Article #1

Article #1 Analysis

Topic: COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

Author: Atsuko Ohno

In this article Atsuko Ohno discusses several theoretical communicative concepts and their applications to language and methods of teaching language. First he defines communicative competence as shared knowledge and performance as applying knowledge to the actual language use, according to Chomsky. He claims that Hymes finds Chomsky’s definition of competence and performance too narrow to describe what language behavior as a whole really is. Hymes states that the rules of everyday language use are dominant over the rules of grammar. The movie that we just viewed in class, My Fair Lady, is a great example of this. Also, because what we say if we were to write it down it might not make any sense because communicative language also refers to gestures and tones that we only use when speaking. Secondly, he defines performance as actual use of language in a real life situation, not in an idealized or practiced speaker-listener situation as Chomsky stated.

Widdowson states that knowing a language is more than how to understand, speak, read, and write sentences, but instead how sentences are used to communicate in actuality. He mentions that the ability to communicate has to be developed at the same time as linguistics skills.

On the other hand Canale and Swain say that there are rules of language use that would be useless without rules of grammar. I believe that his point of view is closest to what I think is best for a language learner. Both rules to me are necessary for a second language learner to obtain the maximum grasp in learning a language. Also Canale and Swain state that communicative competence includes: grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence. In my view Canale and Swain are seeing language learning as a whole in all aspects where language is needed and this is why they mention three other competences inside the communicative competence.

Stern focuses on communicative competence in the classroom, he states that the aspect of language should be study and practice and that language teaching should be objective and analytical. In other words to live the language is the best way to learn it.

Rivers commented on what I think is the most practical definition of communicative competence, she said that in skill-getting and skill-using the student must learn to articulate acceptably and construct comprehensible language.

In conclusion, the author states that all of these theories are important in trying to design successful models for second language teaching. In my opinion language and all grammatical skills with all the competences, all have to be hand in hand to completely teach the language. Speaking a language is determined by the use the speaker gives it. Communication is the key to successfully speaking a language.