A Study of Communicative Competence in English Learning

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【Abstract】By the late 1960s， mutual understanding between different language communities was greatly needed. The main goal of learning a foreign language become focusDmore attention being paid to learning language for communicating. This article introduces theory of communicative competence from teachers’ aspect and makes a comparison between linguistic competence and communicative competence. At last， we explore some of its influences on second language teaching resulting in newly popularized communicative language teaching（CLT）.

【Key words】communicative competence； language teaching； CLT

Ⅰ. Introduction

What goals do learners want to achieve by learning a language especially a foreign language？ To master some important grammars or sentence structures， or to show their ability to learn something fast？ Only when teachers get this point can they better teach learners..

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is important to remember the term “used for human communication”.No matter what specific aims learners have， the primary and final goal is to communicate with others better. ESL learners’ final goal is to communicate with foreigners in english efficiently. Therefore the communicative competence is of great importance.

Ⅱ. Theoretical Basis of Communicative Competence

American linguistic-anthropologist Hymes（1972） first proposed communicative competence. Hymes’s theory of communicative competence was a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.Hymes thought language learning is learners acquire both grammatical knowledge and linguistic competence and language teaching is teachers teach both linguistic competence and communicative competence.

Communicative competence was developed by Canale and Swain（1983）.They identify four distinctive components including grammatical competence， sociolinguistic competence，discourse competence and strategic competence.Riehards and Platt’s showed，the most outstanding one，showed four aspects of communicative competence.

1. Definition of linguistic competence and communicative competence

Chomsky defines competence as a language user’s underlying knowledge about the system or rules of that language.In Chomsky’s view， the native speakers’ competence can be characterized as a set of rules for producing an understanding of sentences in his language. To acquire the native speakers’ competence is to obtain the ability to recognize and produce grammatically correct sentences in a language. He argues that a native speaker possesses a kind of linguistic competence.

Dell Hymes points out that Chomsky’s competence is necessary but not sufficient for a learner to communicate with others successfully in a speech community. In addition to grammatical accuracy，a successful communication required appropriateness in the sense that speakers of a language know when they speaks what to whom.

2. Comparison between linguistic competence and communicative Competence

（1） Similarity. Both linguistic competence and communicative competence are abstract and idealized concepts and they contrast with performance which is the actual realization language behavior. Both of them can be called theories which will provide guidelines for language practice and can be internalized by each individual over time.

（2） Difference. Firstly， communicative competence is wider in scope than linguistic competence. Linguistic competence merely concerns the user’s internalized language rules and it ensures that the generated language phenomena are grammatical. While communicative competence， especially its sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence components involves other language possessing stages，such as understanding and expressing in which both the speaker and the listener are involved（Yang，2002）. In addition， it includes nonverbal communication as well as verbal communication. Secondly， their emphasis is quite different in verbal manner. Linguistic competence places emphasis on the form of the language and relates little to what the language is used for， while communicative competence takes the function of language as its priority and it does not ignore the importance of language form.

（3） municative competence aims to make language users more flexible while linguistic competence aims to make language users more and more accurate.Despite differences， these two interrelate with each other. For accuracy， language users must accumulate knowledge about language as much as possible. Only on the basis of adequate accumulation of linguistic expressions can one realize the expectation of using language flexibly. In a word， accurate linguistic form will make for effective communication. Linguistic competence is not equal to communicative competence（Chen&Gong，2003）.Furthermore linguistic competence is the basis of communicative competence.If one fails to acquire linguistic competence，it is impossible to cultivate communicative competence successfully.

Ⅲ. Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative language teaching is a kind of teaching method which is based on language function and aims to cultivate language learners’ communicative competence.There’s an emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language； the introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation； the provision of opportunities for learners to focus not only on language， but also on the learning process itself； An enhancement of the learner's own personal experience as important contributing elements to classroom learning； An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activation outside the classroom.

Teacher’s dominate role disappeared， almost everything is done with a communicative intent and teachers are concerned with the learners themselves，their feelings and ideas. there are many kinds of activities such as oral presentation，role play in the classroom which help to create meaningful situations to cultivate students’ communicative competence.

Ⅳ. Conclusion

English teachers’ major job is to cultivate students’ language using ability， ie. communicative competenceDto know how to use what they learned in appropriate situation. Only when we achieve this goal can we say we have made our class teaching efficient. Apart from certain teaching method we adopt， there’ re some strategies ：

1. Making the students know the purpose of English learning and helping them form optimistic nature. Let our students understand it is necessary and useful for them to master a foreign language. From macro aspect， with the rapid development of globalization and our country’s oversea development， we are having more frequent communications with the outside world.There’s great need to master a communicative tool to communicate with foreign partners. From micro aspect， knowing how to use English appropriately helps students’ later career.

2. Helping students set up correct attitudes and motivation to learning English. Because learning motivation is the direct power which makes students learn，as Hilgard says that motivation is actually a cluster of factors that “energize” behavior and give it direction（Jane Arnold 2000：13）.The stronger the motivation， the better the result is.

3. Stimulating students’ interests for learning.Interest is the best teacher.How to stimulate students interesting for English learning is a problem. English teachers can take some suggestions as the following aspects： Selecting appropriate teaching materials.Contents should be suitable and interesting； Creating convenient linguistic situation and cultural environment； Applying various teaching forms， such as slide， record， VCD， video tapes； Contest of vocabulary， reading or composition.The more and newer the forms are， the more interest the students would have.

4. Developing activities after class.

College students have more free time. It’s possible for them to develop all kinds of English activities after class. Then the students can get more chances to learn and use English.This is a excellent opportunity to develop students’ communicative competence.We should remember that language is a kind of tool for communication and to teach language is to help build students communicative competence.

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