Communicative Competence and Language Teaching: A Review
This literature review examines the development of communicative competence as a theoretical construct and its application to foreign language education through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Beginning with Chomsky's early competence/performance model, the paper traces contributions by Dell Hymes, Halliday, Canale and Swain, Bachman, and Savignon, charting how the concept evolved to encompass linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic dimensions. The review then surveys the principles and classroom practices of CLT, the teacher's role in fostering communicative efficiency, and the persistent challenges educators face when implementing CLT in ESL and EFL environments, including cultural tensions, large class sizes, and inadequate teacher training.
- Introduction to Communicative Competence: Defines communicative competence and its four components
- Theoretical Development of Communicative Competence: Traces models from Chomsky through Bachman and Savignon
- Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): Origins and Principles: Origins of CLT and its core teaching principles
- Communicative Activities in the CLT Classroom: Real-life tasks, pair work, and authentic communication
- The Teacher's Role in Communicative Language Teaching: Instructor strategies for building communicative efficiency
- Implementing CLT in ESL and EFL Contexts: Challenges and rationale for CLT in non-English environments
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper systematically traces the intellectual history of communicative competence, allowing readers to see how each theorist built on or reacted to prior work, giving the review a clear narrative arc.
- Concrete classroom examples—such as the name-card introductions exercise in a German class—ground abstract theoretical distinctions in observable teaching practice.
- The discussion of ESL/EFL implementation challenges (Confucianism, large classes, assessment misalignment) adds critical depth, moving beyond advocacy to an honest appraisal of real-world difficulties.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative theoretical synthesis: rather than summarizing each theorist in isolation, it consistently frames each model as a response to the limitations of its predecessor. This dialogic structure—Hymes critiquing Chomsky, Halliday extending Hymes, Canale and Swain refining Halliday—shows how literature reviews can use intellectual debate as an organizing principle.
Structure breakdown
The review opens with a definition and taxonomy of communicative competence, then moves chronologically through major theoretical frameworks (1965–1990). It pivots to CLT as the pedagogical application of those theories, covering its origins, principles, and classroom activities. The final section shifts to an empirical register, surveying research on implementation challenges in ESL and EFL settings, and closes with a cautiously optimistic outlook for the field.
Introduction to Communicative Competence
In recent years, the area of study termed "communicative competence" has received widespread attention as an alternative and successful method of teaching foreign language students. The desired outcome of the language learning process is the ability to communicate competently, not the ability to use the language exactly as a native speaker does (NCLRC, 2004).
Communicative competence is made up of four competence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic. Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a language. Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole. Finally, strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one's knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in context.
By definition, the term "communicative competence" applies not only to the grammatical rules of a language used to form correct utterances, but also to knowing when to use these utterances appropriately (Wikipedia, 2005).
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