Communicative Lg competence

linguistic competences
knowledge of, and ability to use, the formal resources from which well-formed, meaningful messages may be assembled and formulated

sociolinguistic competences
knowledge and skills required to deal
with the social dimension of language use

Pragmatic competences

Lexical competence
knowledge of, and ability to use, the vocabulary of a Lg

Grammatical competence
knowledge of, and ability to use,
the grammatical resources of a LG

Semantic competence
learner’s awareness and control
of the organisation of meaning

Phonological competence
knowledge of, and skill in the perception and production of

Orthographic competence
knowledge of and skill in the perception and production of the symbols of which written texts are composed

Orthoepic competence
to be able to produce a correct pronunciation
from the written form

Lexical elements

Fixed expressions

Single word forms

Grammatical elements

Closed word classes
articles
quantifiers (some)
demonstrative

Morphology
deals with the internal organisation of words

Syntax
deals with the organisation of words into sentences in terms of the categories, elements, classes, structures, processes and relations involved,

relation of word to general context: reference; connotation

interlexical relations (synonymy, antonymy)

phonemes & allophones

phonetic features which distinguish phonemes
( voicing, rounding, nasality, plosion)

phonetic composition of words (syllable structure)

sentence phonetics (prosody):
sentence stress, rhythm and intonation

phonetic reduction:

  • vowel reduction
  • strong and weak forms
  • assimilation
  • elision

the form of letters

proper spelling of words

punctuation marks

typographical conventions

logographic signs (e.g. , &, $, etc.)

Linguistic markers of social relations
greetings, address forms, conventions for turntaking
depending on factors such as a) relative status, b) closeness of relation, c) register of discourse

Politeness conventions

Expressions of folk wisdom
(*proverbs, idioms, quotations

Register differences
systematic differences between varieties of language
used in different contexts
(frozen, formal, neutral, informal, familiar, intimate)

Dialect and accent
awareness of their social connotations

Discourse competence
ability of a user/learner to arrange sentences in
sequence so as to produce coherent stretches of Lg
(thematic organisation; coherence and cohesion; logical ordering; style and register; rhetorical effectiveness; the ‘co-operative principle’ (Grice 1975))

Functional competence
use of spoken discourse and written texts in communication for particular functional purposes

Microfunctions
Acoording to Threshold Level (1990):

  1. imparting and seeking factual information
  2. expressing and finding out attitudes
  3. Suasion ( suggestions, requests, warnings, advice, encouragement, asking help, invitations, offers)
  4. socialising
  5. structuring discourse
  6. communication repair

Macrofunctions
categories for the functional use of spoken discourse or written text consisting of a sequence of sentences:

  • description
    . narration
  • commentary
  • exposition
  • exegis
  • explanation
  • demonstration
  • instruction
  • argumentation
  • persuasion

Interaction schemata
knowledge of and ability to use the schemata (patterns of social interaction) which underlie communication
question: answer
statement: agreement/disagreement
request/offer/apology: acceptance/non-acceptance
greeting/toast: response