Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

Communicative competence
From babyhood onwards, everybody starts (and never
ceases) to learn how to communicate effectively and how to
respond to other people’s communications. Some people are
better at communicating than others, but every normal
human being learns to communicate through language (as
well as with the ancillary signalling systems). It may be a
matter of intelligence (as well as motivation and experience)
to communicate well, but it is not necessary to have any more
than normal intelligence to communicate sufficiently for
everyday life.
In the process of communication, every speaker adjusts
the way he speaks (or writes) according to the situation he is
in, the purpose which motivates him, and the relationship
between himself and the person he is addressing. Certain
ways of talking are appropriate for communicating with
intimates, other ways for communicating with non-
intimates; certain ways of putting things will be understood
to convey politeness, others to convey impatience or
rudeness or anger. In fact, all our vast array of language use
can be classified into many different categories related to the
situation and purpose of communication. For a foreign
learner, it might sometimes be more important to achieve this
kind of communicative competence than to achieve a formal
linguistic correctness.
Varieties of language
The ways in which we use our language can be divided first
of all into two broad aspects: (i) the factors determined by
the context, and (ii) the factors determined by the mood and

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purpose of the speaker. Every time we speak, we operate
from a complex of choices, involving selection of vocabulary,
structure, and even modes of pronunciation, constantly
adjusting our language to suit the moment, fitting in always
with the conventions of the group we are part of.
Context
The first factor which operates is on the choice of the language
itself, or the appropriate dialect. The choice of language is not
as self-evident as it may seem to speakers living in countries
where only one language exists, as in the English-speaking
countries like England, America or Australia. But in many
countries, speakers are bilingual or multilingual, and two or
more languages exist side by side, to be used with different
purposes to different people on different occasions. Thus, a
French speaker in Brussels, might switch between French,
Dutch or Flemish, depending on whether he was at home, or in
his office, speaking with intimates, friends from his home
town, or formal acquaintances. He might even use different
languages to the same person, according to whether they were
alone or in the presence of others. Similar switching occurs in
many countries, including Canada, South Africa, Switzerland,
Norway, Nigeria and Paraguay.
Even when there is only one language to use, it may have
more than one dialect. Contemporary English has numerous
regional dialects which vary in pronunciation, vocabulary and
grammar, and although, by convention, a certain prestige
usually attaches to one of them—Standard English—many
speakers are able to choose between the standard dialect and
one of the many regional dialects of Yorkshire, Wales, Ireland,
etc. Dialect means primarily the form of a language associated
with a geographical region, but geographical boundaries are
not the absolute determinants, and one may often find two or
more dialects being used within one region, especially in a
multi-lingual or multi-dialectal situation where one dialect
might be used as a lingua franca (e.g. Swahili).
The second important factor of context is the nature of the