U1_Task: First Task

Jhon Alexander Gómez Pinzón

Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Degree in English, University Corporation of the

Caribbean CECAR

Linguistic

Mg. Lady Johana Gómez

October 31st, 2021

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”
Bachelor in Education in Teaching English as a Foreign
Language Program
English Linguistics
First Assignment

Objective: To have a clear understanding

of the terms Competence & Performance
based on different authors and the relation
to L2

Resource: “Competence and performance

in learning and teaching: theories and
practices” by David Newby

“Competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories and practices”

examines the different ways in which both competence and performance have
been defined by linguists and how these different interpretations have influenced
foreign language learning and teaching. Read the article carefully and develop
the answers in this workshop.

1. Chomsky’s states the “distinction between competence (the speaker-

hearer's knowledge of his language) and performance (the actual use of
language in concrete situations)” He further states that “Observed use of
language cannot constitute the actual subject matter of linguistics. (1Pt.)

a. Based on Chomsky definition about competence and performance,

describe how this competence could be clear evident in an L2
classroom. (You can give examples.)

First of all, is really necessary to clarify that a competence is a

fundamental part to the development knowledge of a language and it's
considered as know how to do in the context, for that reason, students
can demonstrate that they have got a great knowledge when they apply
it in a classroom and in their daily life. When a teacher carries out a
series of activities that seek to strengthen the learning of children and
young people, it is done with that main reason and each student who
responds correctly, can make it known that they have met the
institutional and area objectives, in this case, the area of foreign
languages.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 b. Give reasons why performance cannot constitute matter of linguistics
but competence can? Cite at least an author

The performance of the whole cannot constitute a linguistic question

because the most important thing in the development, are the
competences, what the student manages to learn and develop
throughout a process. As has been well defined, competence is what
the student demonstrates after having gone through a process; it is
know-how in context.
So, supporting Hymes's idea that says: "For Hymes, performance is of
interest since it is the “product of social interaction” (1972:
271)."
We can learn that if a student loses interest, then performance ceases
to be a main agent because the end of the process is worth more, that
is, the product or, more clearly, the competence.

1. “We have to account for the fact that a normal child acquires knowledge
of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or
she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what
to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner (Hymes).” What
does this sentence mean? And how the idea does not necessarily show
Chomsky’s idea about competence and performance? (1Pt.)

A normal child acquires and develops the use of language in a way that
he can use it in different contexts in which he finds himself. Simply put,
the phrase relates to differentiating when, where and how, we can give
an opinion on some point of view, description, explain events and
express feelings towards something. A communicative competence
requires the correct use of the language in the necessary context. That
is why it is clarified that a child manages to use the language knowing
its structure.
Chomsky dismissed performance as an imperfect manifestation of
competence and not worthy of being incorporated into a “serious
discipline”. The idea does not necessarily show as Chomsky says.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 2. Halliday states “Can mean is a ‘realization of can do” this corresponds
to the second criticism of Chomsky’s view of competence and
performance and also concern the functional dimension of a language.
Describe the second criticism and the functional dimension. (1Pt)

For linguists and philosophers such as Halliday (passim), Austin (1962)

and Searle (1969), the very basis of language is of a functional nature.
This is reflected in the title of Austin’s famous book How to do things with
words.
The term speech functions, indicates the individual's ability to do things
related to the use of the language, however, it can mean an act that
would have a greater influence on the way of communicating knowledge
of the foreign language. It would be proposed to make definitions of the
term and then establish the objectives that these definitions achieve.
Indeed, in the early days of communicative teaching it was not
uncommon to hear the term ‘notional-functional approach’ being used
synonymously for communicative language teaching.

3. Is language a unit of linguistic analysis? Explain and cite author(s). (1Pt)

Absolutely true. It's an important part of the linguistic because is the

center of all the communicative competence.
A discourse perspective of competence focuses on the ongoing choices
that speakers make while speaking or writing transmit, adapt and clarify
a message, to make language use more efficient, to show the relevance
of one information chunk to another etc.
Halliday put forward the counterclaim that “Language does not consist
of sentences; it consists of text or discourse– the exchange of meanings
in interpersonal contexts of one kind or another” (1978: 2).

4. What does Chomsky say opposite to the affirmations on the left? (1Pt)

Langacker, Heine , Tomasello and Chomsky

Jackendoff
 language is not an autonomous  If language is not separate
cognitive faculty from, but embedded within,
 grammar is conceptualization general aspects of human
cognition, then linguists must
 knowledge of language
go beyond linguistic reality in
emerges from language use order to explain how language
is stored in the brain and used
in actual contexts.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
  Theories of language
acquisition since linguists will
seek to explain not only how
language input is processed
and categorized but how
infants process and categorize
their experience and
perceptions of the world in
general.
 It’s innate in a child at birth is
not only what Chomsky termed
a “language acquisition device”
but an experience acquisition
device.

5. What are the schematic constructs? (1Pt)

These constructs, or mental representation of knowledge, interact with

systemic knowledge of a language to facilitate the processing,
interpretation and comprehension of language. Schematic constructs
have, on the one hand, a personal element to them: human beings
interpret one and the same event or one and the same utterance in
differing ways. However, schematic knowledge is also to a considerable
extent conventional in that speakers of a speech community will share a
common mode of perceiving an event or utterance.

Schemata: a set of ideas, associations, expectations which an individual

speaker or listener may have in connection with a concept, an object,
person, place, action, event etc.
• Scenario: a speaker’s internal mental representation of a state of
affairs, event etc. in the external
world.
• Frame: a commonly occurring, generalizable scenario with which a
speaker and a hearer are familiar; a ‘remembered framework’ (see
Minsky 1975, cited in Brown and Yule 1983: 238); lexical, grammatical
and pragmatic meaning are to a certain extent predictable in a specific
scenario.
• Script: a frame that extends beyond single utterances; a ‘remembered
framework of coherent chains of
utterance forms, speech functions, topics etc., in which specific
discourse patterns tend to occur and
are generalizable (see Schank and Abelson 1977 cited in Brown and
Yule 1983: 241; Hoey 1991).
Adjacency pairs (for example, ‘thank you’ – ‘you’re welcome’) can be
defined as highly predictable, prototypical scripts.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 6. In 1980 Canale and Swain provided a description of competence based
on four categories. What are those categories? Explain. (1Pt)

1. Grammatical competence: knowledge of lexical items and of rules

of morphology, syntax, sentence grammar semantics and
phonology.

2. Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to communicate

appropriately in a variety of contexts; this includes both verbal and
non-verbal communication.

3. Discourse competence: the ability to use language which goes

beyond the level of the sentence; this includes aspects such as
cohesion and coherence.

4. Strategic competence: appropriate use of communication

strategies to overcome or repair breakdowns in communication, due
perhaps to lack of linguistic competence.

7. After reading all the competences described in the CEFR what do you
think CEFR perception about competence and performance? Is it more
related to social or individual? Is it more linguistic? Or not? (1Pt)

One of the objectives of the Common European Framework of

Reference for Languages is to help users describe the levels of
language proficiency required by existing exams and assessment
programs, in order to facilitate comparisons between different certificate
systems.
Each of the levels shows what each individual student can do and is
capable of doing. It is important that we can verify at what level we are
in order to improve the different shortcomings we have in foreign
language skills.
We can also say that skills and performances are more associated with
the individual but are manifested in a social way so that each person
reinforces their weaknesses.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz
 8. Write your own conclusions about competence and performance and
how these two terms affect the SLA? (2Pts.)

A competence is a performance. A performance involves integrating

knowledge, skills (abilities) and attitudes and applying this integration in
a practical and creative way in the execution of a task that must have a
clear relationship with life (what we call the performance of the
competence). Competence involves doing and being that deals
effectively with problem solving. It is not just knowledge. It is an applied
knowledge (to do - I do things competently -) and a knowledge integrated
into my person (a being - I am a competent person in ...) that allows me
to solve problems effectively.

They affect the SLA in the way. Competence is not a ‘being able to do’
(capabilities), it is not even exclusively a ‘know-how’ (knowledge
exclusively), although being competent implies both… But it is ‘doing it’.
It is therefore the resolution of a task effectively.

Author: Martha Lucía Bonilla

Revised and adapted by: Rubén Mauricio Muñoz