Communicative competence coined by Dell Hymes in 1996 refers to a

native speaker’s ability to get a grasp on the different aspects of linguistics such

as syntax, morphology, phonology and the like and the knowledge on how and

when to use utterances appropriately. This theory is composed of four

competencies: Grammatical Competence, Strategic Competence, Sociolinguistic

Competence and Discourse Competence.

The speaker’s knowledge of lexical items, morphology, syntax, semantics

and phonology is considered as grammatical competence. As a second language

speaker, one must have a background on how words are formed and used in a

sentence, the meaning of a word and its derivation, its forms and functions. This

competence requires the ability to construct sentences meaningfully. For

example, you are on a vacation in Singapore (spoken language: English and

Mandarin) and you do not have a deep study or understanding of their spoken

languages, either English or Mandarin. How will you communicate with other

people? How will they understand you? Your sentence may be grammatically

acceptable but your sentence must also be sensible and meaningful because

once it is not, then probably, it will be hard for you to express your feelings and

get response from other people. If somebody asked you the location of the

comfort room and you answered, “The comfort room is hanging on the right of

the bridge.” (Non-sensible). In the same way, it is also important that your ideas

or feelings must be put in a well-structured sentence. For example, “Let’s eat

Grandpa!” vs. “Let’s eat, Grandpa!”

 In strategic competence, it is the ability to overcome language gaps,

achieve conversational fluency and adapt text to audience. This intends to

transfer effectively one idea to the audience. As much as you have accuracy

there must also be fluency in the purpose of establishing meaningful and

influential connection to your audience. For example, for the audience to

appreciate and to be moved by your speech, it should be delivered in a way that

is easy to understand and shows how comfortable you are with the language.

This competency should be greatly observed by politicians when delivering their

speeches and vying for the audience’s empathy.

Sociolinguistic competence is the socio cultural use of rules of discourse.

This competence requires your interpersonal and social skill in understanding the

social setting of a certain place through language, particularly the kind of

language to be used in each circumstance. For example, the kind of words or

dialect to be used depends on the kind of people or setting you are in. When

conversing with a group highly intellectual people use decent words and observe

the manner of communication.

Lastly, the discourse competence is the ability to connect ideas through

patterns of organization, cohesive and transitional devices. This observes the

appropriate sequence of sentences and the oneness of ideas. The use of

transitional devices such as, despite, however, if and plays an important role to

achieve cohesion. These four components are greatly important to achieve

communicative competence. Each is interconnected with each other and must be

regarded with the same significance.

 Republic of the Philippines
UNIVERSITY OF RIZAL SYSTEM
Province of Rizal
District of Pililla

GRADUATE SCHOOL

Communicative Competence: How Is It Being Used?

AMETHYST T. CACHO

MAT-English

MR. JAMESON MARTINEZ

Professional Lecturer

February 2, 2019