Communicative Competence

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5 Communicative subcompetences

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1. Linguistic competence
2. Paragmatic (sociolinguistic) competence
3. Discourse competence
4. Strategic competence
5. Intercultural competence

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Linguistic competence

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the knowledge of the language – the form and the meaning (spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, word formation, grammatical structure, sentence structure, linguistic semantics) “the knowledge and skill required to understand and express the literal meaning of utterances“

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Paragmatic competence

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the ability to perform a particular function or express an intention clearly. The message must be appropriate to the social context in which it is produced. LLs need to know the appropriate social conventions.

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Discourse competence

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the ability to understand coherent written texts or conversation and to produce them
the ability to use cohesive devices and typical discourse markers which signal the direction of discourse
Cohesive devices:
lexical cohesion (word repetition, synonyms, hyponyms, opposites)
substitution (replacing by substitutes: do/does/did/done/...)
ellipsis (omitting some words instead of repeating them)
reference (personal pronouns, demonstratives ...)
use of connectives (addition, opposition, cause, time connectives)

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Strategic competence

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the ability of LLs to cope in authentic communicative situations
the ability of the speaker to use both “verbal and non-verbal communication strategies which enable speakers to handle breakdowns in communication and their lexico-grammatical inadequacies“

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Intercultural competence

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is a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills and characteristics that supports an effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts