Faculty of foreign languages

4.Communicative competence in teaching English verbs.
A central concept of the communicative approach to language teaching is communicative competence: the learner's ability to understand and use language appropriately to communicate in authentic (rather than simulated) social and school environments. Communication competence is needed in order to understand communication ethics, to develop cultural awareness, to use computer-mediated communication, and to think critically. Competence involves knowledge, motivation, and skills. Communicative competence is the ability to achieve communicative goals in a socially appropriate manner. It is organized and goal-oriented, i.e. it includes the ability to select and apply skills that are appropriate and effective in the respective context. It includes verbal and non-verbal behavior.
Communicative competence encompasses a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. Moreover, The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language.
Communicative competence encompasses a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. The study of communicative competence in linguistics originated in response to perceived inadequacy of the notion of linguistic competence. Communicative language teaching includes applications of communicative competence. The understanding of communicative competence has been influenced by the field of pragmatics and the philosophy of language, including work on speech acts. The notion of communicative competence is one of the theories that underlies the communicative approach to foreign language teaching. At least three core models exist. The first and most widely used is Canale and Swain's model and the later iteration by Canale. In a second model, sociocultural content is more precisely specified by Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, and Thurrell in 1995. For their part, they saw communicative competence as including linguistic competence, strategic competence, sociocultural competence, actional competence, and discourse competence. A third model widely in use in federal language training in Canada is Bachman and Palmer's model. The communicative approach is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language. For example, practicing question forms by asking learners to find out personal information about their colleagues is an example of the communicative approach, as it involves meaningful communication. Classroom activities guided by the communicative approach are characterized by trying to produce meaningful and real communication, at all levels. As a result there may be more emphasis on skills than systems, lessons are more learner-centred, and there may be use of authentic materials.
Regarding the teaching of grammar, what has been done lately in second/foreign language classes is a presentation of grammatical patterns, followed by some drilling and structural exercises with little or no communicative application of those patterns in context. Actually past approaches have dealt mainly with the achievement of linguistic knowledge, one important aspect of language but not necessarily the only one. The mastery of the sound system and structural patterns of language, which is called linguistic competence, was the aim. Therefore, communication was assigned a second place. It was not considered important to be taught during the process. This element was set aside in order to be developed by students on their own.
The communicative approach goes beyond the presentation and development of linguistic structures as the only means of developing the communicative ability. This linguistic structure enables students to give form to their ideas, intentions and concepts. But it is not given top priority as other structural approaches do. There are other important elements that contribute to the establishment of a communicative act. They are classified as functions (intention or purpose), notions (of place, time, space, dimensión, etc.), as well as the topic, the situation, the communicative and the Interactive aspect. Thus, functions or illocutionary acts, imply a communicative purpose, "what people want to do or what they want to accomplish through speech". Notions are "meaning elements which may be expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives, or adverbs" what Wilkins has called "semantico-grammatical categories" ) These categories are abstract concepts that are generally realized linguistically (for example, the notion of location is manifested in prepositions: "besides", "in front of", "on the right", etc). The other aspects provide the social framework where participants of a communicative act interact.
The teacher must provide communicative practice for students to achieve non-linguistic goals such as asking for permission to do something, getting someone to do something, giving excuses, asking for help, etc. Learning activities must demand achievement of a particular task other than mere manipulation of language rules. This approach is based on the development of the ability to use language in real-Ufe situations more than on manipulation of linguistic structures, which do not enable speakers to interact naturally in a real communicative act. "Grammatical form is taught not as an end itself, but as a means of carrying out communicative intent". This language aspect which gives meaning to communication is known as language use, opposed to what The Audio-Lingual Approach claimed as the ultimate goal of learning, usage. These two aspects are what Widdowson has called "Valué" and "Signification". He says that many teachers and language teaching specialists believe that it is not necessary to teach "valué". For them, teaching "Signification" provides learners with the essentials of language, and they also affirm that it is a simple and easy task to use "valué" when we need to communicate.