Language as Communication: Spoken, Written and Competence

Language as Communication: Spoken and Written Language

Hello, my name is Victoria Amina Acevedo Mejía. I will explain Topic Number 1: “Language as Communication: Spoken and Written Language. Factors Involved in a Communicative Situation: Addresser, Addressee, Functionality and Context.”

To make this topic easier to follow, I have divided it into two main parts:

• Part 1: Language as communication and the differences between spoken and written language.
• Part 2: Factors involved in a communicative situation, language functions, and communicative competence.

The Educational Framework

Before exploring the topic in depth, we must consider the current educational framework:

• LOMLOE (Organic Law 3/2020): Promotes foreign language learning from early stages.
• Royal Decree 157/2022: Establishes the Primary Education curriculum and highlights communicative competence.
• Decree 107/2022 (Extremadura): Article 6, Objective F, emphasizes achieving basic communicative competence in at least one foreign language.

Part 1: Language and Communication

Language is a conventional, symbolic system used to encode, transmit, and decode messages. Communication is a natural, universal, social, and transactional process. According to Breen and Candlin (1980), it is a dynamic process between a speaker/writer and a listener/reader sharing a code and context.

Spoken vs. Written Language

• Spoken Language: Auditory, spontaneous, and interactive. It relies on intonation, rhythm, gestures, and immediate feedback.
• Written Language: Visual, planned, formal, and permanent. It depends on symbols, spelling, and punctuation.

Part 2: The Communicative Situation

Every communicative act involves four basic elements:

1. Addresser: The sender of the message.
2. Addressee: The receiver who interprets the message.
3. Functionality: The communicative purpose (e.g., informing, requesting, persuading).
4. Context: The circumstances influencing meaning and language use.

Functions of Language

Roman Jakobson distinguished six main functions: referential, emotive, conative, phatic, metalinguistic, and poetic. These demonstrate that language transmits information, expresses emotions, influences others, and maintains social interaction.

Communicative Competence

While Chomsky (1957) focused on linguistic competence, Hymes (1972) introduced communicative competence—the ability to use language appropriately in real situations. The CEFR Companion Volume (2020) includes linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic, mediation, plurilingual, and pluricultural competences.

Conclusion

Language is the primary tool for human communication. As English teachers, our role is to provide pupils with the tools to interact confidently and become active citizens in a multilingual society, responding to 21st-century challenges like globalization and digitalization.

Bibliography

Brewster, Ellis and Girard (2002), Crystal (2003), Harmer (2015), Widdowson (1990), and Yule (2020).

Webography

Britannica, BBC, Early Years Matters, Lucidchart, and ResearchGate.