Evaluating Communicative Competence
Evaluating Communicative Competence

Summary/Abstract: Testing language has traditionally taken the form of testing knowledge about language, usually the testing of knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. However, there is much more to being able to use language than knowledge about it. Dell Hymes, who proposed the concept of communicative competence (1972), argued that a speaker can be able to produce grammatical sentences that are completely inappropriate. In communicative competence he included not only the ability to form correct sentences, but to use them at appropriate times. Thus for Hymes the term competence covers more elements than Chomsky's narrow use of it (1965), ranging from grammatical competence to sociolinguistic competence. The notion of sociolinguistic competence is much larger than Chomsky's pragmatic competence, as it includes societal factors as well. Since Hymes proposed the idea in the early 1970s, it has been expanded considerably, and various types of competencies have been proposed. However, the basic idea of communicative competence remains the ability to use language appropriately, both receptively and productively, in real situations.

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