Second Language Acquisition, Communication and Communicative Competence: A Complete Study Guide

LD&M 2

General theory of foreign language acquisition and the concept of interlanguage. The treatment of errors.

1. Introduction

2. General theories on the learning and acquisition of a foreign language

2.1 General theories on language learning

2.2 General theories on second language acquisition

2.2.1 The Acculturation Model

2.2.2 Accommodation Theory

2.2.3 Discourse Theory

2.2.4 The Monitor Model

2.2.5 The Variable Competence Model

2.2.6 The Universal Hypothesis

2.3 The Natural Approach and Language Acquisition

2.4 Factors which influence second language acquisition

3. The concept of interlanguage

4. Error analysis

4.1 Contrastive analysis vs. error analysis

5. Didactic application

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography

Many theories have been proposed and have been influenced by developments in the fields of linguistics, psychology, anthropology and sociology. The study of these theories is called applied linguistics.

2.1

The importance of meaning and interest in how children learn language shaped the first approaches to language learning theory. Towards the end of the 19th century, three main theories approached the question of how language is learnt. Behaviorism emphasized the essential role of the environment in the learning process, whereas mentalist theories gave priority to the subject's innate characteristics from a cognitive and psychological approach. Interactionists gave importance to comprehensible input and native speaker interaction. Piaget and Vygotsky influenced language teaching theory in the 1960s and 1970s and claimed the ineffectiveness of the traditional approach. Already in the 1950s, Chomsky, who was a generativist, challenged previous assumptions about language structure and learning, giving way to the Natural and Communicative approaches.

2.2

The term second language acquisition refers to the subconscious or conscious processes by which a language other than the mother tongue is learnt in a natural or a tutored setting. Competence will be acquired through input; hence, the initial product will not be accurate. We will now add six theories of second language acquisition.

2.2.1

Acculturation is the process of becoming adapted to a new culture (Ellis, 1985). According to Schumann, there are two types of acculturation:

• Learners are socially and psychologically open to learning a foreign language and to having social contacts with native speakers of that language.
• Learners are also socially and psychologically open to learning a foreign language, but in addition to that, they want to adopt its lifestyle and culture.

2.2.2

Accommodation refers to the way people adjust their speech and communication style in face-to-face and other types of communication. There are two main types of accommodation: convergence and divergence. Convergence is when individuals change their speech to sound more like others, whereas divergence is when they accentuate differences.

2.2.3

This theory refers to the process in which language can be learnt by communicating with target language speakers.

2.2.4

Krashen's Monitor Model is one of the most prominent of existing theories in second language acquisition. This model consists of five central hypotheses that will be addressed in the section concerning the Natural Approach and Language Acquisition.

2.2.5

This model is proposed by Ellis (1984) and claims that the way a language is learnt is a reflection of the way it is used. Two distinctions form the basis for this model: the process of language use (linguistic knowledge) and the product (discourse).

2.2.6

According to this hypothesis, there is a Universal Grammar that constrains the kind of hypotheses the learner can form and that is innate. Chomsky labelled this innate endowment as the Language Acquisition Device, which was described as a black box in the brain that contains all the principles universal to all languages, enabling children to acquire language during a critical period.

2.3

Terrell and Krashen developed a language teaching proposal in their book The Natural Approach (1983). This method focuses on developing communicative abilities and the primacy of meaning. The theory is based on four principles:

• First principle: comprehension precedes production.
• Second general principle: production emerges in stages. Students are not forced to speak before they are ready.
• Third general principle: the course syllabus consists of communicative goals.
• Final principle: activities must lower the affective filter of the students.

This theory also has five hypotheses:

1. The Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis: claims that there are two independent systems of second language performance: the unconscious process of acquisition, and the learning process, which refers to the conscious process.
2. The Monitor Hypothesis: emphasizes the role of grammar as essential to correct ourselves when we communicate. Therefore, the learner has to have enough time to think about rules and focus on form.
3. The Natural Order Hypothesis: states that the acquisition of grammatical structures takes place in a predictable order in which errors are signs of naturalistic developmental processes.
4. The Input Hypothesis: Krashen's explanation of how second language acquisition takes place, and is only concerned with acquisition, not learning. It defends that speaking fluency emerges after the learner has built up competence through comprehending input.
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis: the lower the affective filter is, the better the student will learn, as he or she is open to input. On the contrary, low motivation can form a mental block.

2.4

Now we will consider the implications of the theory for several issues:

• Second language aptitude: related to rapid progress. Students who have this aptitude show better performance in foreign language classes.
• The role of the first language: related to the influence of L1 on L2, which sometimes brings errors as the result of interference.
• Routines and patterns: sentences spoken by performers who have not acquired or learned the rules are invalid, but which allow basic communication.
• Individual variation: there is a basic uniformity in the way we all acquire language, but every learner prefers learning in a specific way.
• Age differences: children are believed to be better language learners than adults. However, it is the older learners who reach higher levels of proficiency due to intrinsic motivation.

3

Interlanguage is defined as the linguistic system that we create and maintain, filled with errors. The main principles of this hypothesis are the following:

• The learner builds a system of abstract linguistic rules which underlies comprehension and production.
• The learner's linguistic system is permeable, likely to suffer the intrusion of new forms.
• Interlanguage reflects the operation of cognitive learning strategies.
• Interlanguage systems may fossilize.

4

Errors are deviations from the norm and, according to Corder, they can be classified into errors of competence (with an interlingual nature) or mistakes of performance (slips of the tongue).

4.1

The aim of contrastive analysis (CA) is to establish the similarities and differences between L1 and L2 and predict potential problems. On the other hand, error analysis (EA) explains errors (describes, evaluates, prevents). The contribution of EA is based on the idea that people cannot learn language without committing errors. Hence, errors comprise a significant portion of a learner's language performance.

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Bibliography

• Crystal, D. (1985). Linguistics. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books.
• Howatt, A. (1984). A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (1992). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: CUP.
• Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon.
• Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon.

LD&M 3

The communication process. Functions of language. Language in use. Negotiation of meaning.

1. Introduction

2. The communication process

2.1 Definition of communication

2.2 Elements in communication

2.3 Communication skills

2.4 Constraints in communication

2.5 Cooperative communication

3. Language functions

3.1 Jakobson's functions

3.2 Searle's speech acts

3.3 Halliday's functions

3.4 Van Ek's macrofunctions

4. Language in use

4.1 Interaction with context

4.2 Registers

4.3 Importance of the situation

5. Negotiation of meaning

6. Didactic application

7. Conclusion

8. Bibliography

2

2.1

Communication is the process of exchanging information through a system of symbols. Communication can be functional, for obtaining information, and social, for establishing social relationships. We will begin by analysing the basic elements of the communication process.

2.2

In the second half of the 20th century, some linguists examined the different elements in communication, which are:

• Addresser: the person who sends a message.
• Addressee: the receiver of the message.
• Message: the actual words that are said or written.
• Channel: the medium through which communication is carried out.
• Context: the physical environment or social situation in which communication takes place.
• Topic: the meaning of what is being communicated.
• Code: a set of signs organised by rules, used as a vehicle for communication (language system).
• Functions: the purpose of communication.

In the following section we will analyse the skills that are necessary to achieve communication.

2.3

Widdowson (1985) distinguishes four types of skills in communication:

• Intellectual skills: related to acquiring and using information in order to understand what is being said and to say what we mean.
• Interpersonal skills: the ability to present ourselves and understand both verbal and non-verbal behaviour. They include social skills, perceptual skills, listening skills and presentation skills.
• Group skills: they include the capacity to become involved in group activities, such as offering ideas, rejecting suggestions and so on.

Now we will analyse the possible difficulties that may arise in communication.

2.4

Six basic elements must be present in all communicative processes to be successful:

• Channel open and channel closed signals: we must say if the interlocutor is actually engaged in communication.
• Background signals: they indicate that the message has been received properly (signs such as nodding the head).
• Turnover signals: they are required for the turn-taking process.
• Messages must be acoustically adequate: if not, rephrasing is required.
• Non-participant messages must be excluded: in this way, we distinguish between relevant and irrelevant messages.
• Anticipatory signals: they may be used when the addressee predicts what the addresser is going to say.

2.5

Cooperation is needed in communication. According to Grice (1978), there are four maxims that must be fulfilled in this cooperative process:

• Quantity: interlocutors' contributions must be as informative as required.
• Quality: interlocutors must not say false information.
• Relation: interlocutors' interventions must be relevant and coherent.
• Manner: interlocutors' interventions must be brief and orderly.

Some speakers may not follow one or more of these principles deliberately to create a certain effect. For example, we may not respect the quality maxim by saying "What a nice weather!" when it is raining, for humour purposes. Interlocutors will understand that we are being ironic. This noticing of the real purpose of the message is what we call implicature.

3

Language functions are related to the needs people have when communicating. We will analyse the most renowned approaches to this concept.

3.1

In Jakobson's model, the sender selects content and transmits it. The message is encoded and transmitted through a channel. To be operative, the message also requires a context. Finally, the receiver is the one who decodes the message and understands it. Jakobson established a series of functions associated with the aforementioned elements:

• Referential function: when we give information about the context (it's raining).
• Poetic function: when the focus is on the form of the message (see you later, alligator, where we use a rhyme to say goodbye).
• Emotive function: used when the addresser expresses their feelings or opinions.
• Conative function: when we request or order something from the addressee.
• Phatic function: used to check if the channel is working correctly (can you hear me?).
• Metalingual function: when we focus on the code (no means no).

3.2

The performance of a speech act is the minimal unit of communication. Examples of speech acts are asking a question or giving a warning. Thus, they are related to the meaning of utterances. Austin classed speech acts as locutions (literal meaning), illocutions (extra meaning, related to the speaker's intentions), and perlocutions (effect of the act, listener's interpretation).

Searle classified Austin's illocutions, or speaker's intentions, into five broad categories:

• Representatives: when the speaker states belief or disbelief in a proposition.
• Directives: when the speaker requests someone to do something.
• Commissives: when the speaker commits to or refuses to take a particular action.
• Expressives: when the speaker expresses their feelings.
• Declarations: which imply a change of a particular situation.

3.3

In the 1990s, Halliday presented three metafunctions:

• Ideational metafunction: the internal language we use for memory, problem solving and representing the world in our minds.
• Interpersonal metafunction: the language used for communication.
• Textual metafunction: related to the construction of texts with coherence and cohesion.

3.4

Van Ek proposed six basic language functions:

• Giving and seeking factual information
• Expressing intellectual attitudes
• Expressing emotional attitudes
• Expressing moral attitudes
• Getting things done
• Socialising

4

Speech act theories have many limitations, such as the difficulty of delimiting language functions. However, they have contributed to the development of foreign language teaching. Now we will focus on areas of native speaker knowledge and competence about language.

4.1

A basic principle we must always bear in mind is that an isolated sentence cannot normally be fully understood without its context.

4.2

Registers are varieties of language used in different situations. Halliday distinguishes three aspects of variation in language use:

• Field, or subject matter. Different fields produce different kinds of language. It is related to Halliday's ideational metafunction.
• Tenor, or relations between participants in communication. It is related to Halliday's interpersonal metafunction.
• Mode, or chosen channel. Channels can range from speech to print. It is related to Halliday's textual metafunction.

4.3

The situation is the group of extra-linguistic factors that determine the nature of the language act. We can distinguish four components:

• Social roles: stranger-stranger, friend-friend, doctor-patient, etc.
• Psychological roles: neutrality, sympathy, antipathy, etc.
• Setting: outdoor-indoor, private life-public life.
• Topics: they include a great variety and determine the type of lexis used.

5

Communication is a complex process and speakers must choose linguistic devices to affect the listener according to the speaker's intention. There are several aspects to take into account:

• Knowledge of the listener: speakers choose words depending on what they think the listener knows.
• Cooperative principle: speakers expect that listeners cooperate.
• Reality principle: interlocutors assume they will talk about comprehensible events and facts.
• Social context: different structures are used for different social situations.
• Linguistic devices available.

When there are misunderstandings, we negotiate meaning. When negotiating, we distinguish several steps:

1. Trigger: the problematic aspect.
2. Signal: an utterance that indicates that the meaning has not been understood.
3. Response: an answer that the first party provides to make the meaning clear.
4. Follow-up: an indication of understanding that the second party provides in order to go on with communication.

Negotiation of meaning can be practised in second language classes by means of conversation practice.

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• Halliday, M. (1973). Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Arnold.
• Searle, J. (1969). Speech Acts. Cambridge: CUP.
• Widdowson, H. (1985). Teaching Language as Communication. Oxford: OUP.
• Grice, H. P. (1975). Studies in the Ways of Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

LD&M 4

Communicative competence. Analysis of its components.

1. Introduction

2. The communicative competence

2.1 From linguistic competence to communicative competence

2.2 Different approaches to the term

2.3 Communicative competence and actual communication

3. Components of communicative competence

3.1 Grammatical competence

3.2 Sociolinguistic competence

3.3 Discourse competence

3.4 Strategic competence

4. The influence of communicative competence on second language teaching

4.1 From communicative competence to communicative teaching

4.2 Guiding principles for communicative second language teaching

4.3 Communicative objectives in second language

5. Didactic application

6. Conclusion

7. Bibliography

2

Communicative competence is a term that emerged in the 1970s. We will give a brief account of this perspective.

2.1

The term "competence" refers to the unconscious knowledge of language rules that underlie speakers' judgements of grammar and meaning (linguistic competence), whereas "performance" has to do with the events of language production and comprehension (communicative competence).

2.2

Chomsky introduced two new terms: pragmatic competence, involving how language is related to the situation, intention and purpose; and grammatical competence, which had to do with corrections in grammar. According to Hymes (1972), acquiring communicative competence meant acquiring the necessary knowledge for language and ability. Also, he distinguished between appropriateness and accuracy. Savignon (1972) also incorporated linguistic competence as one of the elements of communicative competence and specified the characteristics of communicative competence, which is dynamic, context-specific, relative and valid for both oral and written language. Canale and Swain (1980) argued that communicative competence included both knowledge and skills, and introduced four main skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. This is the basis for numerous curriculum designs in modern language teaching.

2.3

Canale and Swain distinguished between communicative competence and actual communication. The former refers to the underlying systems of knowledge and skill required for communication, whereas the latter is the realisation of such knowledge and skills under limiting conditions, such as background noise or stress. According to them, knowledge is what one knows consciously or unconsciously about the language and its use, while skill is related to how well one can perform this knowledge in real communication.

3

The theoretical framework we are describing here for communicative competence includes four areas of knowledge and skill: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence.

3.1

Grammatical competence is basically the mastery of the language code, a concept close to what Chomsky called "linguistic competence" and Hymes called "formally possible". This mastery refers to the rules of syntax, morphology, semantics and phonology.

3.2

Sociolinguistic competence refers to the extent to which utterances are produced and understood appropriately in different sociological contexts. This appropriateness refers to both meaning and form:

• Appropriateness of meaning concerns the extent to which communicative functions (e.g. complaining) and attitudes (e.g. politeness) are appropriate in a given situation. For example, it would be inappropriate for a bank clerk to command a customer to exchange money by saying "You must buy 100 dollars here", regardless of the grammatical correctness of the sentence.
• Appropriateness of form refers to the extent to which verbal and non-verbal form is appropriate in a specific sociological context. For example, if the bank clerk of the previous example said "OK man, so how much dough ya gonna have?", it would be inappropriate because of the language forms used.

3.3

Discourse competence concerns the mastery of combining grammatical forms and meanings in order to achieve a unified spoken or written text. The unity of a text is achieved thanks to cohesion and coherence, the former dealing with how utterances are linked structurally (by means of cohesive devices such as conjunction, repetition, and so on) and the latter concerning the relationships of meaning in the text.

3.4

This competence concerns the mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to compensate for:

• Breakdowns in communication due to momentary inability to recall a grammatical form or lack of grammatical competence.
• Sociolinguistic difficulties, such as uncertainty about the social appropriateness of grammatical forms.
• Discourse difficulties, such as the use of non-verbal symbols to express cohesion and coherence.
• Performance factors, like background noise, interruptions, and so on.

As we can observe, strategic competence is used to solve problems at the grammatical, social and discourse levels, and is thus crucial for successful communication.

4

The concept of communicative competence has been the cause of much disagreement, especially in its application to foreign language pedagogy. Perhaps one of the most important contributions to this debate is the concept of skill together with knowledge, which gave rise to skill-oriented approaches that focused on real communication and stressed the mastery of the necessary skills. Today the term "communicative competence" is present in all theories of second language learning. We will now analyse the main guiding principles for communicative language learning.

4.2

The quality of communication at initial stages will depend on students' communicative competence in their mother tongue, their motivation and attitudes, and the effective use of communication strategies. Canale and Swain (1980) proposed several guiding principles for this communicative approach:

• Coverage of all the competence areas. Communicative competence must be regarded as four areas of knowledge and skill: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competences.
• Communication needs. A communicative approach must be based on the learner's needs and interests. It must, therefore, focus on the varieties of language that learners are more likely to face in real communicative situations and try to achieve the minimum level of competence that native speakers would expect.
• Meaningful and realistic interaction. The second language learner should take part in meaningful communicative interactions in realistic communicative situations.
• The learner's native language skills. We must take advantage of the communicative skills that learners have acquired in their mother tongue.
• Curriculum-wide approach. This approach must take into account not only language but also second language culture.

4.3

According to the current Spanish curriculum for foreign languages in secondary education, the main goals of second language teaching are to enable students to use the foreign language to communicate effectively. For this purpose, we must set out aims realistically, relate them to everyday activities and deal with all the skills involved in foreign language communication.

5

At this stage of the text, it is important to establish the utility of its content in the classroom. For this reason, the purpose of this section within the paper is to analyse how the information offered in the previous pages can help us develop students' communicative competences and provide them with a competence profile that helps them overcome the existing 21st century challenges. Just as the communicative approach to language acquisition states, "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." Here are some communicative activities:

• To work grammatical competence: complete sentences, put words in the right order, word stress in connected speech, meaning of idioms.
• To work sociolinguistic competence: provide examples of common communicative errors by foreigners, analyse differences between style and register, show how to express language functions appropriately.
• To work discourse competence: lexical cohesion devices in context, structural cohesion devices in context, oral discourse patterns, linking paragraphs.
• To work strategic competence: teach communication strategies in class, show how to interrupt a conversation.

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• Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). "Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing." Applied Linguistics.
• Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Hymes, D. (1972). "On communicative competence." In Sociolinguistics. Penguin.