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Hello everybody! During this term, we will work on the topic: Communicative Competence (CC). Do you really know what it is? CC is the ability not only to apply the rules of grammar corrrectly but to use utterances appropiately(Hymes, 1972). The acquisition of CC in a foreign language constitutes one of the aims of the society today. So, teachers´trainees are called to manage all the aspects that it entails.

I encourage you to participate in all the activities placed in this blog because here you will have the opportunity to watch, read and listen to some presentations that can help you to enhance your knowledge on what communicative competence is.
The activities that you will find in this blog are the following:
a. Some theories on Communicative Competence
b. Lecture
c. Communicative Competence Presentation

SUCCESS!

domingo, 19 de junio de 2011

Communicative Competence Presentation

I.Make a critical reading about the following presentation taking into account these aspects:
a. Concept of communicative competence
b. Dimensions of the communicative competence
c. Verbal communication
d. Non verbal communication

II. Share your comments with your friends based on the answer of one of the topics proposed before.

III. Select one of your friends´comments and say if you are in favor or against. Give reasons.

25 comentarios:

  1. According to the presentation, I am agree with Hymes, when he said that communicative competence is the ability to communicate with another person about the whole range of everyday situations and events. But he says that people need more than grammar knowledge for speaking a language, it is true but nowadays people have developed many interesting ways to communicate among them through a lot of kinds of code, we must know all about the grammar of a language but even so there are many people that communicate very well into their sociality without knowing anything about grammar.
    A similar opinion is shared by Canale and Swain when they talk about the dimensions of communicative competence. They made a special distinction when they say that a good speaker should have the ability to produce and understand correctly. Taking into account the whole system of a language using it appropriately in social contexts; also, they should have the ability to express information in an effective way, Canale and Swain maintained a useful opinion, they used three interrelated dimensions called: Grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competence, they were explained before, and in my opinion these dimensions are the correct way to describe the communicative process because even though a speaker have the ability to communicate with other using different ways, he/she is not considered communicatively competent; that I am trying to say is even though a speaker get to communicate or exchange information with others, without the grammar knowledge of a language, without its correct use in social contexts and without the ability to express information in a correct way, he/she does not use necessary the communicative skills. (reading, speaking, listening and writing) in an effective way.

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  2. Comunicative competence is a term in linguistic with refers to a language user's gramatical of syntax, morphology, phonology and like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately.

    There are four subcategories or components of Communicative Competence.

    1. Grammatical Competence concerned with the mastery of the language code itself.The use of the rules of grammatic in the construction of sentences;is the way that we are going to structure what we want to comunicate following those rules.
    2. Discourse Competence concerns mastery of how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different genres.
    3. Sociolinguistic Competence addresses the extent to which utterances are produced and understood appropriately in different social linguistic contexts depending on contextual factors.
    4. Strategic competence is composed of mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action for two main reasons: first to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting conditions in actual communication or to insufficient competence in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence; and second to enhance the effectiveness of communication.

    The non-verbal communication is a form that we use in are daily live in a conscious or unconscious form to express something (angry,acknowledged,etc).

    The verbal communication is ussually avoided by the learners of a foreing language, is one of the must difficult way for the student to learned, the teacher have to use different resourches or techniques to increase the pronounciation and knowledge from the student

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  3. In my opinion I can say that pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the transmission of meaning depends not only on the linguistic knowledge of the speaker and listener, but also on the context of the utterance, knowledge about the status of those involved, the inferred intent of the speaker, and so on In this respect, pragmatics explains how language users are able to overcome apparent ambiguity, since meaning relies on the manner, place, time etc. of an utterance The ability to understand another speaker's intended meaning is called pragmatic competence. So an utterance describing pragmatic function is described as metapragmatic. Pragmatic awareness is regarded as one of the most challenging aspects of language learning, and comes only through experience. Example Flying planes can be dangerous The missionaries are ready to eat

    Mirian Martel

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  4. Communicate competence is defined as the to use the language system appropriately in any circunstance, Canale and Swain maintains a very useful review, when referring to the use of three interrelated dimensions called: grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competence, as explained above these dimensions are the correct way to describe the communication process. Humans are social beings by nature and, therefore, we need to relate to others and to acknowledge our existence. By this we used Verbal communication we can be done in two ways: oral through oral signs and words spoken or written, by means of graphic representation of signs. Also we can be to used Nonverbal communication is done through a multitude of signs of great variety: Images sensory (visual, auditory, olfactory ...), sounds, gestures, body movements, in The Others. Also there are that to take in account that The non-verbal communication systems vary across cultures.
    Mirian Martel

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  5. I think the presentation has good information, it is consistent with the established concepts by other authors; the communicative competence includes the knowledge and abilities for speaking and understanding a language and all everything that entails. I think the communicative competence basically, is about the behavior of humans and social develop. It talks about the use of grammatical knowledge when it use utterance appropriately and I agree. For other way, the communicative competence is divided in dimensions such as grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence, as Canale and Swain redefined, this information is very important in language teaching. We need information that comes from different sources, and identify principles of human cognition as Chomsky wrote. As we see to achieve language is necessary develop all dimensions, mainly the strategy competence and realize the language functions either to form verbal or non verbal communication for recognize and produce the language for an effective communication and then the discourse and others dimension CC as shown the presentation, all is related.
    I don’t understand what Angel want to say in the last paragraph, “when the individual is not considered communicatively competent…” but I think, people can communicate without grammar knowledge in a language, because is not necessary know certain rules as a native, unconsciously he or she used some skills too. The art of communication can be verbal and non verbal like a gestures or body language. Maybe there are some mistakes into the presentation; I think they are not native of the language, like me, jejejje and that is one of the reason or characteristics including in the C.C.

    Subkey Moh...

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  6. Communicative competence is the ability to use grammar rules and correctly in one or more languages, moreover, is very important what Hymes said on this subject that he Defines the nature of the linguistics knowledge to narrowly to mean knowledge of grammatical form, and more specifically of syntax. Knowing a language, it is objected, involves more that knowing what form it takes: it involves knowing how it functions too. And this in turn implies knowing about words, not just as formal items, constituents of sentences, but as units of meanings, which interact with syntax in complex ways. The formal systems of a language, after all, have evolved in association with words as the internal semantic encoding of some external social reality. So an account of grammatical knowledge, the argument runs, cannot ignore the fact that linguistic form is functionally motivated, so that to abstract form so completely from function is to misrepresent the nature of language.
    About the dimensions of communicative competence are Grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic competence, I think that a person should be able to communicate using linguistics and grammar correctly to give a spoken or written message.

    By Jesus Morales
    17177421
    General Linguistics

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  7. It is a good presentation, to have information about Comunicative Competence. It is concerned to knowledge and ability possessed by speakers to they can understand and communicate in a language even when it is not their native language. We use to CC when we learning a new language and gives us the ability to interact with others in the midst of a social situation using the grammar rules and knowledge, allowing us to use the words appropriately.
    Canale and Swain made a classification of communication skills which they called dimensions including this: grammatical competence refers to the use of grammatical rules including syntax, morphology, semantics and phonology, this discursive competence that to gain mastery over how to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written text in different gender, also sociolinguistic competence in charge of language use according to social context in which we meet and understand their social, and finally, strategic competence refers to the ability to interact with speakers of effectively using communication strategies, or the manipulation of language to be able to communicate well what we want, we can do this by making use of verbal and non verbal language. When we use non-verbal language we use a multitude of signs of great variety: Images sensory (visual, auditory, olfactory ...), sounds, gestures, body movements etc, verbal communication and use expressions and feelings through words to communicate.
    To an effective communication is necessary to develop all dimensions, particularly the strategic competence and implement all functions of language in the language either verbal or non verbal.
    (By Liliani Campo)

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  8. It was a very interesting presentation, also i think it has a complete explanation in general form about "Communicative competence". Now i understand all these means to be communicatively competent is the application of all the dimentions that we saw in the presentation. On the other hand, we have to know Canale and Swain clasification's is very important, its says or clasifies all these competences in 4 categories "Grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence and discourse competence", all of them has a different meaning depending of the context that we apply it. About the Verbal language is obvious is that we use it daily and talking about nonverbal language as we know, actually a lot of people cannot speak for many limitations, some of then has to be with sociocutural or physical characteristics but over everything this kind of people have an effective communication using themself tools.

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    Respuestas
    1. I'm agree with my friend Carlos, when referring to communicative competence and its applications in life ...
      communicative competence is knowledge and skills necessary for an individual can use all the sign systems of socio-cultural community. This is the psychological knowledge of the rules, cuilturales, social and linguistic governing culture.
      On the other hand, we have to know the clasification's is very important, its says or clasifies all these competences in 4 categories "Grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence and discourse competence",
      Verbal communication can be done in two ways: oral: through oral signs and words spoken or written, by means of graphic representation of signs.
      Nonverbal communication is the process of communication by sending and receiving wordless messages, ie, is given by signs, signs and lack of syntax, ie, have no syntactic structure so it can not be analyzed sequences hierarchical constituents.

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  9. As I said before, the communicative competence is the ability not only to know the grammatical rules of a language but to know also, when, where, and how to use them. To apply the grammatical rules of a foreign language correctly it is necessary to use the skills of listening, reading, speaking an writing, in the right momment, the right place and in the right way to fulfil the goal of speak fluently appropriately
    Teh researchers gave 4 componets which are Sociocultural, strategic, discourse, and grammatical competence, al of them are very important to express yourself confidently.
    Now if we have the ability to comunicate in a verbal form, you have to remember that this is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sound, words, speaking, and language. and the other skill is the non verbal communication which is base on sending and reciving wordless messages, using for example; bady languages gestures aye contact and also olfactory dimensions.

    All those topics above are very important to be a communicative compentent person of a foreign language.

    María Semeco

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    Respuestas
    1. I agree whit Maria's opinion, because Communicative competence lets us know when to speak and when not to speak, how to take turns in conversations and how to start and end them, and how to involve and exclude people. We also know how to listen. For example in some conversations, the information content may seem very slight because the speaker's main purpose is to convey a message. Maria Isabel Molero. C.I. 19838681

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  10. There are four dimensions that will lead you to what is known as Communicative Competence, which is the ability to communicate effectively in the target language, these dimensions are the grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic and strategic competence, each one establishing a relationship with the orders, contributing with the goal of learning a new language, combining the grammatical knowledge of the grammar, syntactic or phonological rules underlying the language, which will help you with the development of the discourse competence, at the moment of creating and using a coherent and cohesive speech, whether if it is oral or written; in addition to this, the knowledge of the proper rules and custom of the speakers, and the informality or formality of an specific situation allows the speaker to relate to the discourse, to identify with it and to understand it, and to do so you must know how to bend, stretch or apply the grammatical rules, plus, if you add to this the use of the strategic competence that will keep a discourse flowing, the speaker will be able to establish an ephemeral contact in the target language.Considering then, the communicative competence and all of its dimensions, the verbal language, which is as important as the written one, could be fluent and accurate, through the use and production of a discourse determined by grammatical aspects bound to sociocultural rules determined by the context of the speaker and the strategic competence, that would prevent the downfall of the communication, also counting with the hints and tracks that the nonverbal language can provide about the context and the speaker itself, to determine the changes and adjustments that the discourse need to actually be understood and appreciated by our listener.

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  11. I think that Chomski In his study, to designated the word Competence for to refer to a speaker’s knowledge of his language, it means, what it is known about a language by a person, group, region, country, etc. as a manifestation of the ability to produce and to understand theoretically infinite number of sentences, even when a speaker may not have heard it before. This is an intrinsic, personal and specifically human ability that make communication possible. Another term introduced in the study of Language by Noam Chomsky is Performance, which refers to the use of this ability in order to communicate.
    With this theory Chomsky achieved to extend the study of Linguistics by introducing not only correct utterances, grammatically speaking, he also included grammatical mistakes and non-linguistic features like hesitations, accompanying the use of language.
    De Saussure and Chomsky share an opinion; there must be two factors in the act of communication: and abstract System (de Saussure) or an intrinsic knowledge (Chomsky) and a way in which that system or that knowledge is used. This is why both would agree that the objective of Linguistics study should be the characterization of the regular rules of grammar, which can be considered as the mold of a language and not the final product of the communicative process. In that assumption resides why most of linguistics studies are focused on the model of a language and not the actual use of it.
    But, is this all that matters about Linguistics Study? – Well, after many years studying the formality of language, Linguists have been studying also the properties and its functioning into social contexts.
    So, a question arises – why is it important to study not only the formality of language but also the individuals and social implications?- Hymens answered this question by agreeing that there are certain rules for using a language but without knowing them the rules of grammar would be useless. He also suggest that for establishing an adequate theory of a language it has to explain not only the linguistics competence or grammar knowledge but the communicative competence of the speaker of that language.

    According to Hymes this is possible by answering the next questions:
    - If something is grammatically possible
    - If something is feasible
    - If something is appropriated to the context in which it’s used
    - If something is in fact done.
    When a speaker of a language is able to answer all these questions in order to evaluate what he is going to say, has just said or has just heard, it is possible to say that he knows that language.
    Following this line of knowledge Canale and Swain described communicative behavior through three different terms: Grammatical Competence, Sociolinguistics Competence and Strategic Competence, constructing in this way the theory of Communicative Competence by Canale and Swain.
    Mirian Martel

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  12. The dimensions of the comunicative competence are important to know, this dimentions help us to have a effective comunication for diferent situtions that we need make a discourse. Verbal communication is organized by language; is not. Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another. Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts, and ideas to others. However, most of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal form as opposed to the oral and written forms. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body posture and motions, and positioning within groups. It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep. Maria Isabel Molero. C.I.19838681.

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  13. Hello Maria; I think that Non-Verbal communication is so important for us like English learner, because with this strategy we can help ouselves for make that other people can understand us. Remember, we are latin american people and our culture is different and we often to used the hands and all our gestures to express, and sometimes we can do it without say any word.

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  14. This presentation is a good material to acquire more knowledge about the subject, which I find very interesting and I can say that The Communicative competence is a concept introduced by Dell Hymes and discussed and redefined by many authors. Hymes' original idea was that speakers of a language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able communicate effectively in a language; they also need to know how language is used by members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes.
    The acquisition of such competency is of course fed by social experience, needs, and motives, and issues in action that is itself a renewed source of motives, needs, experience. We break irrevocably with the model that restricts the design of language to one face toward referential meaning, one toward sound, and that defines the organization of language as solely consisting ofrules for linking the two.

    The four components of communicative competence can be summarized as follows:
    CANALE (1983)
    1. Grammatical competence.
    2. Sociolinguistic competence.
    3. Discourse competence.
    4. Strategic competence.
    Grammatical competence producing a structured comprehensible utterance (including grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling).
    Sociolinguistic competence involving knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and ofdiscourse.
    Discourse competence shaping language and communicating purposefully in different genres (text types), using cohesion (structural linking) and coherence (meaningful relationships inlanguage).
    Strategic competence enhancing the effectiveness of communication (e.g. deliberate speech),and compensating for breakdowns in communication (e.g. comprehension checks, paraphrases,conversation fillers).
    Canale also drew a distinction between the underlying systems of knowledge and actual
    communication. Actual communication was for him the realization of such knowledge and skills under limiting conditions such as fatigue, nervousness. We can finally say that in neither account is a model provided, e.g., a description of how these four components interact

    The linguistics aspects of communicative competence are those that have to do with achieving an internalized functional knowledge of the elements and structures of the language.
    Hildemary Sierralta

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    1. Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.

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    2. I am in agreement with Hildemary, because we acquire language through experiences. I think that, every day we learn in our social context. For example the knowledge of sociolinguistic competence is acquired by social and cultural context, not by grammatical rules. Maria Isabel Molero.

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  15. I think is very interesting the nonverbal communication topic or body language, because is a vital form of communication—a natural, unconscious language that broadcasts our true feelings and intentions in any given moment, and clues us in to the feelings and intentions of those around us.

    When we interact with others, we continuously give and receive wordless signals. All of our nonverbal behaviors—the gestures we make, the way we sit, how fast or how loud we talk, how close we stand, how much eye contact we make—send strong messages. These messages don’t stop when you stop speaking either. Even when you’re silent, you’re still communicating nonverbally.

    Oftentimes, what we say and what we communicate through body language are two totally different things. When faced with these mixed signals, the listener has to choose whether to believe your verbal or nonverbal message, and, in most cases, they’re going to choose nonverbal.

    The way you listen, look, move, and react tells the other person whether or not you care, if you’re being truthful, and how well you’re listening. When your nonverbal signals match up with the words you’re saying, they increase trust, clarity, and rapport. When they don’t, they generate tension, mistrust, and confusion.

    If you want to communicate better in all areas of your life, it’s important to become more sensitive to body language and other nonverbal cues, so you can be more in tune with the thoughts and feelings of others. You also need to be aware of the signals you’re sending off, so you can be sure that the messages you’re sending are what you really want to communicate

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  16. communicative competence is the ability to communicate in various everyday situations Dell Hymes says we need more than knowledge of grammar to speak a language. but do not possess the knowledge necessary to speak a language we can develop the communication tools necessary for the use of speech in search of a purpose or goal, and that I consider as competent in the standards of what is possible .
    nelly romero

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    Respuestas
    1. Communicative competence refer to the linguistic knowledge that speakers posses, not only the social context or behaviour. Maria Isabel Molero.

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  17. Communicative competence is just the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately to accomplish communication goals. It means the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker. When we speak, our speech is accompanied to a greater or lesser extent by so-called non-verbal communication: gestures, facial expressions, distance, body attitudes, sighs, etc. Besides, we transmit many signals about ourselves, via our clothing, hairstyle, etc. Visual texts - images, films, etc. - are highly important modes of communication nowadays - also in language teaching. Communicative competence is extremely comprehensive and complex.


    ...with the exception of Savignon (1972) and Stern (1978, 1979), no communicative competence theorists have devoted any detailed attention to communication strategies that speakers employ to handle breakdowns in communication: for example, how to deal with false starts, hesitations, and other performance factors, how to avoid grammatical forms that have not been mastered fully, how to address strangers when unsure of their social status – in short, how to cope in an authentic communicative situation and how to keep the communicative channel open.

    Judging from this citation, Canale and Swain recognized that strategies would play an important role in actual communication so that the notion of strategies should be taken into key components of communicative competence.

    Erylin Mercedes Soto.
    ID:15.980.733

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  18. Communicative Competence: Chomsky defines communicative competence as the nature of the linguistics knowledge, and how it functions. Communicative competence is the best way to achieve a communicative goal and also, to the second language acquisition. Chomsky considers communicative competence from a grammatical point of view, including syntax, semantic and of course linguistic knowledge. I consider that functional grammar take place in this view because it involves the meaning of words not only structures of sentences, it sees the context in texts, in addition functional grammar treats on corrections of speech. On the other hand Dell Hymes define communicative competence as a pragmatic phenomenon, he says that we need more than grammar knowledge for speaking and understanding a language; his theory is based on four interesting terms: pragmatic, psychology, sociolinguistic and grammar. According to Hymes says I think that, the term fitting on his concept is “appropriateness” because we need to use language appropriate to the context, it means that is important to know, how to use appropriate language taking into account, place, circumstance, and person. It refers to a communicative social context, for example every day conversations, events such as, conferences, seminaries, meeting, workshops, and educational teaching. Another concept that support Hymes`s ideas, is Friedrich`s concept (1994) He says that communicative competence is best understood as” a situational ability to set realistic and appropriate goals and to maximize their achievement by using knowledge of self, other, context, and communication theory to generate adaptive communication performances”. A similar opinion is shared by Canale and Swain who describe the communicative behaviour in terms of three interrelated dimensions: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence and strategic competence. The first one, is defined as the knowledge of grammatical rules (words and sentences). The second one, is defined as the ability to use a language appropriately in social context, and also, the knowledge of sociocultural rules and of discourse. It refers to the dialects and the accents, social relations (regards and forms of treatment, conventions for the shifts of word, and phrases interjections. The third one, is defined as, the ability to transmit effectively an information to a listener or reader, including the ability to use communication strategies to solve communication problems. Strategic competence is useful in the teaching leaning process because, if we use strategies to communicate us in an effective way, we will be competent as future teachers; strategic competence is commonly use today by teachers. According to Canale and Swain (1980), strategic competence is useful in various circumstances as for instance, the early stages of second language learning where communicative competence can be present with just strategic and socio-linguistic competence.. Other authors: (Faerch & Kasper, 1983; Lin, 2009). Strategic Competence is associated with the interlocutors' ability in using communication strategies. Canale (1983) refined the above model, adding discourse competence: (cohesion and coherence) it has to do with the connection of sentences. Another element is communicative language teaching which refers to how use language fluently in an interactive way. It includes the acquisition of a foreign language. Through the influence of communicative language teaching, it has become widely accepted that communicative competence should be the goal of language education, central to good classroom practice. by Maria Isabel Molero

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  19. The basis of communication is the interaction between people. Verbal communication is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sounds, words, speaking, and language. Verbal and non-verbal communication is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact; object communication such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture; symbols and infographics. Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm, intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons. The basis of communication is the interaction between people. Verbal communication is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sounds, words, speaking, and language. We can find verbal and nonverbal communication in three important elements: strategic competence, grammatical competence and sociolinguistic competence, so to be competent in classroom, we need of strategies in both verbal and nonverbal communication, verbal communication take place in social context, and grammatical competence can be communicatively verbal, and nonverbal, because we need, to recognize and produce the distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication. To be communicatively competent is not easy; we need to practice to achieve it. by: Maria Isabel Molero.

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  20. Communicative Competence is important for just about anyone who wishes to communicate with others. Arguments and disagreements can often be avoided if people are able to effectively express meaning in a message. Politicians ever seek levels of communicative competence for able to effectively convey meaning and express ideas to others. People who are learning a second language also tend to focus on this type of competence to understand and various aspects of communication within that language

    Some theories of Communicative Competence:

    Noam Chomsky _ Competence is the perfect knowledge of an ideal speaker-listener of the language in a homogeneous speech community.

    Dell Hymes _ Points out that Chomsky's competence does not provide an explicit place for sociocultural features. Also points out that Chomsky's notion of performance seems confused between actual performance and underlying rules of performance.

    Sandra Savignon _ The development of learners communicative competence is defined as "expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning involving interaction between two or more persons or between one person and a written or oral text".

    One of the Strategies of Competence is the Sociolinguistic Competence, this knows how to use and respond on language appropriately about any the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. We can use formal and informal language depending of each situation.

    Silvio J. Alastre C.

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