop communicative competence. The objective is to be able to develop in the student communicative competence, thus enabling them to effectively communicate in any social situation.

The importance of these theories is that we, as teachers of English as a second language, should recognize the factors affecting the acquisition of a second language. When teaching the basic skills of the language we must ensure to provide for the application of the skills taaught.
Practice makes perfection, my hope is that eventually my students will utter precise and correct sentences that will make them to be communicative competent.