Difference between Communicative and Linguistic Competence

The main difference between the Communicative competence and the Linguistic one is that the linguistic competence belongs to the whole Communicative Competence or Language Knowledge that the students or native speakers have.


So, Linguistic is a component from Communicative competence in other words.


"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. Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How do I put them into phrases and sentences?

• Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to language appropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the people communicating. Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fits this setting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority, friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person is expressing?
• 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. Discourse competence asks: How words, phrases and sentences are put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

• 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 an specific context. Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?"

http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/goalsmethods/goal.htm


Conclusions


As a teachers we have to acknowledge what involves the communicative competence and then look for ways to develop not only the four features of the communicative competence but  the four skills of the language in the students too.


We have to create our own method and try to figure out the techniques that are best to succeed in the classroom. We have to encourage the students to find the opportunities to practice what they have learned in classes out of the classroom, because that is the only truly way to acquire the language.


As a teachers we have to try to be transformative intellectuals by our techniques, by our method and by our need to be the best teacher in the world.

The Teacher as: thecnician, reflective practitioner and as transformative intellectuals

The role of the Teacher

As Passive Technicians: the teacher education programs focus more on the education part than on the teacher part.

In this role, the teacher transmit the knowledge without altering the content of information and when teaching problems arises, they turn to the established professional knowledge base; at this point we can say that this role is safe and avoid any risk but deprive students to live the experience of made a research about the discussed topic.

The advantages that we found in this role, is that everything is not risky and you always now where to support your teaching. But the disadvantage that I found here is that the teacher never try to improve himself and not usually try to innovate the material for his classes.

As Reflective Practitioners: in this role teachers are seen as problem solvers having "the ability to look back critically and imaginatively, to do cause-effect thinking, to derive explanatory principles, to do task analysis, also to look forward, and to do anticipatory planning" (Dewey, 1933, p.4)

It is quite interesting that Don Schon make a difference between Reflection-on-action that occurs before and after a lesson, in other words the lesson plan we made for the class and the evaluation of effectiveness of the teaching afterward. And this is true, because we can plan our lesson for the next class with our group but what a surprise when we enter in the classroom and our lesson plan is not "catchy" or interesting to the students or the time we planned for the instructions and the tasks were not the appropriate one, because we took more time giving the instructions and as a consequence the time for the activity ran out, etc. So our effectiveness is zero! how discouraging could that be.

On the other hand we can Reflect-in-action, that occurs during our class and we can monitor our performance of the class and make the adjustments needed instantaneously. If we really try to keep this in mind and reflect all the time, we can really make huge improvements to our teaching and the good result will be seeing during the class.

As Transformative Intellectuals: as transformative intellectuals the teachers have not only to empower students by giving them the knowledge but they have to develop social skills in the students that they will need in order to be able to function in the larger society; and also educate them for transformative action.

The teacher who want to be as transformative intellectual has to achieve two things: the educational advancement and the personal transformation.

In the case of educational advancement the teacher has to belong to a community of educators dedicated to the creation of meaningful knowledge and construct curricula that takes in consideration the student's needs, wants and real situations they have.

To achieve the personal transformation the teacher has to educate himself and his students about various forms of inequality and injustice that predominate in our world today and then redress them in purposeful and peaceful ways; transforming life in and outside the classroom.

The Teacher and Teaching

Something that I really found interesting is that when we speak of people teaching a subject such as math or chemistry we are separating the knowledge or content from the activity or teaching according to Donald Freeman.


This really caught my attention, because I never thought teaching in that way. We can view the activity of teaching as merely experience and not knowledge! But it is Knowledge, that we obtain through our professional preparation, from our personal learning on how to handle a group of students in the classroom. In our day-by-day.


But now we can talk about what involves to be a Teacher. And for Hansen involves these six meanings:


A job, vocation, work, a career, an occupation and a profession.


I think it is a job because derived of this activity we get a sustenance. Involves vocation because we need to have an attitude of service and a sense of personal fulfillment. Involves a career because we have to study and to invest time as a teacher. Is an occupation because we work as a teacher and we have the activity of teaching. And finally is a profession because we study in order to be a certified teacher and we know how to teach; and is too a profession because of our social contribution to the school we work on.


What can we say about teaching?


The aim of teaching is to create the conditions that allow the students to learn in a short time if possible. But we must to be aware that teaching does not automatically lead to learning; we can find obstacles that we have to take in consideration and to decide whether we need to go deep in the lesson or if we need to give extra activities to the students in order to make clear a concept or part of speech.

Approaches to teaching, only one method for everybody?

During the decades 70's and 80's the way they teached was shifted to teaching and learning processes because in the past the art of teaching was focused on only small parts of the complex set of elements that compound teaching and learning.


In this time, the term method was replaced by the term pedagogy. And the teaching theory was viewed as something that is built by individual teachers, and includes not only the theory but the practice too in the classroom. Because that it is what it means pedagogy: the science of teaching.


But, what is a Method, an Approach and a Technique?


According to the definitions of Douglas Brown:


Method: is an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based on a selected approach.


Approach: is a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and teaching.


Technique: specific classroom activities consistent with the method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.


According to the definitions quoted above, we can acknowledge now that we can take one of the vast methods existing in the world, but not always a method fits our own reality in the classroom, because the age, the gender, the cultural background and the needs of our students it is what dictate the method we have to use, the approach to catch their attention and the techniques we must to use in order to reach our goal: that the student really learns what he has to.

What is teaching, learning, language, etc.?

English in the world: why is it important?

It is important, because it might be, the only language that truly links the whole world together. The other languages could be important too but because of their local values and culture.

Reasons of why is important to learn English:

1. Travel: you can communicate with others.
2. Same country: e.g. in India there are people of various cultures living there together, under the circumstances, English can be the only link to communicate each one of them.
3. Education/Studies: people who go to another country to study they can only have English as a means of study.

Why is important to learn English in México?

-  Nowadays in México exists the need to train professionals in teaching English, in order to contribute to the development of the students, to be prepared for the globalized world and be able to communicate with other people in the world. (school, workplace, suppliers, business)

-  Because of the closeness with North America, the students and professionals need to learn English in order to find and to keep a job that can allow them a better life, which means: purchasing power, creditworthiness; a better life for their families in one word.

What is Language?

 - A system for communication. Written languages use symbols to build words. The entire set of words is the language's vocabulary. The ways in which words can be meaningful combined is defined by the languages syntax and grammar. The actual meaning of words and combinations of words is defined by the languages semantics.

What is Communication?

•  Communication is the sharing of ideas and information.
•   While many people think of communication primarily in oral or written form, communication is much more than that.

Communication also is:

• The act of transmitting
• A giving or exchanging of information, signals, or messages by talking, gestures or writing.
• A means of communicating; a system for sending and receiving messages, as by telephone, telegraph, radio, etc.
• A passage or way for getting from one place to another.
• The art of expressing ideas, either in speech or writing.
• The science of transmitting information in symbols as: signs, phonetic symbols, sign language, hieroglyphics, etc.

What is Teaching?

• The interaction of a student and a teacher over a subject
• Programmed instruction involving sequences of controlled steps in which a student has to learn thoroughly the material covered in one step before proceeding to the next.
• Is to transmit a set of knowledge, know how's; that are programmed by levels and that the teacher is directly responsible of it.

What is Learning?

• The acquisition of knowledge or a skill, through education.
• We know that learning occurs when people take newfound information and incorporate it into their lives.

Conclusion

• Regarding the importance of English, language, and communication; teaching plays a very important role.
• Can be there teaching without a subject? Definitely not, there must be a subject to dialogue and that is when communication takes place.
• Learning English is a long and slow process, therefore Mexico is in need of excellent and dedicated teachers to help with the process.
• English is the universal language, that goes beyond boundaries and cultures.