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TEACHING (LT)
Zainuddin
Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni
Universitas Negeri Medan
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the notion of communicative competence in language
learning, and it relates the discussion to the application of the theory of
communicative competence to the teaching of English as a foreign language,
especially to the one we are now doing at the State University of Medan in
English language and literature Department. There are four main components of
communicative competence namely (1) Grammatical Competence, (2)
Sociolinguistic Competence, (3) Discourse Competence, and (4) Strategic
Competence. Every component of communicative competence gives some
contribution to the language learners and makes them aware of developing their
English in terms of linguistic competence and linguistic performance. Linguistic
competence is understood in terms of acquiring knowledge of language structure.
Linguistic performance is understood in terms of using and expressing the
linguistic forms.
INTRODUCTION
Everyone might accept that language is a means of communication by means of
which members of a community can communicate and interact one another. In order to
be able to communicate the speakers should have communicative competence. This
competence consists of some elements or components. In this article I will discuss the
notion of communicative competence and the components. Then I will relate the
discussion to the application of the theory of communicative competence to the
teaching of English, especially to the one we are now doing at the State University of
Medan, in English Department. I would like to argue that what we have been doing so
far is just providing our students with only one component of communicative
competence. The students are still lacking some more competences which enable them
to communicate effectively and appropriately.
a. Grammatical Competence
Grammatical competence is concerned with mastery of language code. It is
linguistic competence as described by Chomsky. This competence refers to the mastery
of linguistic code, ability to recognize lexical, morphological, syntactic and
phonological description of a language and to manipulate these features to produce
words and sentences. Knowledge of grammar is not linked to a certain theory of
grammar only and nor is it concerned with the ability to express rules of grammar
explicitly. When a person can explain and demonstrate how rules of a language work, it
does not mean that he has acquired grammatical competence of the language. He is said
to have grammatical competence when he is able to apply the rules to produce
grammatically acceptable sentences and to determine whether sentences are
grammatically acceptable or not. This means that grammatical competence focuses
directly on the knowledge and skill required to produce and understand grammatical
sentences and literal meanings of utterances.
It is not yet clear whether there is any current theory of grammar which can be
selected over others to characterize this competence nor in what ways a theory of
grammar is directly relevant for second or foreign language teaching (Canale 1983: 7).
But it is certain that grammatical competence is an importance factor for the learners
learning a language.
b. Sociolinguistic Competence
Sociolinguistic Competence is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry having to do
with the social rules of language use (Savignon 1983:37). This competence requires an
understanding of the social context in which language is used. The context is depend on
some factors such as status of participants, information they share, purposes of
interaction, and norms or conventions of interaction. An utterance is considered
appropriate or not in terms of this social context.
The appropriateness of utterances refers to both appropriateness of meaning and
form. Appropriateness of meaning is concerned with how communicative functions,
attitudes and ideas are judged to the proper in a given situation. For example it is not
appropriate that a secretary to order the manager to type a letter. Different cultures have
different ways of performing functions. For example in Australia it is common that a
student calls a lecturer by his first name. In Indonesian culture, it is considered in
appropriate that a student calls his lecturer by his first name. A student is required to
respect the lecturer and therefore he can not call the lecturer directly by his name. I can
not call Dr. John Smith by ‘John instead, I should call him ’Bapak’ (Literally meaning
father ……. of knowledge or Bapak Smith).
Blum Kulka (1980 cited by Canale) Indicates that there are three types of rules in
determining how effective a given communicative function is conveyed and interpreted
; pragmatic rules refer to situational precondition that must be fulfilled if one wants to
carry out communicative function (e.g. to give a command one must have power or
right to do so). Social appropriateness rules determine whether a given function is
normally marital status. Linguistic realization rules involve a number of a consideration
such as the frequency with which a given grammatical form is used to convey a given
function.
c. Discourse Competence
Discourses competence concerns mastery of how to combine grammatical forms
and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text. Savignon (1983:38) says that
this competence involves the ability to interpret a series of sentences or utterances in
order to form a meaningful whole and to achieve unity of text which area relevant to a
given situation. Unity of a text is achieved through cohesion in form and coherence in
meaning. Cohesion deals with how utterances or sentences are linked structurally and
facilitate interpretation of a text. Halliday (1985:313) says that unity is a text can be
achieved through structural components and cohesive devices. Structural components
are made up of thematic structure (theme & Rheme) and information structure and
focus (Given & New). Cohesive devices consists of references (personal pronouns,
demonstratives, comparatives), ellipsis and substitution (clausal, verbal, nominal),
conjunction (additive, adversative..) and lexical cohesion (synonymy, repetition,
collection…) Coherence refers to the relationship among different meanings i.g. literal
meaning, communicative functions, attitudes and feeling. A text may be not cohesive
structurally but is coherent by its propositional bases.
Knowledge and skill of discourse should be distinguished from grammatical and
sociolinguistic competence. To illustrate this difference I would like to take an example
and analyze it on the basis of theory given by Widdowson (1975:25): speakers A what
did the rain do? Speaker B: The crops were destroyed by the rain. B’s reply is
grammatically and sociolinguistically acceptable and appropriate. But the reply does not
tie in well with A’s question. The violation is clear not to be at the grammatical or
sociolinguistic level but at the discourse level. It involves the organization of sentences
and information in text in English in which given (shared or old information) should
precedes New (new information).
d. Strategic Competence
Strategic competence refers to the mastery of verbal and non-verbal
communication strategies that may be used to compensate for breaks downs in
communications because of limiting conditions in actual communication and to enhance
the effectiveness of communication. In actual communication a speaker, especially
foreign language learner may discover that he is unable to recall an idea or grammatical
form or how to say something appropriately. To overcome this inability he may apply a
certain strategy. This strategy is very helpful for him to overcome or to compensate his
weaknesses in grammatical sociolinguistic and discourse competence. Tarone, Cohen,
(1983) define communication strategy as a systematic attempt by the speakers (learner)
to express or decode meaning in the target language rules have not been formed…
Faerch and Kasper (1983) say that communication strategies are potentially conscious
for solving what an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular
communication goal. Dumas (1983), Faerch and Kasper (1983), Blum Kulka (1983)
some types of communication strategies can be described as avoidance, paraphrase,
code switching, reconstructing, approximation and many others.
5. Syllabus
The material to be taught to the students should be oriented to communication. In
such a communication-oriented language the syllabus program should be designed to
bear structures in relation to their uses. The material should be specified in such a way
that it is clear for the students how they should express meaning (perform function) to
certain participants, in a certain place and occasion. This implies that the syllabus
should specify the materials in terms of function, nation, setting, role and participants.
6. Testing
To evaluate the achievement of the students, communicative test should be
applied. Such a type of test can be used to measure the knowledge and skills of
communicative competence. Some criteria of communicative performance, tests are
interactive, unpredictable, purposive, authentic, contextualized and based on
performance.
8. Conclusion.
After discussing communicative competence and its applications in language
teaching I came to the conclusion that communicative competence should be the main
objective in the teaching of English as a foreign language. Only by providing the
students with this competence, we can expect them to be able to communicate
appropriately in actual communication.
REFERENCES
Giglioli, Pier Paolo, Language and Social Connect, Penguin Books, London, 1983.
Sekilas tentang penulis : Drs.Zainuddin, M.Hum. adalah dosen pada jurusan Bahasa
dan Sastra Inggris FBS Unimed.