ACQUIRING KNOWLEDGE FOR L2 USE

Competence and use

Communicative competence is everything that a speaker needs to know in order to communicate appropriately within a particular community. This construct combines the knowledge of language which defines linguistic competence, knowledge of the specific components and levels of a language, and knowledge that is required for their appropriate use in communicative activities.

The ability to use language appropriately includes  pragmatic competence. This can be defined as what people must know in order to interpret and convey meaning within communicative situations: knowledge that accounts for “the choices they make, the constraints they encounter in using language in social interaction, and the effects their use of language has on other participants in the act of communication” (Crystal 1997a: 301).

Academic vs. interpersonal competence

L1 competence ideally involves the broad repertoire of knowledge which people need to communicate appropriately for many purposes within their native language community. L2 competence is typically, perhaps unavoidably, much more restricted, especially when SLA takes place in a foreign language setting. For most people, their second language often serves a much more limited range of needs than their first language, depending on the situation they are in.

Priorities for L2 use

Two fundamental types of communicative competence:  academic competence and  interpersonal competence.

• Academic competence would include the knowledge needed by learners who want to use the L2 primarily to learn about other subjects, or as a tool in scholarly research, or as a medium in a specific professional or occupational field.
• Interpersonal competence encompasses knowledge required of learners who plan to use the L2 primarily in face-to-face contact with other speakers. As with academic competence, vocabulary is the most important level of language knowledge for these learners to acquire, although the domains of vocabulary involved are likely to be very different. 

The contrast in priorities for L2 communicative activities depending on academic versus interpersonal needs is shown in the table below.

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