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Noam Chomsky.
For Chomsky, the competence is the knowledge that the speaker-listener has of the language, and acting is the real use of the language in specific situations. Chomsky is interested in studying competition, not acting. From the perspective of the study of language as a system, he is not interested in the use of language or in the acquisition and teaching of languages. His interest is directed to development in a linguistic theory focused mainly on grammar rules. -
Dell Hathaway Hymes
He suggest the concept of communicative competence, which is understood as knowledge and the skills required to use language in a social context. However, he considers the next points of view to fill out the interaction of linguistics; when to speak, when not, and what to talk to, with whom, when, where, in what form. It means, it is the ability to form sentences that are not only grammatically correct but also socially affected. -
Michael Halliday, has elaborated a powerful theory of the functions of language, which complements Hymes's view of communicative competence.
He described seven basic functions: Instrumental function: using language to get things. Regulatory function: using language to control the behaviour of others. Interactional function: using language to create interaction with others. Personal function: using language to express personal feelings. Heuristic function: using language to learn and to discover. Imaginative function: using language to explore the imagination. Representational function: using language to communicate information. -
Henry Widdowson.
He says that knowing a language is more than how to understand,speak,read,and write sentences,but
how sentences are used to communicate. “We do not only learn how to compose and comprehend correct sentences as isolated linguistic units of random occurrence;but also how to use sentences appropriately to achieve communicative purposes.”(Widdowson,1978) -
Merrill Swain and Michael Canale.
Both defined the communicative competence in terms of three components.
1. Grammatical competence: Ability with grammar rules, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling.
2. Sociolinguistic competence: Ability with language in social situations and the ability with language in different modes.
3. Strategic competence: Ability to overcome breakdowns in communication due to linguistic deficiency, changing meaning with an interlocutor, using communication strategies. -
Lyle Bachman and Frank Robert Palmer. They reorganize the concept into two components such as pragmatic knowledge and organizational knowledge.
This organization allows to visualize the communicative competence from the integrality. They are divided as follows. Organizational knowledge:
It is divided into grammar that covers syntax, vocabulary, phonology and spelling. The text that functions to create sentences for texts. Pragmatic knowledge: It is the ability to interpret and properly use the social meaning of linguistic varieties from any circumstance, such as in dialects, cultural references, idiomatic expressions. -
Liliana Maturana Patarroyo.
The communicative competence is a globalizing construct that encompasses the skills, abilities and knowledge of which an individual lives to interact in various contexts with specific intentions. (Maturana, 2011 )
